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Have loonies, will travel

Local destinations expect a rush as Canadians' buying power surges.

By STEVE HUETTEL, Times Staff Writer
Published October 11, 2007

Ivone Meltzer chuckled over the e-mail message Wednesday from a Canadian customer with reservations for the $5,700-a-month villa at the Pasa Tiempo resort in St. Pete Beach: Macy's, watch out.

Canadians are feeling flush with their surging Canadian dollar, the loonie, worth a U.S. dollar for the first time in three decades. Lodging owners like Meltzer and Pinellas tourism officials are seeing signs the currency exchange rate is starting to translate into more Canadian visitors.

"There's been lots of buzz in the last three weeks," says D.T. Minich, director of tourism for Pinellas. "Tour operators say business on the books is on the increase."

At Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, business from Canadian tourists is up 18 percent for the year, says sales and marketing director Jim Bullock. Leisure bookings for 2008 are running 30 percent higher ahead of this year.

U.S. vacations are "a tremendous value and a well-publicized value,"Bullock said. "We're seeing momentum without having to stir the pot." Innisbrook is shifting marketing dollars for next year to pitch vacation packages to Canadian tourists.

U.S. visits by Canadians through July are up 5 percent over last year, according to the Department of Commerce. But the rising wave hasn't hit in Pinellas yet. Nearly 257,000 Canadians visited the county through August, about 4,000, or 2 percent, fewer than in 2006.

Vacationers from Great Britain and Western Europe also enjoy greater spending power here with the weak dollar. Combined, they make up Pinellas' third-largest source of tourists, with 593,000, or 15 percent, of the county's overnight visitors so far this year.

Their numbers were off 2 percent last year and are flat for 2007. Tourism experts cite a variety of obstacles to attracting more Europeans: competing destinations closer to home, hassles passing through U.S. customs, high air fares and opposition to the war in Iraq.

"Florida's just not on their list," says Russ Kimball, general manager of the Sheraton Sand Key Resort on Clearwater Beach. "They've been there, done that." Still, he says, Europeans do return as their children reach the age to travel and enjoy theme parks.

Jeffrey Solomon of Whispers Resort in Treasure Island recently got a call from a German company that booked all nine units for two weeks over Christmas and New Year's.

Meltzer of Pasa Tiempo has her own way of measuring the return of visitors from outside the U.S. "I walk the beach in the morning and hear them talking," she says. "They're coming."

Steve Huettel can be reached at huettel@sptimes.com">href="mailto:huettel@sptimes.com" mce_href="mailto:huettel@sptimes.com">huettel@sptimes.com or 813 226-3384.

Loonie rebounds

The Canadian currency, or "loonie," has been rising steadily against the U.S. dollar, achieving dollar-to-loonie parity for the first time in almost 31 years on Sept. 20.

But in 1998, the Canadian dollar's value fell to less than two-thirds of the U.S. dollar, meaning the U.S. dollar was valued at $1.5035 Canadian.

[Last modified October 10, 2007, 22:54:37]