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Local Tourism Bouncing Back After Sept. 11 Tragedies

Local Tourism Bouncing Back After Sept. 11 Tragedies

Corporate Business Still In a Recovery Mode

BY TANYA RODRIGUES

Staff Writer

Dire predictions for a depressed tourism industry were realized soon after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.

In San Diego, as airline travel suffered, theme parks saw a sharp dip in attendance and hotels slashed rates hoping to attract visitors willing to travel.

Yet as bad as the fourth quarter of 2001 was for local hoteliers and the convention industry, San Diego appears to be heading toward the end of this year on somewhat of a high note. It’s returned to last year’s performance in almost all ways.

“Basically, it’s taken us a year to recover,” said Robert Rauch, a local hotel analyst.

Overall, the local market has returned to normal levels in two of its three sectors , leisure and meetings groups, Rauch said.

Corporate business, however, is still recovering, he said. Nearly 15 percent of San Diego’s tourism business is traditionally corporate travelers. Right now, the business from that market is close to pre-2001 levels, he said.

The industries that tend to come to San Diego happened to be the ones that most successfully weathered the recession and subsequent economic troubles, such as biotechnology and biomedical.

“We have done remarkably well under the circumstances,” he said.

The fourth quarter of 2001 was the worst in the history of the local lodging industry, Rauch said. The impact lasted into January.

From there, the first quarter started to improve, but still looked poor compared to the particularly strong first quarter in 2001.

Paul Corcinita, president of the San Diego County Hotel-Motel Association, said his part of the industry has, for the most part, “taken a beating” since Sept. 11.

From Bad To Worse

Hotels fortunate enough to maintain their occupancy levels have often had to lower the rates they charged per room, Corcinita said.

Hotels were already affected from the slumping economy, and Sept. 11 exacerbated the situation. The question of when the industry will return to the stronger pre-2001 levels is anyone’s guess, Corcinita said.

“I’m cautiously optimistic for ’03,” he said.

Also, the decrease in business has led to more competition, Corcinita said. Hotels whose business shrank tried to attract the more successful markets, such as leisure.

According to Rauch, leisure business compensated for the decrease in corporate travelers.

The vacation market had almost fully recovered by the second quarter of this year, buoyed by San Diego’s focus on driving-distance markets.

As it turned out, there was strong business mostly from Los Angeles County, with significant business from Arizona and Northern California as well, he said.

However, the leisure drive market is not as profitable as the corporate market, which tends to spend more money on food and be less concerned with the cost of hotel rooms.

Tapping New Markets

It followed the post-Sept. 11 predictions from travel experts that there would be a huge shift from flying to driving.

SeaWorld San Diego marketers also focused on drive markets. Los Angeles County, as well as San Diego, has been the focus for the theme park’s promotions, said Bob Tucker, the park’s director of public relations.

Spending at the park for food and merchandise items was strong, and SeaWorld is on track for its annual attendance of 4 million people, said Tucker, who couldn’t provide further details.

Several records were set this year, such as Martin Luther King Day in January and Memorial Day Weekend in May, he said.

Right after Sept. 11 last year, the park saw an initial decline in attendance, but the effect was not as strong because the park’s main season, which begins on Memorial Day, had just ended on Labor Day a couple of weeks before, Tucker said.

“The impact to us was not nearly as great as it could have been if it happened during the height of summer,” he said.

Now, he said, the park feels good about its performance this summer, as well as prospects for the rest of the year.

“Considering the circumstances that other parks are in, we’re in good shape,” he said.

Postponement Of Plans

The same was true at the San Diego Convention Center, said President and CEO Carol Wallace.

On Sept. 11, 2001, the facility was about to celebrate the official opening of a size-doubling expansion. The terrorist attacks postponed those plans.

Since then, however, the Convention Center has outperformed expectations, which Wallace attributed to San Diego’s appeal. Prospective convention attendees still wanted to come here for programs, she said.

“Our clients say they feel safe here, and post-9/11, that was a big issue with attendees, that they felt safe where they were going,” Wallace said. “It’s seen as a clean city, a safe city, and it’s fun.”

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