Posted on: Wednesday, June 18, 2003

Tourism rebounds in nation's capital

By Candace Smith
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — In the nation's capital, there's a welcome sight. Tourists are again crowding into Metrorail cars and spilling through museums — signs the city's top private industry is recovering from the slide that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have cost Washington millions of dollars in tourist revenue. Anthrax, sniper shootings, the Iraq war, an unusually snowy winter, color-coded terrorism alerts and a weak economy haven't helped.

According to Washington's Convention and Tourism Corp., the number of domestic visitors in 2002 dropped 3 percent to 17.6 million. Those who came spent more than $4 billion in the district and its suburbs.

"We're hoping that this year we'll get back to the pre-9-11 levels," said WCTC president William A. Hanbury. "It has been challenging, not only for Washington, D.C., but the whole national tourism industry has seen a decline based on many things, whether it's the threat level, whether it's war, or the economy — they've all been affecting the tourism economy."

With the war in Iraq over and the national terror alert lowered to yellow, restaurants, tour services and hotels report that business has improved but is still below pre-attack levels.

"The fear factor is sort of declining," said Thomas B. Whitley, of the Guild of Professional Tour Guides of Washington, D.C., which represents 300 guides. Whitley estimated business has doubled since last year.

"The color coding and snow always don't cooperate, but the tourists are definitely coming back," said Lynne Breaux, executive director of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington, which represents some 500 eateries in the district and northern Virginia.

The hotel occupancy rate has risen slightly from a 2001 low of 66.7 percent. Nearly 80 percent of the downtown area's estimated 27,000 hotel rooms were booked the first week of June, up over the same period last year, according to the WCTC.

Coni Otto, assistant manager of downtown's 245-room Hotel Harrington said there seems to be a lot of spontaneous travel.

"The forecast for this week, last week looked grim, then we got a lot of walk-ins or calls saying 'I'm coming for a week,"' Otto said.

The Smithsonian Institution's 16 museums still are not seeing pre-Sept. 11 visitor numbers, although the National Air and Space Museum — the most visited museum in the world — is nearly there, spokeswoman Mary Combs said.

Visits to most of the memorials were down by the end of May compared with a year earlier, the National Park Service said. The Washington Monument was the exception, attracting 81,073 more visitors than the same period last year. Among them were Sherry Shaw and her husband Ash Smith of Gastonia, N.C., who didn't let thoughts of terrorism discourage them from making the trip.

"It's always in the back of your mind, but is it going to make me go home and not come to Washington and enjoy myself and enjoy all of this cultural history? Absolutely not," Shaw said.