The AdvocateTourism: We can’t wait to make this critical decision.

By Jay Williams, Jr.

As with the water that surrounds us, tourism can be a double-edged sword. Our harbor is

beautiful, dramatic and calming. For centuries, water has defined Charleston and enhanced its

allure. Water, like tourists, is an irreplaceable amenity. But too much water …

We should love tourists. They bring in a lot of money. As of 2024, tourism’s economic

impact had jumped by more than 45 percent since 2019, to $14 billion. Our 8,500,000 visitors

account for almost a quarter of our regional economy and support 55,000 people.

Their presence has enabled this once poor small city to thrive, perhaps even beyond

Mayor Joseph P. Riley’s greatest expectations. Our world-class museums, wonderfully diverse

dining and retail options, and expanding first-rate medical facilities are just a few of the benefits

brought by tourists and the new residents who have stayed.

But many residents worry that an ever-increasing influx of tourists is changing

Charleston’s character.

Alas, they say, tourists don’t just send their money; they bring themselves. They pack the

best restaurants, crowd the sidewalks, wander onto the streets taking selfies, drive slowly and

aimlessly, squeeze onto carriage rides and illegal bike taxi tours, snag parking spaces, leave

bottles and cans in window boxes and sit on steps and benches — on residents’ private property.

And who are the rowdies revving their lifted trucks and motorcycles, day and night, with

sound systems rattling windows and loud exhausts that mock the few remaining “Noise Limit

Enforced” signs? We’d ask the police if we saw any.

If you doubt whether more tourists are coming, check out the new airport construction or

the vast footprint of the Four Seasons Hotel, destined to dwarf the Historic District. More people

are coming — a lot more.

Have we passed a tipping point? What percentage of our city’s economy do we want

tourism to have?

Last fall, Brian Turner, president and CEO of the Preservation Society, told his members

that 20 new hotels on the peninsula had been approved but had not yet broken ground. If built,

they could add 3,000 rooms to the peninsula, which already has 5,200 rooms. “There’s no

question we’re saturated with tourist-serving buildings … and prioritizing our guests at the

expense of our residents,” he said. He told “The Advocate,” “If you don’t have some checks and

balances in the system, it really will be overrun.”

Yes, a tourism management plan is in place, but it was drafted in 2015, before short-term

rentals emerged. A year ago, the city, Historic Charleston Foundation, and Explore Charleston

collaborated with Bloomberg Associates, the pro bono consulting arm of Bloomberg

Philanthropies, to develop recommendations for a new tourism plan. Originally slated for release

last fall, the recommendations are said to be unveiled later this month.

Charleston is a challenging case because of its geographic limitations. Most tourists

cluster in a small part of the lower peninsula, which is surrounded by water, crowding our

narrow streets. The city already has a marketing agency, funding and a strategy that has been

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only marginally successful. So, what is the solution to managing the growth we haven’t already

considered? That conundrum may be the reason for the delays.

“The Advocate” reached out to Bloomberg Associates last month but received no

response. We must either keep waiting or make an educated guess about their recommendations.

But why wait? Let’s guess:

Bloomberg will likely recommend that the city try to spread tourism beyond the

peninsula to the plantations, islands and beaches. But that idea isn’t new, and it hasn’t eased the

crush of tourists downtown; they still want to see the Historic District.

Bloomberg will also recommend focusing on quality tourism over quantity. Explore

Charleston might argue that this plan is already underway, as the number of visitors has risen far

more slowly than tourism's economic output has grown. That’s a positive, but at some point, too

many tourists in a confined area are just too many.

Bloomberg should recommend curbing nuisance behavior. Upper King Street has

improved, but other parts of the city need more police presence and enforcement. Charlestonians

justifiably pride themselves on civility; we should embrace and defend that oasis in today’s ill-

mannered world.

Hopefully, Bloomberg will address our state-mandated requirement to advertise for more

tourists. Thirty percent of the accommodations tax balance must be allocated exclusively to

tourism advertising and promotion, even when the need is unconvincing. But Explore Charleston

receives additional funding to address tourism impacts and behavior. After the recent tragic death

of one of our own, a petition is circulating asking the city to spend $1 million on pedestrian

safety. Since many pedestrians are tourists, Explore Charleston should fund that worthy

initiative.

Then how will Bloomberg address the burgeoning hotel situation? In Asheville,

Bloomberg recommended that the city require hotels to fund affordable housing, meet green

construction standards, or provide public amenities. These are good initiatives, some of which

Charleston has implemented, but they don’t address the relentless increase in new hotel

construction.

Bloomberg also knows Amsterdam’s “Tourism in Balance” model and may recommend a

room-count cap for hotels, with new rooms added only when older rooms on the peninsula are

retired. However, the tourism industry likely will push back strongly. Bloomberg may also

suggest strict permitting requirements for short-term rentals, perhaps with a cap on the number of

days they can be rented each year. We should say “yes” to both.

Too many hotels aren’t just a tourism management problem; they trigger a character-

altering transformation. Hotels add traffic and congestion, and they directly displace the

residential fabric, office space, and local retail that make a place worth visiting in the first place.

A growing infusion of hotels is shifting Charleston from a livable city for residents to an escape

destination for tourists.

The Bloomberg report is only the next step, and we don’t yet know what form it will take.

Will it be a series of recommendations, an instruction manual, or something else? As Brian

Turner observes, the city will then need to open the entire process to the public and determine

who the players at the table will be and which policies should be prioritized.

Here’s the critical one: Tell the mayor and your city councilmember to place an

immediate cap on new peninsula hotels; there are already too many approvals in the pipeline.

This will be our last chance to ensure Charleston is a resident-focused city. The

alternative is unthinkable.

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Winslow Hastie, president and CEO of Historic Charleston Foundation, frequently

invokes his Dutch Dialogues analogy: Charleston didn’t wait until it was underwater to address

flooding. It shouldn’t wait until it’s over-touristed to address hotel density, either.

Jay Williams, Jr. arrived in Charleston in 2001 to escape the cold and relax in the

warmth of a better culture and climate. This all worked well until May of 2011, when he attended

a discussion on the cruise terminal at Physicians Hall.