Road-trip trend may curtail Hawai'i visits
By Gary Gentile
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Deborah Dallinger's hassles as she navigated security checks on her recent European vacation have persuaded her to stick closer to home this summer.
Associated Press
"It's one thing to spend 10 hours on a plane to France, but it's another to spend four hours at the airport," the 52-year-old Walnut Creek resident said.
Julianna van Wieren, right, and Corinne Oshima prepare a meal while camping near San Clemente, Calif. State campgrounds saw a 20 percent rise in reservations after Sept. 11.
"When I go on vacation, I just want it to be easy."
Dallinger will spend her remaining vacation driving to visit friends in Santa Barbara and staying at her favorite bed and breakfast in Inverness.
Her experience is like that of many Californians who plan to flock to state parks, beaches and bed and breakfasts this summer while doing more driving and less flying.
For California, the steady stream of road trips is helping power a comeback from the devastating impact of Sept. 11 on the tourism industry.
"Consumers have seen the travel industry brought to its knees post 9/11, and they are looking for values," said Kerri Kapich, vice president of marketing with the San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau. "The consumer is in the driver's seat."
Tourism officials in San Diego, for example, are expecting a 2.4 percent increase in visitors over last summer, as attractions, luxury hotels and spas dangle discounts before bargain-hungry tourists.
By comparison, San Francisco, which depends on business and convention travelers for two-thirds of its tourism revenue, expects about 1.4 million fewer visitors this summer than in 2000.
Associated Press
The trend could hit Hawai'i's tourism industry hard as well. Nearly nine months after the terrorist attacks, tourists from the Mainland are infusing all areas of the state's tourism industry and providing a much-needed boost to offset other, still-lagging areas.
Joe Maloney of Apple Valley, Calif., chose to go camping this year with his sons, Mike, center, and Patrick, right, and their neighbor.
Despite some temporary swings above and below, the number of visitors arriving from North America remains stabilized at pre-Sept. 11 levels. The primary source of the rapid improvement is the West Coast.
Visitors to Hawai'i from the U.S. West dipped 20 percent below previous-year levels after Sept. 11, but rebounded quickly. While visitors from the East Coast remain 5 percent to 10 percent below last year, the past couple of months show a 3 percent to 4 percent growth in visitors from the West Coast, many from California.
Many California travel officials predicted in January that overall summer travel this year would be down 9 percent from last year. But those projections have been adjusted by state tourism officials to reflect an anticipated 5 percent drop.
That still means that California will collect about $4 billion less in visitor spending, which in 2001 reached $76 billion.
With travel fears gripping the nation after Sept. 11, state tourism officials quickly doled out more than $12 million on a print, radio and television advertising campaign encouraging residents to rediscover their home state.
It wasn't a hard a sell. In the past, California has drawn 85 percent of its tourism trade from its own residents. Now, that trend is becoming more evident elsewhere in the country.
D.K. Shifflet & Assoc. Ltd. has polled 2,400 frequent travelers nationwide since last October. The survey found that people are willing to drive as much as eight hours to avoid the hassles and delays prompted by heightened security at airports.
That's twice as long as they were willing to drive before Sept. 11. Business travelers also are willing to drive as much as five hours, also double the pre-attack time.
Destinations such as state parks, national historic sites, festivals and fairs should see more traffic than major cities — a trend that's particularly evident at California's 267 state parks and beaches.
State campgrounds saw an immediate 20 percent jump in reservations after Sept. 11, an indication that people who otherwise might have planned out-of-state trips had decided to stay close to home.
Cuts in camping fees and the statewide tourism campaign launched last year could result in an overall 10 percent increase in attendance at state parks this year to about 90 million visitors.
With new attractions and tempting admission packages. theme parks are looking to continue their steady recovery in the next several months, although most will have a hard time matching last summer's business.
Disney's California Adventure, which opened last year next to Disneyland in Anaheim, is offering a summer concert series featuring such acts as The Beach Boys and The Monkees.
Universal Studios Hollywood will give a free admission to kids 15 and younger with every full-priced adult ticket.
Even bed-and-breakfast inns in wine country and other locales are also seeing an increase in guests.
Inns offering packages that include dinner at a local restaurant or tours of nearby attractions are tapping into the desire by consumers for deals.
The Inn at Occidental in Sonoma has already seen a return to its pre-Sept. 11 levels and is reporting an increase in guests from out of state as well.
"We're starting to see honeymooners and people from the Midwest traveling again," said inn-keeper Bill Bullard. "It's really encouraging."
