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Local Visits At A Low Ebb

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By TED JACKOVICS

tjackovics@tampatrib.com

Published: December 11, 2008

CLEARWATER - The Tampa Bay area's mainstay visitors industry, which accounts for more than 132,000 jobs in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, remains in a state of uncertainty as visitors numbers continue to decline.

The latest available data show local declines similar to the trend throughout Florida, which reported a 3.2 percent drop in state visitors from July through September compared with the year-ago period.

Pinellas County reported Wednesday that overnight visitors in October fell 1.8 percent to 355,600 compared with October 2007. The report by consultant Walter Klages includes visitors at hotels, condominiums and those staying with friends and relatives
Smith Travel Research of Hendersonville, Tenn., reported that rooms sold by major hotel brands in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area dropped 4.1 percent from January through October compared with the year-ago period.

"It's a dramatically different landscape," said Steve Hayes, executive vice president of Tampa Bay and Co., Hillsborough's visitors marketing group. "The buying patterns of consumers have completely changed."

For the first time in recent memory, hoteliers in Pinellas County are not filling open positions from the kitchen to management, said Russ Kimball, general manager of the Sheraton Sand Key Resort.

The two counties have increased efforts to work together to promote the region, Hayes said. "In some ways we compete, but there are many ways in which we are complementary," he said.

Reporter Ted Jackovics can be reached at (813) 259-7817.

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