While Tampa Bay's occupancy rate and revenue were down slightly, beach hotel figures were slightly improved.
By MARK ALBRIGHT
Published June 12, 2003
[Times photo: Fred Victorin]
Beachgoers lounge in the sun or under umbrellas in this aerial photo of St. Pete Beach. A healthy April helped turn around an otherwise lackluster winter travel season.
Thanks to an April rebound, Tampa Bay tourism scraped by during a lackluster peak winter season.
Through the first four months of the year, the hotel occupancy rate in the Tampa Bay area was 68.8 percent, down 0.9 percent from the same period a year earlier. Revenue per available room, a reflection of a hotel's overall productivity, was $62.02, down 1.3 percent, according to Smith Travel Research.
In Pinellas County, where beach hotels dominate the business, room nights sold increased 0.8 percent to 651,302, according to Research Data Services Inc., and the number of visitors inched up 0.1 percent to 1.76-million. Room nights reflect the total of rooms sold times the number of nights they are occupied.
"We ended with a slight increase," said Walter Klages, president of the Tampa firm, which tracks Pinellas tourism. "But, yes, our winter was definitely affected by the war" in Iraq.
Local tourist industry leaders were upbeat that they did better than some parts of Florida, such as Orlando. But there is widespread anxiety about the summer season that just began.
"In my gut I think we're going to be okay," said Russ Kimball, general manager of the Sheraton Sand Key Resort. "But I'll tell you, all the business is still booked at the last minute."
Because hotels rely on the winter to jam their properties to the fullest at the highest rates of the year, the so-so start means the hotel industry will be under pressure to keep costs in line the rest of the year. PricewaterhouseCoopers estimated the hotel industry faces its third consecutive annual decline in revenue per available room in 2003.
Domestically, tax breaks, mortgage refinancing and the slow economic recovery are forecast to enhance consumer spending.
"But what we're seeing is home-oriented spending and home-oriented travel," said James Cammisa, a Miami economist who analyzes travel trends. "The summer season unfortunately began with the third orange alert of the year" warning of possible terrorist attacks.
Europeans are beginning to come back to Florida in growing numbers as the weaker dollar makes the United States a better deal.
"In our European focus groups we heard over and over that they are thinking beyond the Mediterranean," said Klages. "As they consider the Caribbean, Mexico and the United States, they choose us because of the safety, security and quality of the lodging."
An Easter that fell a month later on the calendar in 2003 gets credit for the good April, and that turned what had been a slow winter into a decent one. While Florida's bread-and-butter markets in the Northeast and Midwest endured one of their worst winters in years, El Nino rains and chilly temperatures did not make Florida much more appealing.
Orlando did worse. Hotel occupancy was 65.1 percent, down 5.1 percent. Revenue per available room was down 7.7 percent.
Statewide, Florida hotels saw their occupancy slip 0.9 percent to 67.3 percent and their revenue per available room slip 17 cents to $69.64.
Meanwhile the Pinellas County Tourist Development Council set its marketing budget on Wednesday for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 at $9.2-million, essentially the same as this year. The budget includes $4.1-million for advertising, a cut of $330,000. The council wants to rebuild its all-but-depleted reserves to $1.25-million next year in case it faces another marketing emergency.
While the budget was described as tight, council members voted to:
Double subsidies split up among 13 local chambers of commerce to $85,000. In addition, $100,000 in new money was earmarked for chamber-sponsored co-operative ads that are popular among many small hotels.
Increase the travel budget by $82,000 to $251,000, so the council sales force can venture to more travel trade shows.
End any discussion of raising the 4 percent tax on hotel bills that provides the convention and visitors bureau with all its money.
