Ailing Stock Market Impacts Florida Tourism

ORLANDO— The sour economy is scaring some would-be vacationers into staying home, said some of Floridas top tourism officials during a meeting on July 10. “We need a strong stock market and a thriving economy to encourage travel,” said Austin Mott, president/CEO of Visit Florida. The gathering at the Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Orlando included Michael Sansbury, an evp/Loews Hotels, which owns the newly opened hotel. Sansbury agreed that the overall economy hasnt shown the comeback ability that the tourism sector has displayed. “We were well out of the ground with this hotel when 9/11 hit. And there wasnt one word about not going forward,” he said. Loews forged ahead with building the Royal Pacific despite record low occupancies last September at its two existing Orlando hotels, the Portofino Bay and Hard Rock. “Rock bottom came on a Monday night in late September,” he stated. “Occupancy at our hotels here was just 13%.” Still, Florida tourism, while recovering to nearly the levels of last summer, isnt close to bouncing back to the record-setting string of years it enjoyed during much of the past decade. Fred Lounsberry, Universal Orlandos svp/sales, estimated that Florida wont be able to surpass its tourism levels of the record-setting year 2000 until 2004. SOURCE: The Orlando Sentinel