Welcome to the 21st century, a time filled with extreme technological innovation and progression that has brought about rapid changes in every aspect of our lives. There are very few places that have remained untouched, and today I bring to the table the future of Charleston from a hospitality and tourism perspective.

As many of us who currently reside in Charleston, South Carolina, whether you are a Charlestonian or have more recently moved to the area, there is one thing that we have all noticed as of late: construction everywhere. Most of us deem all these road closures, dust in our eyes from biking around downtown, and traffic backups as inconvenient and annoying. While I cannot argue with those facts, there is also something else in the air; change, and lots of it. As pedestrians, students, and business people just trying to get around and go about our days, we do not really take the time to stop and look at what is being built, but what is happening in this city is big, and in the next few years, Charleston is going to be seeing and feeling its refluxes.

Let's start with the expansion of the airport and Boeing Factory. For those who have traveled to the Charleston International Airport in the past year and a half, whether picking someone up or traveling yourself, you are all too aware of the mass amount of construction that has been going on in North Charleston. The airport itself has finally gotten approved for a much-needed makeover and also an expansion. Being an out of state student from the Midwest, I travel in and out of the airport about once every three to four months to go home, so I have been able to get a firsthand look at the continued renovation. The outdated bricks and broken outlets been demolished and tossed out, and they have been replaced with modern, state-of-the-art architecture complete with mass amounts of phone and electronic charging ports at every seat to accommodate our always dying need to charge our electronics. Furthermore, each terminal is now home to an increased number of gates, meaning that more planes are able to fly in and out on a daily basis, hence bringing in more people to Charleston.

Charleston International Airport, Terminal B upgrade

Right next door to the Charleston International Airport is the Boeing factory. Already home to one Boeing factory, they have decided to add an additional one. With an additional factory coming in, this means a lot more jobs are going to be available. Boeing employs people in all sorts of areas including business, cybersecurity, engineering, information technology and manufacturing. Conveniently located right by the airport, Charleston can expect a rise in residential numbers as all these new jobs will be bringing people to the area for work.

Moving to the heart of downtown is Marion Square. Currently there are two new luxury hotel properties going up: The Dewberry on the far side of Marion Square off of Meeting Street set to open in the spring of 2016, and another hotel under Bennett Hospitality, whose name has yet to be released, will sit adjacent to Marion Square with its grand entrance off of King Street. Moving a little towards upper King Street by the cross street of Spring Street, one will find two, newly opened, adjoining properties: the Hyatt House and Hyatt Place. These two sister properties are sharing one space, and while the Hyatt Place offers more of a hotel style room, Hyatt House is designed suite style, allowing those who are planning to spend more than just a weekend with larger living quarters to feel more homey than just a single hotel room. Jump back across town to the corner of Meeting and Wentworth and you will see Charleston's current hotel hype at The Grand Bohemian: a beautiful luxury hotel, part of the Kessler Collection, including 50 rooms, with a gorgeous rooftop cocktail bar and art gallery.

The Grand Bohemian Lobby

So now that I have laid out all these properties and expansions, the question becomes, what does this mean for Charleston as a whole? And the answer is that there are a few things. The North Charleston submarket is going to see a rise in jobs, tourists and residents. For the downtown construction, all these new projects means more jobs, more people getting paid, and in turn creating a better economy for Charleston. Once construction is completed, all the hotels must be staffed and operated, creating an increase in stable employment opportunities. It also means more available hotel rooms in Charleston, which coincides with more tourists in Charleston. Currently in the tri-county area of Charleston, there are roughly 18,000 hotel rooms, and by the end of 2018, the tri-county area will be looking at about 21,000 hotel rooms. That's a lot of rooms and a lot of tourists. For a city that was not built to accommodate such a vast number of both residents and tourists, Charleston is entering a period of unknown population and tourist counts and it is both exciting and nerve racking to see how the city is going to adapt to its new influx of people while still holding onto its unique historical individuality that is Charleston. These next few years are really going to hold a lot of exciting new twists and turns. The future of Charleston is changing; will you be here to watch it unfold?