The South Oak Cliff Excessive Faculty marching band’s bass drums reverberated by way of Kay Bailey Hutchison Conference Heart Thursday morning, actually knocking mud from the overhead lights.
It was the primary time VisitDallas, the town’s nonprofit tourism bureau, has held its annual assembly in particular person since 2019. Public well being rules and an abundance of warning have stored earlier conferences digital and optimism concerning the future tempered.
However not.
On the conference middle, a whole bunch of enterprise leaders listened to hopeful audio system preach about resilience. Summer time 2022 may mark the start of a extra affluent interval for lodges, eating places and different companies that cater to vacationers.
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VisitDallas CEO Craig Davis stated the business is “embarking on a fast comeback from the pandemic.” U.S. Journey Affiliation president and CEO Roger Dow referred to as Texas “the comeback state” and Dallas “the comeback metropolis.”
Companies within the tourism and hospitality business have been the toughest hit of the pandemic period. In Dallas, group bookings at lodges plummeted and conference middle shoppers canceled occasions en masse, leading to a greater than $1 billion loss, in response to VisitDallas.
The financial toll for the business general was extra pronounced than 9/11 and the 2008 monetary disaster mixed, the tourism bureau stated.
Restoring vacationer spending in Dallas is important to the town’s development plans within the close to future. It just lately accredited a $2 billion plan to increase the conference middle that will likely be paid for by way of resort taxes, and Dallas aspires to lure the FIFA World Cup to city in 2026.
Former ambassador and senator Kay Bailey Hutchison speaks on the 2022 Go to Dallas annual assembly on Could 19 on the Kay Bailey Hutchison Conference Heart in downtown Dallas.(Liesbeth Powers / Particular Contributor)
Talking on the assembly, the conference middle’s namesake, Kay Bailey Hutchison, praised metropolis officers for passing the growth plan.
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“The historic funding on this conference middle is an funding in Dallas,” she stated.
Within the final two years, Dallas space resort, restaurant and occasion corporations have weathered not simply unfavorable public well being rules but additionally a statewide energy grid failure, inflation and a labor market that’s been turned on its head for the foreseeable future.
Leisure journey is returning, and the U.S. is bracing for a really busy summer season journey season. However within the eyes of the business’s greatest advocate, hurdles stay.
In the course of the occasion’s keynote speech, Dow stated a patchwork of public well being requirements, pre-flight COVID-19 testing guidelines and wait instances for journey visas are nonetheless hampering the journey and tourism business. Sluggish-to-recover convention and enterprise journey are additionally ache factors.
“In case you take a look at it in Texas and Florida, we’re so totally different than the remainder of the US for journey and tourism and the way they dealt with the pandemic,” Dow stated. “You evaluate that to California or New York, it’s a night-and-day distinction.”
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Members of the Dallas Black Dance Theatre carry out a dance to “A Sunday Type of Love” on the 2022 VisitDallas assembly.(Liesbeth Powers / Particular Contributor)
Dow drew laughter from the gang when he criticized the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management, describing the company as “a bit bit schizophrenic.”
The U.S. nonetheless requires a detrimental COVID check for worldwide vacationers coming right here.
“How will you sit there and go to a Mavericks sport or go to the Byron Nelson and see 20,000 folks screaming and yelling and clearly not sporting masks and say ‘Oh, however if you get on a aircraft it’s harmful’? No, it’s not,” Dow stated. “So hopefully that doesn’t come again. The CDC is a bit bit schizophrenic. You by no means know what’s gonna occur with them.”
The Dallas Mavericks dropped masks necessities at their video games at American Airways Heart in March because the omicron wave of COVID-19 subsided.
Dow additionally inspired the journey enterprise leaders on the assembly to seek out new methods to enchantment to a youthful era of employees.
“Our business has virtually 75% of all the roles that may’t be crammed,” Dow stated, including that a variety of these employees have left the workforce totally.
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“We’ve bought to assume extra creatively, we’ve bought to assume in a different way. We’ve bought to consider part-time [work] and the gig economic system,” he urged. “We’ve bought to consider how we are able to carry folks again to work.”
Klay Thompson’s unrestricted free agency will begin at 6 pm ET on Sunday (June 30). The Golden State Warriors veteran has not reached an agreement on a new deal to remain in the Bay Area. As such, he is free to discuss terms with any team in the league. Therefore, the likelihood of Thompson leaving Golden State is growing by the day.
According to a recent report by Marc Stein, the Dallas Mavericks are the latest team to register an interest in Thompson after clearing some cap space by sending Tim Hardaway Jr. to the Detroit Pistons.
