Hurricane Irma may be gone but the storm will still have an impact on Florida-Georgia weekend, which is just three-and-a-half weeks away.
Downtown’s biggest hotel, the Hyatt Riverfront hotel remains out of commission from damage caused by Irma and won’t reopen in time for the Florida-Georgia game.
Visit Jacksonville’s Patty Jimenez says there was some concern whether the city could accommodate all of the out-of-town fans that are expected without the Hyatt.
“We actually reached out to our entire hotel industry in Jacksonville. we have about 160-different properties in the city, and we just started asking them, you know, what’s your availability, do you have availability for that. Most of downtown is already sold out for those dates so visitors are going to have to expand beyond the downtown area.
Jimenez says there are still plenty of rooms available on the Southside and at the beaches. She’s requesting the public’s to help spread the word on social media that Jacksonville’s open for business by using the hashtag #OnlyInJax.
“You know, show off your beautiful pictures of sunrises and sunsets, surfing, people still running on the riverwalk or dining out at the beaches and restaurants in San Marco also back in business.”
The Florida-Georgia game is Saturday, October 28th at EverBank Field. Kickoff is 2:30 p.m.
The Hyatt Riverfront Hotel says it will re-open in a limited capacity on Monday, October 30th.
