Tourism Rate Remains Flat; War’s Effects Not Felt Yet

Tourism officials believe that it’s too early to determine if the Gulf War will significantly hurt San Diego County’s already flat tourism and convention business.

However, the war could bring even more bad news to the industry that had begun to soften even before the war began and the threat of Iraqi-sponsored terrorism surfaced, according to figures released Monday by the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Hotel occupancy rates for November fell to 57.5%, an 11-year low, according to ConVis. Occupancy rates for the first 11 months of 1990 fell to 66.2%, the lowest average in about 20 years.

ConVis Vice President Al Reese linked part of that drop to the glut of new hotel rooms that have flooded the market in recent months. But, “with the number of overnight visitors to San Diego flat, occupancy rates have nowhere to go but down,” Reese said.

Local attractions reported varied attendance during November. At the San Diego Zoo, November attendance plummeted 17.3% from the previous year, to 181,372. But Sea World reported that attendance was up 7.7%, and the Wild Animal Park reported an 11.7% attendance increase.

Local museums reported that attendance was down by 54.1%. But the drop was expected because thousands of visitors were in town during late 1989 for the Russian Arts Festival.

Although international tourism will probably be hurt by the war and the threat of terrorism, domestic travel is not expected to slow significantly--unless terrorists attack in the U.S., Reese said.

“There may be more people traveling domestically on vacations than overseas,” Reese said. “That’s going to be hard to track, though, and we’re already assuming that this will be a very difficult year for the travel and tourism industry. We still don’t know what the cost of fuel is going to be.”

The war has not yet caused a significant decline in bookings for hotel rooms in San Diego, said Tom Vincent, president of the San Diego Hotel and Motel Assn.

“People know they can stay just as close to the (war) in a hotel room with a TV or radio,” said Vincent, general manager of the San Diego Princess Resort.

Tourism officials said the war and the threat of terrorism have the potential to hurt conventions that involve government and military personnel.

Terrorism “will have an impact on conventions if terrorism makes its way to North America,” said Richard J. Newman, president and chief executive of the Champaign, Ill.-based International Assn. of Convention & Visitor Bureaus. “Conventioneers are more visible as a target than vacationers.”

Although many San Diegans stayed close to home to monitor near-continuous war coverage on local radio and television stations, local attractions reported relatively strong attendance over the weekend.

Attendance at the San Diego Zoo was up by 39% Saturday and 11% Sunday over a year ago, zoo spokesman Jeff Jouett said.

Jouett linked the increases to the long weekend, the zoo’s 75th anniversary celebration and the fact that many San Diegans evidently wanted a break from war coverage. “I know I certainly have gone home (from work) . . . and listened to CNN,” Jouett said. “And there was no escaping on the other channels unless you were tuned into MTV or ESPN.”

Sea World attendance was “right about where we expected it” before the war, park spokesman Dan LeBlanc said Monday. “If we’ve got tourists in town, and they were planning to visit Sea World, they’ll still come.”

At River Valley Sports Center, the golf course and pro shop remained “pretty busy,” in part because of the fabulous weather, a spokeswoman said. A television set in the pro shop is keeping staff and golfers up to date on war coverage. “We brief them on what’s new,” the spokeswoman said.

Business at H & M Landing, which operates daily whale-watching and sports fishing charters, has been “great” for the past week, said Katrina Coleman, office manager. Despite Tuesday’s U.N. deadline for Iraq to leave Kuwait, H & M’s whale-watching cruises were packed. Last Thursday, 437 fishermen went out on 12 boats, and the company had hefty bookings for the weekend, Coleman said.

Although it was business as usual for most companies, John Huish closed his five Family Fun Centers in San Diego and Orange County early last Wednesday, shortly after receiving word that U.S. forces had initiated an air war against Iraq.

“This is highly unusual for us because we’re open 365 days a year,” said Ken Kobane, marketing manager for the parks. “We normally close at midnight, but the owner called all five parks and asked them to close. We had customers we had to turn away, but the owner felt we really shouldn’t be open on that evening out of respect for the U.S. forces.”

The parks, which offer a variety of family-type entertainment, also feature “battle tanks,” self-propelled vehicles that maneuver and fire projectiles at other tanks. The tanks “gave me pause the other day when I was quoting a package price to a group,” Kobane said. “I thought it was not even nice to be using that word right now.”