Cloud hangs over tourism

Merchants along Thames Street<br>in Newport are hopig for better<br>weather.
Merchants along Thames Street
in Newport are hopig for better
weather.

Hotels, restaurants report up to 40
percent drop in business



Rhode Islanders who work in the leisure, travel and tourism industry are seeing ghosts this tourist season.



At the state’s beaches, the sight of happy beach-goers has been replaced by a hollow wind blowing in from the Atlantic Ocean. In the halls of the historical mansions in Newport, the out-of-town dads wearing white knee socks and deck shoes have seemingly vanished into thin air. And Rhode Islanders who make their money providing others with summer fun say their pockets have been picked by a shadowy spring that they’re not sure even existed.



A soggy economy, worse weather and continued travel worries, in the wake of Sept. 11, have combined to make this spring the worst in Rhode Island’s tourism industry in a generation, say industry insiders. From Providence to Westerly, restaurateurs, historic site operators, hotel managers and tourism officials say their early numbers are as much as 40 percent below last year’s tally through the first one-third of their busy season.



The Newport Gateway Information Center, a barometer for the state’s tourism industry, has welcomed 30 to 40 percent fewer visitors in the past couple months than last spring. At The Breakers and other Newport historic mansions – one of the biggest tourist attractions in the state – business from April through last week was down 14.5 percent from the same time period last year, according to the Newport County Preservation Society.



Other economic indicators for the tourism industry, such as hotel room occupancy rates and beach fee receipts, won’t be available until the end of the summer. But anecdotal evidence provided by several tourism experts in Rhode Island shows that this has been one of the worst starts to the summer tourism season in recent memory.



“I always struggle with gloom and doom, but I have to tell you something, I have not seen my industry struggle like this in 15 years,” said Dale J. Venturini, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Hospitality and Tourism Association. “People are absolutely scared. They just don’t know, because the economy is not rebounding. Normally you’ve got a few things thrown into the mix and people can ride them out. Now, it’s just a stockpiling of problems.”



To some extent, Rhode Island’s bleak start to the tourism season reflects a national problem. In first the 20 weeks of 2003, daily hotel room revenue was off more than $2.4 million over the same time period in 2002. At the same time, there were 64,000 more daily vacant hotel rooms than a year ago, according to a June 16 report by Smith Travel Research, a firm that provides lodging research and analysis.



“During the first 20 weeks of 2003, the economy has been in the doldrums, and travel for almost any particular segment was down after war in Iraq, warnings of possible terrorist attacks and the hassles caused by increased security at airports,” according to the report.



But tourism experts here say Rhode Island’s tourist industry has been harder hit this spring than other regions of the country because of New England’s abnormally cool and rainy spring.



“I would say the main stumbling block for travel right now is the weather. It’s not the economy, it’s just the lousy weather that we’ve had. It’s the worst spring that we’ve had in several years, and unfortunately for the target market that we go after, people look to see what the weather is going to be like for weekend travel. And the forecasts have been for bad weather and they say, ‘We’re not going to do it,’” said Bob Rosenberg, president of the Newport County Convention and Visitors’ Bureau.



The early woes in the tourist season will eventually hurt other segments of the state’s economy, because the leisure, travel and tourism industry is a major economic engine in Rhode Island, said Venturini. The tourist industry provided 64,500 jobs last year, generating $4.8 billion in revenue, and $1.1 billion in salaries, according to the hospitality and tourism association.



“If we’re hurting, there’s a trickle-down effect,” said Venturini. “We’re not hiring as much, so many people are not spending, so that impacts the retail industry, the sale of gasoline, other industries. It’s all about the recycling of the dollar.”



With tourists barely trickling into the state so far, industry insiders have their eyes on the Rhode Island State House, where lawmakers are pondering a series of bills that tourism people say would further damage the already struggling industry. Proposed legislation that tourism officials oppose includes raising the state’s hotel and meals taxes, a statewide living-wage ordinance, changes in the fire code that would be costly for restaurants and hotels and the criminalization of driving with a blood-alcohol level of .08 percent. A proposal to ban smoking in all workplaces, which the tourism industry vociferously opposed, was defeated last week by the Rhode Island House of Representatives.


“With the fire safety code changes, most people recognize that things have
got to be done, but there’s a cost factor. Most people I talk to say, ‘Where
am I going to get the money?’ If you raise the hotel and meals taxes even 2
percent, that has a negative effect on the entire industry. Most people don’t
believe it, but it does,” said Venturini.


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