July Shines in Lackluster Year : Tourists Cool on County Hot Spots

Turnstiles whirled in July at most local tourist attractions--the best month so far in an otherwise lackluster year for the local visitor industry.

Tourism industry experts are hoping the spurt in attendance will continue throughout the summer to brighten what has otherwise been a disappointing year--at least when contrasted with the last few years, which were glorious for local hotels, theme parks and other destinations.

Although both total number of visitors and tourist spending in San Diego increased since last year, traditional hot spots such as the San Diego Zoo, Sea World and Cabrillo National Monument showed diminished drawing power in the early part of 1989.

Through June, San Diego attracted 16.4 million visitors who spent $1.4 billion. Those numbers represent a 2.6% increase in visitor attendance and a 1.7% rise in spending over the same period last year, according to the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau.

But the zoo drew only 2 million visitors through Aug. 6--a 15.5% drop from the same period last year. At Cabrillo National Monument, 1989 attendance figures through July were down 11% from 1988, with only 917,638 paying visitors.

And, although attendance at Sea World has held steady with last year’s, the theme park’s gate has been inflated somewhat by free admission passes and widespread discounts.

Competition From Disneyland

Industry analysts say they are perplexed by the season’s sluggish start but agree that a combination of factors, rather than a single cause, has stunted tourism growth. Those factors include stiff competition from other major Southern California amusement parks such as Disneyland and Universal Studios, both of which opened new attractions this year.

Other factors, tourism officials said, were higher gasoline prices and the late opening of new exhibits at local attractions. For example, this year, the San Diego Zoo opened its Sun Bear Forest exhibit July 1, much later in the year than the zoo’s unveiling of Tiger River in March, 1988.

But industry followers say it’s inaccurate to label this season as a disappointment and argue that contrasting 1989 with recent years is unfair.

“The best way to describe the tourism season so far is to say that we’ve been holding our own,” said Al Reese, a Convention & Visitors Bureau spokesman. “Now, if we don’t show improvement over the previous year every time, some people say that’s bad news.

“But that’s not necessarily true, because we have already achieved a high level of tourism success. So holding at that plateau doesn’t mean something’s wrong.”

Both 1987 and 1988 were banner years for tourism. In 1987, the San Diego Zoo drew 3.8 million visitors, Sea World lured 3.7 million patrons and Cabrillo National Monument welcomed 1.8 million, all record attendance figures. Last year, the “Big Three” drew crowds that were almost as high.

With local attractions recently unveiling their new summer shows, tourism boosters are now hoping that the attractions can match the record-setting pace of the last two years.

Although overall countywide hotel occupancy through the first half of 1989 was down 3.3% from last year, rates at San Diego’s most popular sectors--La Jolla, Pacific/Mission Beach and Old Town--increased in June. According to Pannell Kerr Forster consultant Bill Seymour, the gains are especially significant because they occurred during a hotel building boom.

Hotel occupancy was up 14% in Old Town over 1988, 9% in La Jolla and 11% in Mission Bay/Pacific Beach. And countywide, hotel occupancy in June increased over last year, from 68.4% to 69.4%, or 1.4%.

“It shows that demand is keeping pace or is even ahead of the increasing building supply,” Seymour said. And he projected that hotel occupancy for 1989 should hit 70%, comparable to last year’s 70.4%.

4.6 Million Room Nights

According to a Laventhol & Horwath report, June was the best month of the year so far for hotel/motel room nights sold--799,808, up 6.7% from last June. More than 4.6 million hotel/motel room nights were sold in the county through the first six months of the year, up 1.6% from 1988.

Hotel building has been big business in San Diego recently, as hoteliers await the overnight visitors expected to flock to the San Diego Convention Center when it opens in November.

“A lot of hoteliers are eagerly awaiting the opening of the convention center so they can fill the empty rooms they currently have,” said Max Schetter, director of the Economic Research Bureau for the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce.

Other tourist indicators provided by the Convention & Visitors Bureau confirm industry analysts’ mixed review of the first half of 1989:

- 812,109 visitors used Mission Bay Park, down 8.7% from last year’s 889,616.

- 2,918,794 visitors went to Old Town State Park, up 11.2% from last year’s 2,625,797.

- 1,158,692 patrons visited major museums, down 4.2% from last year’s 1,208,905.

- Through June, 2,636,278 passengers have arrived at Lindbergh Field, up 2.2% from last year’s 2,578,830 arrivals.

But San Diego’s major attractions, such as the zoo, aren’t faring well so far this year.

Although concerned about the 15.5% drop in zoo attendance through Aug.6--more than 80% of the Zoological Society’s budget comes from tourists’ dollars--zoo spokesman Jeff Jouett says comparisons against last year are deceiving.

The zoo’s attendance numbers in 1988 were skewed, Jouett said, because they included the exhibit of giant pandas from China in January and February. “People wanted to see them before they left,” Jouett said. “The pandas drew huge crowds.”

The zoo also opened its Tiger River exhibit at the end of March, 1988, enabling it to pull in added visitors for most of last year. The zoo only opened this year’s new exhibit, the Sun Bear Forest, on July 1.

“Obviously, because of the late opening, we haven’t had the same impact,” Jouett said.

But, even with the opening of the Sun Bear Forest, the zoo pulled in 436,141 visitors in July--down 7% from last year’s attendance but about equal to the 436,344 visitors recorded in July, 1987.

San Diego’s tourism rally may still be stalled by the big tourist guns of Southern California: Disneyland and Universal Studios.

“This year the competition is even more intense with Splash Mountain opening up at Disneyland and with Universal’s Earthquake,” Jouett said. “They’re both big draws, and those organizations have spent lots of money to spread the word around to create an urgency to go there.”

Such competition, however, isn’t the only thing disturbing zoo officials.

Easterners Stay Away

According to the zoo’s exit surveys, the number of “Easterners”--visitors east of the Rocky Mountains--visiting the zoo has declined noticeably. Through June of this year, only 424,000 of the zoo’s patrons were Easterners. From 1986 to 1988, the zoo averaged 506,000 Easterners.

“That’s the most significant area of decline according to our exit surveys,” said Jouett about the 20% drop in Easterners’ attendance. “But whether that’s a market-wide phenomenon or whether it’s just peculiar to the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park, we can’t reliably say right now.”

Jouett said such a decline could mean that San Diego is slipping from a tourism pinnacle.

“Ever since the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, Southern California has basked in the tourism spotlight,” Jouett said. “There are highs and lows in the tourism trade, popularity goes in cycles. We may be coming off a peak, or it just might be a temporary setback,” Jouett said.

Jouett, like others in the industry, says it is difficult to definitively say how the season is faring. For example, although zoo attendance is down, the San Diego Wild Animal Park is attracting big crowds.

Through Aug.6, the park has drawn 755,000--up 8% from the same period last year when 697,000 visitors passed through the turnstiles, an increase Jouett attributes to special circumstances.

“We’ve had a lot of babies--gorilla babies, cheetah babies--and we opened a stork exhibit,” Jouett said. “We’ve been advertising the babies, and we think that’s been bringing in more people.”

After a slow start earlier this year, Sea World is also witnessing an attendance pickup. Through Aug.6, 2.4 million visitors entered Sea World--up 9% from last year’s 2.2 million attendance figure, said Sea World spokeswoman Corinne Brindley. Summer figures are even more impressive: from June 24 to Aug. 6, Sea World pulled in 1,023,000 visitors--up 16.1% over last year’s 881,000.

But Sea World officials acknowledge that this summer’s figures are somewhat inflated, in part because of free summer nights passes and discount coupons widely available at gas stations, convenience stores and other retail outlets.

According to Brindley, a summer nights pass--a promotion that began June 24--is given to each paid entrant, allowing the visitor unlimited admission to Sea World after 5 p.m through Sept. 4. As of Aug. 6, 64,000 people have visited the park with the free pass, Brindley said. In addition, Sea World’s traditional coupon campaign is offering a variety of discounts--including $4 off the $21 adult admission price.

Trying to Boost Sale Price

Sea World’s parent company, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, has good reason to try to boost the gate: it is in the process of selling the San Diego Sea World and five other theme parks, and the sale price could be enhanced by higher attendance.

“I think we were all off to a slow start, but we’re having an excellent summer season so far, and attendance has been very strong,” Brindley said. “We have a strong line-up, plus Baby Shamu. A lot of people are coming for Baby Shamu.”

Sea World officials also attribute the increase to a variety of new shows, including an ice-skating extravaganza choreographed by Olympic champion Scott Hamilton and several nighttime shows featuring killer whales, sea lions and dolphins. Although usually open only until 5 p.m., Sea World has extended its hours until 11 p.m. since June 24.

Although Cabrillo National Monument has been charging admission fees--$3 per vehicle; $1 per pedestrian/bicyclist--since March, 1987, the effect of such fees on attendance has become clearly evident this year.

Through the end of July, 917,638 visitors have gone to the national monument at the southern edge of Point Loma, said Chief Ranger Howard Overton, an 11% drop from the same period last year, when 1,064,131 visited Cabrillo.

“Visitation is declining slightly at this park, and we attribute the decline primarily to the fact that we’re collecting fees now,” Overton said.