Tourism down slightly in August

The summer tourism season finished on a slight down note on Hilton Head Island, as hotels had fewer guests who paid less for rooms because resorts had cut prices to attract them.

The room occupancy rate dropped about 9 percent for hotels, and the average daily room rate dropped 2 percent in August compared to August 2007, according to Smith Travel Research, which compiles data on resort locations throughout the country.

At the Crowne Plaza Resort on the island, two factors played a role in the weaker summer: a drop in average length of stay for vacationers and cutbacks by convention groups, said Joe Kramer, resort director of sales and marketing.

"(Groups) are making shorter-term decisions and having smaller and smaller meetings," Kramer said. "People just took, instead of seven days, five days. And, instead of five days, three days (for vacation)."

While the numbers for the Hilton Head region were down, some individual properties saw gains, but they had to work for them. Occupancy rates at The Westin Hilton Head Island Resort and Spa, for example, were up for the summer, but it took special deals and some luck, said Ken Nason, director of sales and marketing.

"We booked one big group that made the difference," Nason said of the resort's strong showing in August.

To attract vacationers this summer, the resort offered package deals and discounts. Leisure travelers kept coming in, but room prices fell, Nason said.

Occupancy rates at the Hilton Oceanfront Resort fell 7 percent in August compared with last August, but an uptick in the resort's bookings in July helped off-set some of that, said Earl Nightingale, resort general manager.

Still, tough economic conditions nationally led to sales falling below expectations at the resort, he said.

"We budgeted a pretty robust year," Nightingale said. "We thought we were riding high."

Some other tourist markets in the Southeast also experienced declines this summer. Markets that saw drops in at least two of the three measurements that Smith Travel uses included Savannah, Charleston and Myrtle Beach, and Jacksonville and

Orlando, Fla.

One reasons travel was down in such markets was that consumers were dealing with the psychological ramifications of a difficult economy, said Rich Harrill, director of the International Tourism Research Institute at the University of South Carolina.

Fear about higher gas prices and anxiety over the economy led some people to reduce or cancel travel, he said.

Harrill said next year could be even more difficult for travel if economic hardships continue.

"If people are paying attention to credit card debt and mortgage debt, for a lot of people, that will come before travel," Harrill said. "It may be a very difficult, challenging couple of years ahead."

But there are a couple reasons for optimism, he said.

First, travel spending will be one of the first discretionary spending areas that comes back for many households, he said.

Second, Hilton Head's reputation as an elite travel destination could blunt some of the pain.

"Those real money problems aren't going to affect Hilton Head as much as middle America," Harrill said.