California IN BRIEF : SAN FRANCISCO : Tourism Still Beset by Post-Quake Lag

San Francisco’s multibillion-dollar tourist industry is still suffering expensive aftershocks three months after the Oct. 17 earthquake. While October hotel occupancy rates were down 25% from a year ago, rates in November were only down 11.5% from the previous year, according to a survey by the accounting and consulting firm of Pannell Kerr Forster. To compensate, some tourist-dependent hotels are offering sharp discounts. Meanwhile, department stores and general merchandise stores in the San Francisco area also reported lost sales, presumably because of the earthquake. In San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo counties, combined sales at stores such as Emporium, Macy’s, Montgomery Ward and Sears dropped 10.5% in October compared to 1988.