“Beach hotels get boost, but no thanks to tourists”

Beach hotels get boost, but no thanks to tourists

Posted: 23 Jul 2010 11:33 PM PDT

The Pensacola area's hotel occupancy jumped a surprising 15.5 percent in June, and lodging revenues were up 7 percent.

But that good news came with a bad-news edge.

The strong numbers, as reported by Smith Travel Research, Inc., were fueled not by tourists, but largely by BP workers, government officials, national media crews and a visit June 15 by the president, ad agency executive Ellis Bullock said.

While hotels welcomed the business, restaurants, shops, night clubs and other retailers on the beach benefited little from the bump in room stays, said tourism head Ed Schroeder.

"The people staying in these rooms, in most cases, were not going out to restaurants or shops or to local attractions," Schroeder said. "For example, the National Naval Aviation Museum visits were down 25 percent in June."

As the spill's effects on area beaches tapers off and workers, officials and the media move on, the numbers for July and August are expected to fall if tourists continue to stay away.

"Once we get past July Fourth, we're starting to see depressed numbers," Bullock said. "On weekends, the hotels at the beach this month are seeing 95 percent occupancy. But during the weekdays it's only in the 50 to 60 percent range, and that really hurts."

Santa Rosa Island Authority Executive Director Buck Lee is predicting July sales on the beach, including hotels, restaurants and retail shops, will be well down from June.

The big question is by how much.

"I'll be very surprised if the numbers are up for July," he said. "But I don't think it's going to be down by 50 percent. I think we'll see something in the 20 percent or less range."

Lee said the Island Authority's final June revenue numbers — generated by a 2 percent SRIA fee on all transactions — won't be tallied until sometime late next week.

Another negative, which Smith Travel reported, is the average daily rate for area hotels dropped 7.4 percent in June, a result of sharp room rate cuts hotels were forced to offer to attract oil spill workers and government officials.

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