For now, visitors still taking hurricanes in stride

TRAVIS REED
Associated Press Writer

ORLANDO - Valerie Stryker's second- grade daughter was nervous. A few weeks earlier, the family watched Hurricane Charley tear across Florida on television from the safe remove of their New Canaan, Conn., home. But Stryker, her husband and their three kids had a much closer view of the next deadly storm from their hotel room as Hurricane Frances bore down on Florida and their Walt Disney World vacation in September 2004. The family spent most of those nervous hours in their hotel with drawn shades and storm reports from Disney staff slipped under their door or by voicemail. When it was finally over, the parks were shuttered for two days, the kids missed the first day of school because of airport closings and the trip home required a maddening three-flight ramble from Tampa to Miami, then on to Boston and finally New York.

But perhaps the biggest surprise? The Strykers - and apparently millions like them - are still coming back, with no plans to let further predictions of heavy Atlantic storm seasons slow them.

Despite the state being hit or affected by eight storms over the past two years, a record 85.8 million people visited Florida last year, generating $57 billion in economic activity and $3.4 billion for government coffers. That's 6 million more visitors than in 2004, a 7.6 percent increase. Visit Florida, a public-private organization that promotes tourism, is predicting a 3.2 percent increase this year. "We didn't really know what to expect," Stryker, a 45-year-old homemaker said about getting stuck visiting during a hurricane. "It ended up being not as bad."

Still, the spate of storms concerns tourism officials just as some of the state's destinations had finally built themselves into year-round draws, not just sunny spots for snow-weary northerners to spend a week each winter. Even the devastation Hurricane Katrina caused Lousiana and Mississippi is affecting how some potential visitors view Florida. "The challenge is with Katrina, what happened out there got so much global coverage. It was a scenario that did not happen at all in Florida, but you still have the power of the perception reaching people across the world with these kinds of images," Visit Florida spokeswoman Vanessa Welter said.

Most of the anxiety involves the summer convention business, as some planners have concerns about scheduling conventions during hurricane season. The Greater Naples, Marco Island & Everglades Convention & Visitors Bureau, which covers much of southwest Florida, estimates business in its region has fallen by almost half during the busiest hurricane months (August-October) since Hurricane Charley hit there in 2004 - even though the area has almost completely recovered. The decrease is costing an estimated $2 million to $3 million. "Meeting planners are reluctant to book a conference during a time when they think that something might happen to alter the schedule," bureau spokeswoman JoNells Modys said. "It's a great deal of work for them to have to change all the arrangements, notify conference attendees and rebook the space." To soothe convention organizers' fears, Visit Florida last year began offering event insurance up to $200,000 to defray marketing and rescheduling costs if there is a hurricane disruption.

In contrast, Modys said, leisure travelers have become increasingly more flexible and forecast-savvy. They're still coming, she said, but more likely to book shorter trips even if they're looking for a longer vacation. South Florida took its biggest 2005 hit in October, when Wilma left tourists in hard-hit areas with no electricity, closed pools, wet carpet in hotels and nightlife-killing curfews. Hotel occupancy was down 10 percent in Miami and 21 percent in Fort Lauderdale that month, but both areas still saw record numbers on the year. Dennis Edwards, senior vice president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau, said more than 70 conventions and sporting events were already booked between June and October, ranging from the National Association of Black Accountants to a Seventh-Day Adventist meeting.

To sweeten the deal for leisure travelers, several businesses in the area are offering two-for one packages on diving, sailing and spas. Despite its central location away from the coasts, the Orlando area also saw marked declines in hotel occupancy from August to October last year - a 10 percent drop from the previous August and a 7.6 percent decline in September.