The Myrtle Beach area in South California is a resort place called in touristic guides “The Grand Strand” (Myrtle Beach Guide, 2012). According to information from the Yahoo! Travel, the Myrtle Beach has won the prestigious reward of the “World’s Best Beach 2012”. This place can offer the travelers a wide range of services satisfying any lifestyle category: from exciting sports events to quite family rest. In order to meet the business and leisure requirements of tourists, various Myrtle Beach area communities promote surveys and research activities while the responses obtained during the study significantly help the government to choose the proper investment projects for this beautiful place (Center for Resort Tourism, 2012).
So why should the Myrtle Beach and tourism/hospitality industry here be in the center of attention? Primarily, the infrastructure system in the community is in need of building, upgrading and renewal projects. The future of the region depends on touristic attractiveness, on its ability to provide the diversity of leisure services and, consequently, support the financial prosperity of the region. Tourism is, in fact, the top industry in South Carolina and the lifeblood of the Myrtle Beach community bringing around 50% of profits to the local budget (Myrtle Beach Guide, 2012). Therefore, to enhance the tourism base, hospitality services diversity and boost the economic development of the region, significant investments are needed in current Myrtle Beach infrastructure.
The South Carolina’s touristic industry plays the first tune in the state’s economy promoting the high standards of life quality for its residents; however, the growth opportunity is not utilized at full capacity, leaving room for further economic expansion, job places generation, and regional revenues increase. The South Carolina’s GDP volume in 2014-2015 equaled to $16,5 billion in the form of direct and indirect investments . More than 200 000 people are employed in touristic and hospitality sphere of the region, which is approximately 10% of the state’s labor force. Thus, by expanding the touristic attractiveness and leveraging touristic vs hospitality resources of the Myrtle Beach area, the current opportunities may be significantly broadened for the benefit of all state’s citizens. Tourism and hospitality revenues have good chances to be doubled in case of the proper approach to infrastructure issues. So what makes the Myrtle Beach infrastructure attractive for future investors?
Restaurants, Cafes, and other Leisure Places in Myrtle Beach
The Myrtle Beach area is famous for its delicious cuisine and a great variety of eateries, bars, and restaurants. These leisure places can offer a wide range of worldwide cuisine types: French, Italian, Japanese, Mediterranean, etc. Visitors can enjoy here the mouthwatering dishes made of seafood, meat, vegetables, pasta, etc. Especially important are bars and cafes located on the ocean coastline, where the travelers can enjoy the ocean’s splendor (Myrtle Beach Guide, 2012). The gourmet dining opportunities can be found for adheres of the Indian, Russian and Thai cuisines. Snack are available at steakhouses, buffets, and small bars.
The overall number of eating places in Myrtle Beach exceeds 1000 including the whole range of eateries from 3-star Michelin high ranked restaurants to small snack bars not far from the beach. According to Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce (2014), Myrtle Beach is popular for its food and golf. However, analysis of food prices and cost per visit shows that tourists with low income are not able to afford the majority of eating places on the coastline. The restaurant visitors’ average household income ranges from middle to high income (Chart 1).
Chart 1. Myrtle Beach visitors’ income (adopted from Myrtle Beach Guide, 2012)
Therefore, the South California state policy should be aimed at the improvement of tourists’ opportunities to visit various kinds of eateries by increasing the number of budget restaurants and bars in the most popular visiting places of Myrtle Beach.
Hotel Chains in Myrtle Beach
According to the Myrtle Beach Guide (2012), there are more than 450 hotels and 99 000 bedrooms available for tourists in the region with the majority of hotels locating on the beachfront (Chart 2).
Chart 2. Accommodation types in Myrtle Beach (adopted from Myrtle Beach Guide, 2012)
The empirical evidence carried out in 2012 to define the available room revenues, occupancy rate, and average daily room rate demonstrated that the supply-demand curves seem to balance each other during the year; however, the high month seasons, especially during the weekends result in room supply shortage (Center for Resort Tourism, 2012). Considering the fact that the three-year trend of room occupancy per average daily room rate in high season (June, July, and August) demonstrates significant increase, there is a need in new hotels, condos and motels for tourists during the summer period (Table 1).
