Vacation Bookings for 1992 Point to a Tourism Upswing for State : Travel: The industry looks forward to better business after two years of recession. Southland theme parks are ready to unveil several new attractions.
Just as the swallows make their annual flight back to San Juan Capistrano, tourists are beginning to return to sunny California.
Travel agents say summer vacation bookings are up. Theme parks and hotels are bracing for an onslaught of visitors after a slump induced by the Persian Gulf War and nearly two years of recession.
“Right now, we are very optimistic about summer,” said Stuart Zanville, spokesman of Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park. “All the indications point to a return of tourism.”
The signs of rebound seem to be all around. Drought-weary skiers have returned to California’s snow-laden slopes. And San Diego is benefiting from the preliminary rounds of what it hopes is a publicity windfall from the America’s Cup yacht race.
“We’re seeing the recession easing, particularly in terms of international tourists and somewhat domestically,” said Michele Reese, Universal Studios Hollywood executive vice president of marketing. “Yes, the economy is still poor, but people are gaining more confidence.”
Tourism is one of the state’s most important industries, generating $52.7 billion in revenue in 1990, the latest figures available, according to the State Office of Tourism. It accounts for 750,000 jobs in the state and more than $2 billion in taxes to state and local governments.
Lynn Reaser, senior economist for First Interstate Bancorp in Los Angeles, estimates that tourism spending in California increased slightly in 1991 to $53.8 billion. She expects business to increase 5% this year to $56.4 billion. “I’m looking for a general improvement in tourism,” she said.
The tourism industry was hit hard by the cutback in travel prompted by the Persian Gulf crisis and economic recession. Local theme parks started offering discounts to Southern California residents for the first time last year. Disneyland, the nation’s second most popular theme park after Walt Disney World, had 11.6 million visitors last year, down 10% from 1990’s 12.9 million, according to the trade magazine Amusement Business.
However, Reaser said that tourist-dependent businesses should prosper as the general economy improves. Thousands of consumers who delayed travel plans in the past two years because of the poor economy are expected to travel to Southern California this year. And because of the continued slump in the state, many Californians are expected to take their next vacations within their state.
Visitors will find some new attractions at Southern California theme parks. Among them: a “Backdraft” fire show at Universal, the “Fantasmic!” water and light show at Disneyland, a $2-million Indian Trails section at Knott’s Berry Farm, a walk-through shark tank at Sea World and a $4-million roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia.
When out-of-state visitors arrive, though, they may not stay as long as in the past. Whether it is result of tighter budgets or less time, people are taking shorter vacations.
“They are taking shorter tours,” said Bipin Ramaiya, of California Parlor Car Tours. “They are scared, with their neighbors out of work.”
Booking shorter trips beats having no business at all, say travel agents who are hopeful for a recovery this year.
“I’d say it’s a vast improvement over last year,” said Tom Nulty, president of the Associated Travel Management, a Santa Ana-based chain of agencies that coordinates about $150 million worth of travel annually. “When we compare it to 1990, it looks like it will be better due to pent-up demand from the war.”
Sharon Preston of First Class Travel in Newport Beach said this about bookings so far this year: “It’s not Boom Town USA, but it’s on the upswing.”
Most of the added bookings are for trips later this year, however. Right now, California’s tourism climate is still weak.
“There’s not a lot of consistency” in attendance, Disneyland President Jack Lindquist said. The number of visitors coming to Anaheim’s famed theme park has been up one week, down the next.
He added, however, that “in talking to some of the hotel people, travel agents and tour operators, I get the feeling there’s not only a bottoming out (of the tourism market), but it’s starting to come up a little.”
Free-lance writer Ted Johnson contributed to this story.
