Travel
Old City Ahead Of Tourism Game
Wednesday, May 14, 2003
Ann Candler King
The Business Journal
A survey of approximately 2,700 Americans done by Consolidated Credit Counseling Services Inc. indicates the end of the war in Iraq has not been enough to invigorate the lagging travel industry.
"The war may be officially over, but there is still residual economic uncertainty," said Howard Dvorkin, president of Consolidated.
But don't tell it to the tourists flocking to St. Augustine. "We've had a real strong March and April," said Kari Hall Keating, director of economic development and tourism for the St. Augustine and St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce. "We had a pretty slow January and February. I think it was some combination of anxiety about national affairs and the economy."
The percentage of trips within a one-day drive from home, 63 percent, remained unchanged since the war wrapped up, according to the survey.
But that's good for St. Augustine. "For the first time in a generation, Florida as a whole's drive-in market has outpaced the fly-in market," Hall Keating said.
In Duval County, where the travel industry relies more on business travel than tourism, the war has had little effect.
"It's really more about the state of corporate America. We'll be glad when corporate America comes back and we can get the occupancy rates back up," said Fred Pozin, general manager of the Ramada Inn Mandarin and vice president of the Jacksonville Hotel Motel Association.
