Southland’s Tourist Boom Turning Out to Be a Bust

The Southland’s projected 1986 summer tourism boom is a bust.

Executives from Southern California tourist attractions and hotels are calling it a “mini-Olympics” summer--a reference to the bleak Olympic summer of 1984, when projections of a huge increase in tourism for Southern California scared away hordes of potential visitors.

Now, just a few months after predicting record business for the season, many hotel owners from San Diego to Los Angeles to Santa Barbara are reporting room occupancy rates down 10% in July, compared to the summer of 1985. Particularly hard hit is Orange County, where two of the area’s major amusement attractions--Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm--are facing disappointing summers.

The attractions may be short on tourists, but travel experts are long on excuses for the slump.

Some fault the media for what they call overexposure of the projected tourism boom. Others point the finger at Expo ‘86--the World’s Fair in Vancouver, Canada, while some place blame on the devalued peso, which has hurt tourism from across the Mexican border. There is also concern that rock-bottom European air fares have lured away tourist dollars. And some even say that the recent California earthquakes have caused the expected tourism boom to crack.

“We were on our way to a record summer until that first earthquake rolled in,” said Bill O’Connell, general manager of the seven Stovall’s Motor Hotels in Orange County, which have more than 1,000 rooms among them.

The day after the July 8 quake rolled through the Palm Springs area--the first major temblor in Southern California in seven years--a total of 182 guests called to cancel their reservations at the Stovall’s motels and all gave the quake as the reason, O’Connell said.

At the 507-room Emerald of Anaheim, across the street from Disneyland, 30 hotel guests scurried into the lobby the night of the earthquake and one family of five slept on couches for the remainder of the night. Summer business at the two-year-old hotel is off about 10% from last year, said Sara Schantz, public relations manager.

The summer tourism drought is not being felt in Northern California. San Francisco, for example, is enjoying a banner summer. “The city is packed,” said an executive at the San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The Southland, however, is a far cry from the bustling tourist center that experts had projected for the summer. Many had envisioned a near-record summer, based on the low gasoline prices and the threats of terrorism in Europe that were expected to keep American vacationers in the United States this summer.

And despite strong showings in the first six months, the slump hit in July, catching tourism executives by surprise.

Officials at the Westin Bonaventure are blaming low overseas air fares for luring tourists to places outside Southern California. Room occupancy is down 5% at the 562-room hotel, manager Do1852710996include two-for-one family room rates, “we’re just not seeing the flood of reservations that we had hoped for,” he said.

And at the plush Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills, room occupancy, which stood near 90% just 18 months ago, has slipped below 80%, said George White, the hotel’s general manager. “We used to have a sizable clientele from Mexico,” he said, “but the devaluation of the Mexican peso has dried that up.”

“In hindsight, we’re all pretty stupid,” said Joel Rothman, general manager of the Anaheim Marriott. “We all hoped that Disneyland’s 31st anniversary would attract as many tourists as its 30th, but it hasn’t.” Room occupancy at the Marriott is down 10%, Rothman said.

Similarly, the Doubletree Hotel in Orange is seeing a 10% dip in occupancy compared to last year, and while convention business has held firm there, tourism business has fallen 20%, “a dramatic drop from one year ago,” said Bill Allison, the hotel’s marketing director.

A few hotels, however, are bucking the downward trend.

In the San Diego area, the plush Hotel del Coronado is enjoying a 5% increase in room occupancy over last year. “The ‘Del’ is never off,” said Scott Anderson, president and general manager. But the rest of the San Diego hotel market, which has seen an additional 3,400 rooms come on line in the past year, is decidedly down, according to area hotel executives.

Anaheim’s Disneyland Hotel also remains virtually unaffected by the tourism drop. The Anaheim hotel is still expecting room occupancy rates of nearly 95% through the summer, said Mike Bullis, hotel president. “Fortunately, our reservations are made far enough in the future that we’re not feeling it like some of the other hotels ,” he said.

But Disneyland itself is seeing a softer year. Attendance is running below earlier expectations and it is not likely that it will surpass last year’s record 12 million visitors, said Al Flores, a park spokesman. He said that Expo ’86 has caused a drop in Canadian tourism at the Anaheim park.

Even more severely affected is Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, which is seeing “amazingly soft” business this summer, park president Terry Van Gorder said. “Expo ’86 is taking a tremendous toll (on park attendance projections),” he said.

Indeed, attendance at Expo ‘86, which continues through Oct. 13, is running well above projections. Officials originally projected 13 million visitors but recently boosted that estimate to more than 20 million, said Pamela Ryan, media relations officer at Expo.

No records are being broken at Sea World in San Diego, which is feeling Expo’s pinch. Attendance through mid-July is down nearly 7% compared with last year, said Jackie Hill, public relations director.

Although some Los Angeles tourist attractions are seeing improved business, some are still not satisfied. At NBC Studios, where annual attendance is expected to slightly top last year’s 140,000 visitors, there is no celebration. “Everyone was pumped up for a gang-buster summer, but it just hasn’t happened,” said Mary Maggio, manager of tour and audience promotion.

But at Universal Studios Tour, local attendance is twice that of last summer and attendance by visitors from out-of-state is up 15%, said Joan Bullard, director of publicity. She credited most of the increase to the tour’s much-advertised $6.5-million King Kong display--which features a 30-foot-tall replica of the fictional gorilla in action.

But even King Kong’s success is not enough to change the overall picture of slumping tourism throughout the Southland. Even after adding a $2.5-million laser show this summer, the Queen Mary in Long Beach is still facing a 10% drop in attendance compared to last summer, said Joseph Prevratil, president of Wrather Port Properties, which oversees the Long Beach attraction.

Despite the muddy picture, county and state tourism officials are trying to put on the best possible face.

“Maybe people’s expectations were raised too high,” said Flo Snyder, director of the California Office of Tourism. “We know that 1.8 million Americans changed their plans to travel overseas this summer, but maybe they didn’t have enough time to plan elaborate trips in the U.S.”

Another tourism executive, Robert Zavala, said many Americans took a “wait-and-see” attitude regarding travel to Europe and are now taking advantage of reduced air fares. Most airlines have dropped their fares to Europe 15% to 20% this summer, said Zavala, office manager at DER Tours, a Santa Monica-based travel agency. One large West German charter company recently knocked nearly $100 off its flights to Germany, he said.

In Santa Barbara, tourism is “flat,” said Ron McGurer, director of the Santa Barbara Conference & Visitors Bureau, but he noted that the city’s annual summer festival scheduled next month is expected to boost late summer business.

Even with the July softening in Orange County’s tourism, the county is still projecting a record number of visitors in 1986--up at least 6% from 1985, said Alynne Hanford, director of tourism development.