“League sources tell The Stein Line that the Dallas Mavericks, with some newfound financial flexibility after securing the Tim Hardaway Jr.-to-Detroit trade that I wrote about Tuesday, are another team intent on exploring the feasibility of signing Thompson once he makes it to free agency,” Stein reported.
The Orlando Magic, Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets have also been cited as interested in adding the veteran shooter. Other contending teams will likely value Thompson’s shooting and wing defense.
Golden State could still retain Thompson; however, the longer they wait to open negotiations, the less likely it seems that he will still be with the team at the start of next season.
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The Dallas Mavericks are looking to make a splash to their starting lineup after making a run to the NBA Finals. They may have lost in five games to the Boston Celtics but they’re still one of the NBA’s best teams and need to make some changes around Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving to get over the hump.
One option the Mavericks are looking into is Klay Thompson, who has spent his entire career with the Golden State Warriors up to this point. Per Marc Stein “League sources tell The Stein Line that the Dallas Mavericks, with some newfound financial flexibility after securing the Tim Hardaway Jr.-to-Detroit trade that I wrote about Tuesday, are another team intent on exploring the feasibility of signing Thompson once he makes it to free agency.”
READ MORE: Mavericks Trade Tim Hardaway Jr. to Pistons in Exchange for Quentin Grimes
Thompson does not have an offer on the table to return to Golden State as of Friday morning and will explore his options in the open market. He’s not the same player he was in the prime of Golden State’s dynasty at the end of the 2010s after an ACL and Achilles tear, but he still averaged 17.9 PPG while shooting 38.7% from 3 this season. For a Mavericks team looking for a third scoring option and an elite shooter, Thompson could fit alongside Doncic and Irving seamlessly. He’s still a positive defensively, even if he’s not as quick laterally as he used to be.
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The Warriors may be more willing to facilitate a sign-and-trade as well, as they’re still looking to get back into contention as long as they have Stephen Curry playing at an elite level. Dallas sits just under $15 million below the first tax apron, but they’re likely to use the majority of that to re-sign Derrick Jones Jr. Thompson is likely looking for a 2 or 3-year contract as he enters the latter stages of his career.
Dallas could dangle Josh Green, Maxi Kleber, and trade exceptions to equal around $32.6 million in salary if the option opens up for a quality trade. The remaining trade exception from the Richaun Holmes trade at last year’s draft expires July 8th and it’d be best for a contending team to not let any asset expire.
Other reports have shown that the Mavericks are interested in Denver’s Kentavious Caldwell-Pope but that Denver would be unlikely to help facilitate a sign-and-trade with another contending Western Conference team. Thompson, at 34 years old, is a better player than Caldwell-Pope but his value may be similar given his age.
Teams can start openly negotiating with free agents on June 30th, which is just two days away. There is a good chance the Mavericks reach an extension with Derrick Jones Jr. before then so they know exactly how much they can operate with in this year’s free agency.
READ MORE: NBA Free Agency Rumors: Dallas Mavericks Interested In Two-Time Champion Guard
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The Afiya Center, Texas’s only Black-led and Black women-centered reproductive justice organization, is hosting its 11th annual Get Tested, Grab A Bite! HIV testing event in Dallas this weekend.
The Afiya Center works to advocate, educate, and provide resources to empower Black women in Texas living with AIDS.
In 2021, the Dallas County saw a 30% increase in HIV cases among men and a 6.5% increase among women. In its newly released State of Black Womxn in Texas Report, the Afiya Center found that in 2021, young Black women accounted for 51% of new diagnoses among women under the age of 25, but sex education and disease prevention programs in the state rarely address community needs.
“Texas is known to be like a resource rich kind of state, right?” Afiya Center founder Marsha Jones said. “But those resources don’t meet the people who need them the most.”
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Jones started the free testing event to bring attention to the lack of resources, as well as normalize HIV testing for women.
“We wanted to make this a day that wouldn’t just be focused on HIV testing, but it would really have a sense of community,” Jones said.
Attendees who want to get tested will be able to get a full STI screening free of charge. Dallas County Health and Human Services will provide[NF1] mobile testing sites to help the organization collect data and build more resources in areas that need them.
“It helps us to build out our program,” Jones said. “It helps us to shape narratives around the importance of getting tested.”
People who choose not to get tested can still enjoy the free event filled with free food and live DJs. Jones has urged vendors not to sell anything to avoid discouraging people from attending an event that is based around finding a safe space.
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“This is literally a day to enjoy life and have a good time and get some updated information about your sexual health,” Jones said.
The Get Tested, Grab a Bite! event is on Saturday, June 29, from 3-7 p.m. in Glendale Park.
Zara Amaechi is KERA’s Marjorie Welch Fitts Louis fellow covering race and social justice. Got a tip? Email Zara at zamaechi@kera.org. You can follow her on X @amaechizara.
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