Travelers are doing things differently, and tourism's uneven recovery from the attacks of Sept. 11 reflects their changed behavior. "Nine-eleven was a cathartic event. It cleansed and purged many habits," says Mark Brown, executive vice president of the Heathrow-based American Automobile Association.
Demand for business travel remains weak, as more companies adopt video-conferencing as a safer and cheaper means of meeting across the miles. But leisure travel is strong, thanks to an explosion of growth in family travel, which benefits Florida. The Sunshine State's $50-billion tourism industry is on the mend, slowly but surely. Leaders say it will take at least until 2004 to match the records set in 2000. But tourism is almost back to pre-Sept. 11 levels and should make a full recovery in 2003.
"We have a long way to go before we are a healthy industry," admits Fred Lounsberry, a Universal Orlando executive who chairs the Travel Industry Association of America. In July, as the Wall Street roller coaster pushed investors' stomachs into their throats, Lounsberry joined Brown and a panel of local, state and national experts marking the opening of a 1,000-room resort hotel at the theme park. Lounsberry's promise to the forum: "The desire to travel will not be squashed."
According to the experts, post-Sept. 11 travelers are less interested in international destinations and more interested in historical and cultural attractions. They are buying more travel insurance, staying away from large cities, reconnecting with friends and family and booking trips at the last minute. Last autumn's trend -- taking to the roads rather than the skies -- is becoming the norm.
Family travel is the fastest-growing market, and more families want Florida. As testament to a $52-million advertising blitz that followed the terrorist attacks, a nationwide survey by tourism promoter Visit Florida found that one in five Americans now are more likely to be planning a Sunshine State vacation than they were a year ago.
Security concerns
Air travel safety fears and security hassles are still an issue. But Brown says a lack of confidence in the economy is the main reason travelers are driving or riding trains and buses, taking shorter trips and staying closer to home. "In times of uncertainty, the American people seek safety and sanctity, and they look for control of their environment. That control puts them in the cars more than usual and on the rails more than usual, and we're seeing record numbers doing that."
More travelers are booking within two or three weeks of departure and paying in full. "The last-minute bookings mean they don't want to put a deposit down and then find out they've lost a job," explains Kathryn Sudeikis, vice president of the executive board of the American Society of Travel Agents.
With air travel down 19% and 76% of summer trips being taken by car, destinations within a few hours' drive of metropolitan areas were doing well -- in some cases, better than last year. According to Lounsberry, the recovery has been slow and difficult for many fly-in destinations. "Tickets are being sold and rooms are being filled, but the upturn is at the cost of deep, deep discounting."
Drive markets are propping up business in Florida. Before last September, roughly half of the state's visitors arrived by air. Traffic at the state's 14 major airports beat the national average by 3% in March, but all the buzz was about traffic at four highway welcome centers -- up 8% last winter and 5% so far this year, according to promoters at Visit Florida. At AAA, Southeast U.S. TripTik routing requests fell just short of all-time record volume in June, and online routing requests were up 200% over last year. Across the nation, smaller ports with easy highway access were busier as cruise lines repositioned smaller and older ships to lure regional business.
Changing spending habits
A new crop of bargain-hunters has sprouted in the post-Sept. 11 economy. "We can't forget a lot of the households have holdings in equity markets, and they are experiencing 30% to 40% declines in net worth because of reducing stock values. But disposable income is up 4%," says Brown. "People have money, and they're spending it, but they're not spending it in the traditional ways."
The quest for price and value is nowhere more visible than in the lodging sector. Hotel bookings are soft nationwide, although some markets -- central Florida among them -- are seeing sustainable growth. As a measure of the sector statewide, Visit Florida reports bed-tax collections through the first quarter of this year were 20% off totals for the same quarter in 2001. But in central Florida in May, the demand for rooms was off just more than 2%, and occupancy was down only 3% compared to the same month last year. Daily rates were 4.4% lower as hotels continued cutting prices to attract business.
The souring economy has spurred a spirit of cooperation. In July, Orlando promoters were in talks with Orlando International Airport officials about creative ways to attract new carriers and rebuild fly-in business. "The old model just cannot be sustained in the new economic environment," says Bill Peeper, president of the Orlando/ Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau.