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Officials optimistic about summer tourism
By ALEXANDRA CALDWELL
| Article published on Wednesday, June 17, 2009 |
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| Photo by ALEXANDRA CALDWELL |
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| Abi Steffens, 7, and her dad, Jason, look for shells along Clearwater Beach recently. The Steffens are from Lincoln, Ill., and are vacationing in Clearwater despite the downward economy. |
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CLEARWATER – The Clearwater tourism industry seems optimistic about summer tourism numbers despite the bad economy.
Overall for the year, tourism numbers have been down about 6 or 7 percent, said Paul Dalton, manager of the beach information center on Clearwater Beach for the Clearwater Regional Chamber of Commerce. Still, that is off only by a few hundred people, Dalton said.
While some people may not fly as often in this economy, that is counteracted by more regional traffic to the area, Dalton said. Dalton said he has seen more drive traffic coming to Clearwater from places like Georgia, Alabama and other places in central and eastern Florida like St. Augustine, Jacksonville and Orlando.
“Our beach is free, so they are coming and getting hotel rooms and dining in our restaurants,” Dalton said. “They may not be buying the luxury items like they have in the past ... but our hotels have been doing pretty well. A lot of people are coming in for short stays, which has helped us.”
Gerri Raymond, vice president of tourism for the Clearwater Regional Chamber of Commerce, said the people are still coming to Clearwater, but they are being more careful with their money. They also may not stay for as long, she added. When the economy was good, people spent more on souvenir and gift items and ate out more often at restaurants, she said.
Fortunately, Clearwater still has lots to offer, Raymond said. A lot of people come in from Orlando to hit the beach after they visited the Disney attractions, so that helps with numbers, she said. Plus, Clearwater has the famous Winter the dolphin, baseball, and plenty of attractions and entertainment, she said.
“What we are seeing is people are just not spending as much,” Raymond said. “They come here, but they don’t spend as much on the little things that people would normally do during their vacation times. But we have so much to offer, and I think that over the summer we’re still going to have people take the trip.”
This is true for Suzanne Homans, a tourist from Chicago, Ill. She enjoyed the sand and water on Clearwater Beach recently when she was in town visiting her mother and cousin who live in Largo. Homans comes to the area yearly, she said, not only because family is here but because it is beautiful, she said. However, she definitely is watching money more now, she said.
“We just hang at the beach a lot (more this year,) and that’s all right,” Homans said. “We used to eat more at the restaurants and shop more, and we’re just not going to do that this trip. It’s just going to be more time at the beach and try not to spend as much money.”
Homans said this is her fun, economized vacation because she can stay at her mom’s house in Largo, be just 20 minutes from the beach and not have to pay for a hotel room, she said.
Jason Steffens of Lincoln, Ill., visited Clearwater recently with his family. His family has been to Clearwater five or six times in the last 10 years he said to bring the kids to the beach and then head over to Orlando for the Disney attractions.
“We’d already been here several times and we enjoyed it so much that it doesn’t really matter with the downward economy,” Steffens said. “You’re still going to travel with your family, but you may want to go to places that you’ve already been and are comfortable with. You know the restaurants, you know the hotels, you know what kind of nightlife there is. It’s a little more comfortable taking that jump rather than going someplace brand new.”
Steffens said that the economy has definitely made him more savvy about watching the Internet for deals. A few years ago he said he would have just called hotels and airlines directly to make reservations instead of using sites such as Travelocity.com and Priceline.com to hunt for bargains. Now those are the first places he goes to when planning vacations, he said.
Tourism in general started off slowly, but it has been picking up lately from the beginning of the year said Myra Madden, district travel manager for AAA in Clearwater. Over Memorial Day weekend, AAA National found travel to be up 1.5 percent over the same time period last year, Madden said, and AAA Auto Club South found travel in Florida to be up 3 percent over the same time last year, so she said she is cautiously optimistic that summer travel will be up. Also, now that school is out, more people have been coming into the office to buy local attraction tickets, she said.
Madden also sees the trend of increased vacations within driving distance, although air travel has been steady, especially with summer weddings, graduations and family reunions, she said. The big ticket items like international travel is down, she said, although short cruises are doing well.
On Clearwater Beach, Darrel Lombardi, captain of the Thriller powerboat tours and Sky Screamer parasailing trips, said the economy has had mixed reactions on business this year. Business was strong from January through March, he said, but things have since slowed down.
“Now it seems as though summer is a little late getting started,” Lombardi said. “We should be rocking and rolling right now. We’re getting by, but the numbers aren’t like last year.”
Lombardi said hopefully things will pick up in the next few weeks now that schools are out for the summer, but if that doesn’t happen, then he’ll know that the economy has taken a big toll on business. For now, he remains optimistic. Besides, even though fuel costs are creeping up again, it’s nowhere near as expensive as last summer, he said.
“Last summer was bad,” Lombardi said. “We had a 15-person minimum on the boat, and this year we’re back down to eight. But we were entering $500, $600 (in fuel costs) every day compared to $250, $300 where we’re at right now. It was really bad.”
As long as he can keep everyone driving their boats, even if the number of trips are down, then Lombardi will be happy, he said.
“We just do what we do,” Lombardi said. “Keep a good attitude and do what we do. We’re just grateful for anything we get, and that’s it.”
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Article published on Wednesday, June 17, 2009
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