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Pinellas Lures Fewer Foreigners

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By TED JACKOVICS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 13, 2007

CLEARWATER - Fewer tourists from Europe and Canada have visited Pinellas County this year than last, despite a favorable dollar exchange for international guests that has boosted business in shopping and entertainment meccas such as New York and Las Vegas.

"Visa and political issues are major problems we are facing," Walter Klages, the consultant for Visit St. Petersburg/Clearwater told the Pinellas County Tourist Development Council on Wednesday.

"We are pretty much a pure tourism market, unlike New York, which gets plenty of business visitors and others taking advantage of shopping opportunities," Klages said. He made his remarks after the council's monthly meeting, in which Pinellas tourist bureaus in Europe and Canada provided reports of increased visitation to the United States overall.

The U.S. Department of Commerce forecast record arrivals of international travelers to the United States in 2007, 54 million international visitors, 5 percent more than 2006.

The latest figures from the United Kingdom's Visit USA Association showed a 5.4 percent increase of U.K. visitors to the United States through August.

But the numbers of European visitors spending at least one night in Pinellas County has declined 1.8 percent this year through October to 723,446. European visitors in October declined 9.3 percent to 81,857 compared with October 2006.

Likewise, the number of Canadian visitors to Pinellas declined 1.1 percent in the first 10 months of the year to 286,093, although numbers rebounded to increase by 5.6 percent in October to 18,834 compared with the year ago period.

Officials worldwide concur with the points Klages and Pinellas tourism officials have cited throughout this year about the faltering image of U.S. tourism created by tightened security requirements and difficulties obtaining visas and passports.

Euromonitor International, an international research firm, said in a report to a world travel conference last week that the United States was "the unfriendliest port of welcome in the world."

Alan Kay, a spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Travel Industry Association of America, said Wednesday that this image of the United States continues to create problems for the nation's tourist industry, which might have expected to achieve major gains with the bargains most international visitors get given the decline of the U.S. dollar.

Kay said increased travel from Canada and Mexico to the United States in the past six years has masked a 17 percent decline in international visitors from all other countries since the Sept. 11 attacks and increased travel security requirements.

In addition, the U.S. political image has suffered, including critical sentiments overseas residents have of U.S. foreign policies, including the Iraq war, tourism officials said.

"We found in a survey overseas that people who had visited the United States were 74 percent more likely to be favorable of the United States than those who had not visited here," Kay said. "So what that means is that the travel industry could be the single best source for public diplomacy we have."

These days, destinations with good shopping appear to be helping draw international travelers, with the Euro fetching about $1.50 in American currency, compared with $1 about five years ago.

International visitors to New York are reported as saying that the money saved in shopping alone makes the trip to the United States worthwhile, Kay said.

Karen MacDonald, a spokeswoman for Michigan-based Taubman Centers Inc., said major metropolitan areas with Taubman malls, including International Plaza in Tampa, as well as Los Angeles, Denver and Miami, are seeing an increase in international visitors during the holiday season.

"We are not New York or Las Vegas, but we are seeing larger numbers of international shoppers," said Nina Mahoney, marketing director for International Plaza. "We are seeing a lot of people, for example from Brazil, buying suitcases at International Plaza, and shopping to fill them up."

Reporter Ted Jackovics can be reached at (813) 259-7817 or tjackovics@ tampatrib.com.

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