UVA Final Exercises impacting local businesses
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) -- Final Exercises at the University of Virginia are just right around the corner and a lot of tourists will be in town to celebrate their graduate.
UVA Final Exercises can bring thousands of visitors into the Charlottesville and Albemarle area just for a weekend.
Brantley Ussery with the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau says this is a great opportunity for the local economy.
“I mean, any time you have thousands of people coming in, you know that those people are going to be staying in our hotels. They’re going to be dining in our restaurants. They’re going to be visiting our local businesses. So, no doubt that it does have a big economic impact on the Charlottesville area,” he said.
If you’re a local and planning on having family visit this weekend, it’s going to be hard to find a hotel room that’s available.
“We are sold out, so we have 205 families that come in and stay with us. I think it’s a great source for the city, in general, it’s one of the weekends that is not only celebrated for the hard work of our graduates but also the contribution that they’ve given the city,” said Shaista Nizam, the Associate Director of Sales at the Omni Hotel.
There’s some good news for some locals who maybe wanted to go out to eat but forgot to make a reservation.
“We try to leave room open for walk-ins so that there’s the ability for people to come in that haven’t made reservations and still need to find a place to go,” said Justin Butler, the General Manager at Three Notch’d.
He says the restaurant will serve around 1,000 people on Saturday and another thousand on Sunday.
“That’s one thing we get really excited about over graduation weekend is kind of showing off to the people that have never been here before and we get to show who we are. Then the people that have been here for four years bring their families in town, who have come to be a regular guest for us. They get to come in and show off their favorite place to go and all that to their family. We really like being a part of that,” said Butler.
The ceremonies begin Saturday morning and finish Sunday afternoon.