Moreover, the price per booking in the hotel tends to double during the high season, which can be hardly affordable for low to middle-income class households. Thus, the housing supply shortage becomes obvious in low-to-middle class segments, which can be resolved by implementing the new housing infrastructure.
Population Sample/ Tourists
According to International Visitor Arrivals Program adopted by the US government, the number of tourists to Myrtle Beach area is increasingly growing. In the year 2014, more than 72 thousand tourists (including overseas travelers) visited South Carolina as the best America’s destination place (Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, 2014). Mexicans and Canadians are treated as inner tourists. The most frequently visiting international tourists come from the UK (15 472) and Germany (14 776). Around 16% of all tourists in South Carolina come from the North Carolina. Another 35% of all tourists visit Myrtle Beach from other US states such as New York, Ohio, Virginia, etc.
According to Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce (2014), tourists groups represent visitors from the economically developed countries; however, the developing countries Brazil, Argentina, Russia, China, South Africa and India may also send their middle and high-income touristic groups to enjoy the beauties of Myrtle Beach area. Thus, it makes sense to develop hospitality market in this direction considering the new target groups and their preferences.
Airports, Roads, and Bridges
There are four airports managed by the South Carolina administration: the Grand Strand Airport, the Conway-Horry County Airport, the Twin City Loris Airport and the Myrtle Beach International Airport. They work at full capacity and provide the smooth domestic and international flights. The airports consist of passenger terminal complexes, passenger servicing equipment, and infrastructure as well as taxiways, room and transportation services. However, while the domestic airports are able to provide the passenger traffic, the international airport experiences shortages with timely flight servicing. Therefore, the current $119 million infrastructure and equipment enhancement works are being carried out in order to increase the traffic and guarantee the timely performance of transportation services (Table 2).
Except for other regional infrastructures such as roads/railroads, bridges, and utilities, the present situation does not allow efficient provision of traffic and transportation needs . The major road arteries are jammed in rush hours. In high seasons, travelers may spend hours on the roads before they get into the right place. Therefore, the necessity to renew the road infrastructure and build the overhead roads, railroads and bridges becomes burning.
Recommendations on Hospitality and Tourism in Myrtle Beach.
The Myrtle Beach Area is a very attractive touristic region, however, competitive environment and new touristic opportunities in other regions decrease chances of the Grand Strand to generate more revenues. Therefore, it makes sense to elaborate a 5 year or 10-year strategic plan, which should include:
Building of new infrastructure and roads/railroads;
Enhancing international airport capacity;
Development of new touristic services oriented for travelers from developing countries such as Russia, Brazil, India, and China;
The building of new hotel chains for low to middle-income households in order to attract the new touristic segment. Low-income tourists are not able to eat in expensive restaurants or pay for five-star hotel rooms; however, they are able to spend money on tours and services bringing profit to the South Carolina budget;
The final issue concerns attraction of labor force. Employers have to spend time on its education and training in order to present the best quality services for all touristic groups despite the budget constraints.
References
Bethea, P. H. (2015). Cultivating a New Era for South Carolina Tourism. Tourism Cluster Committee, pp. 1-6.
Center, f. R. (2012). Accommodation at Myrtle Beach. The Clay Brittain Jr. Center for Resort Tourism at Coastal Carolina University, pp. 1-32.
Dohmen, R. (2012). Railroad Funding in #MYR Could Help With "Real" Jobs. The Digital Myrtle Beach, pp. 1-6.
Myrtle, B. A. (2014). Myrtle Beach Golf Holidays. S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism, pp. 1-13.
Myrtle, B. G. (2012). Statistical Abstract for the Myrtle Beach Area of South California. The Myrtle Beach Area 21st Edition, pp. 1-33.
Steve, J. (2012). Horry County Seeking $20 Million for Rail System Upgrades. The Sun News , pp. 1-4.
