Miami-Dade County has ordered the closure of beaches, parks, bars and restaurants.
Photo: Daniel Shoer Roth/Zuma PressMIAMI BEACH, Fla.—The neighborhoods around Miami Beach were still thumping with activity for spring break early this week. Crowds packed the streets of South Beach, with bikini-clad women strutting along streets and revelers squeezing into SUVs blaring music. Mostly full hotels were doing some of the best business in the country
Now, as local authorities step up measures to control the coronavirus outbreak, one of the travel and hospitality industry’s last flickers of light is dimming.
On Friday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered the closure of all restaurant dining rooms and bars in the state, as well as concert houses and other entertainment venues in Broward and Palm Beach counties. The same day, the city of Miami Beach directed all hotels to close down by Monday night. The announcements followed orders earlier in the week by Miami-Dade County to shut down beaches, parks, bars and restaurants.
With many young people defying warnings to exercise social distancing, Miami Beach and surrounding areas had been part of a last gasp for tourism and travel this month.
The pandemic has devastated the travel and hospitality industries. Canceled conferences, businesses restricting travel and local officials beseeching—or ordering—citizens to stay at home have caused at least hundreds of hotels to close their doors. Hotel owners and operators have furloughed or laid off tens of thousands of employees in recent days.
But last week, while hotels in cities like New York and San Francisco were preparing to shut down, South Florida still boasted healthy occupancy levels. Miami Beach occupancy was 65% for the week ended March 14, and other cities in the area did even better, according to hotel data tracker STR. Daytona Beach and Fort Myers both had occupancy levels around 80%, while Florida Keys hotels were 86% full.
A closed beach in Miami Beach, Fla.
Photo: eva marie uzcategui/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesOccupancy in other major U.S. cities had already tumbled below 50%, STR data showed. This week those levels plunged below 20% and hundreds of hotels in New York City alone have closed or are preparing to shut their doors.
Now that Florida officials are shifting gears, they have started cracking down on entertainment and group gatherings. Last weekend, they began snuffing out the festivities, closing some popular stretches of the beach and imposing a curfew. Then, they shut down bars and restaurants.
Access points to the beach in Miami Beach, Fla., on Friday were blocked with yellow police tape. The beach was deserted, save for a few police cars parked on the sand.
The beachwalk that skirts the coast was still open, and occasional joggers and cyclists passed by. Hotels overlooking the water that normally have packed pool areas and loud music were quiet and mostly empty.
A 22-year-old college student from Virginia said he had come down with his girlfriend earlier in the week and managed to get one day on the beach before it was closed. Since then, they have mostly been hanging out at their hotel pool and ordering takeout. They planned to head out on Saturday.
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“It’s probably good to be doing this,” he said. “Better to have a few weeks of no bars than a full-on outbreak.”
Before the crackdown, Max Aboko-Cole and a half-dozen friends relaxed on the beach last Friday before heading out to dinner and a bar. The 22-year-old American University senior said coronavirus worried him, but he was washing his hands regularly and avoiding venues crammed with people.
“It’s a risk to be down here with crowds,” Mr. Aboko-Cole said. But “it’s my last spring break. I want to live it up as best I can.”
Write to Arian Campo-Flores at arian.campo-flores@wsj.com and Craig Karmin at craig.karmin@wsj.com
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