Tourism turnaround mixed
The return to pre-Sept. 11 levels in the United States has come from Canada and Mexico, while overseas visits are still lagging.
By STEVE HUETTEL
Published August 8, 2006
DAVENPORT - The number of foreign tourists to the United States has finally rebounded to levels last seen before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
But that's hardly encouraging news for the tourism business or the nation's economy, says Roger Dow, chief executive of the Travel Industry Association of America, a major travel trade organization.
The U.S. share of the global travel market has dropped by one-third to 6 percent, Dow told the annual Governor's Conference on Tourism at a resort near Orlando Monday.
While 51-million foreign tourists are expected to visit this year, he said, the number is deceptive.
Most of the recovery is coming from Canada and Mexico. The number of tourists from the rest of the world remains 17 percent below the 26-million who visited in 2000.
"The rest of the world is outmarketing us," said Dow. "In this country, we're the Rodney Dangerfield of industries."
Florida also took a big tourism hit after Sept. 11 as people became jittery over air travel and the economy soured.
The state recovered faster and stronger than the rest of the country, racking up record visitor numbers each year after 2001. Eighty-five million people came to the Sunshine State in 2005, according to Visit Florida, the state's tourism marketing agency.
But domestic tourists provided all the growth. Overseas visitor numbers remained flat at 4.4-million since 2002, well below the 6-million who came in 2000.
Pinellas County, however, has bucked the trend. European visitors - mostly British and German - dropped by 100,000 in 2002. But the county gained back the losses and more, attracting nearly 904,000 European tourists last year.
A key reason has been the strength of the euro and British pound against the U.S. dollar, said Walter Klages, whose Tampa company, Research Data Services, conducts visitor studies for Pinellas County.
Europeans make up more than 12 percent of Pinellas tourists, but pack a bigger punch than other visitors. "They spend a lot of money, they stay longer and they buy more retail goods - clothing and electronics," Klages said.
The number of British tourists at Busch Gardens went flat this year because of rising personal debt in the country, said spokesman Gerard Hoeppner. But Latin America, especially Brazil, has been very strong after recovering from economic problems, Hoeppner said.
Dow acknowledged Brazilian tourists are coming back. But even if estimates of 450,000 visitors to the United States pan out, he said, it would be more than a quarter-million short of the level of 10 years ago.
Much the blame for lagging foreign tourism, Dow said, lies with the federal government's small contribution to selling the United States overseas.
Dow ticked off huge amounts that other nations pour each year into tourist marketing: Australia, $87-million; Spain, $78-million; Turkey, $72-million; Canada, $40-million; Fiji, $10-million.
The U.S. government: $4-million. The travel association is gearing up a campaign to lobby Washington for more marketing money.
Chairman Jay Rasulo made a new pitch in June to a Senate subcommittee: winning hearts and minds by bringing more foreign tourists in contract with regular Americans.
"The millions of travelers who accept the invitation will then meet our people and experience our values firsthand, generating the kind of positive word of mouth that marketers can only dream of," said Rasulo, a Walt Disney executive.
Steve Huettel can be reached at huettel@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3384.