After two pandemic years, local merchants and hotels were glad to see crowds and income on par with pre-covid years.
It was standing room only at TBonz during the 2022 Masters Tournament, according to Henry Scheer. The restaurant drew much larger crowds than it did in 2019 and 2020.
Scheer, co-owner of the well-known restaurant located just blocks from the Augusta National Golf Club, said he was very pleased with the turnout for the first full tournament in three years. The crowds were so large that customers had to wait much longer than usual to get a table.
“Everyone was in a really good mood, so waiting an hour and a half to two hours wasn’t a big deal,” he said. “It was a fun time for everyone.”
Donnie Thompson, owner of Windsor Fine Jewelers in Augusta, said business at his store for this year’s tournament was about the same as in 2019 and previous years.
“We get some business from it, but local people stay away from it,” Thompson said.
Destination Augusta compared hotel revenue from this year’s tournament to the 2019 tournament. They found local hotels brought in $17.2 million during Masters Week 2022, which is a 1.9 percent increase from 2019. That’s an increase of more than $326,000.
At the same time, hotel occupancy for that week was at 86.6%, which was slightly lower than it was in 2019.
The average daily rate for a hotel room on Friday night of this year’s Masters was almost $496, an increase of about 6 percent over the weekly ADR for 2019, which was $438. This year, the newly renovated Partridge Inn reopened and was fully booked for the week.
According to Destination Augusta, local hotel and motel revenue from the Masters is typically three times higher than any other month throughout the year. Lindsay Fruchtl, the agency’s Vice President of Marketing & Communications, said this year’s numbers weren’t a surprise.
“We were expecting the impact would be on par with 2019 numbers,” Fruchtl said.
