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American Morning

Tourism Hotspots Have Taken Big Hit in Recent Months

Aired January 04, 2002 - 09:33   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Many tourism hotspots have taken a big hit in recent months. An economic slowdown during the terrorist attacks of four months ago have hurt the terrorism industry, as people across the country are fearful of traveling by air.

So we wonder now, how are tourist destinations faring today? Well, here to discuss this, we are joined by two leaders, one from Orlando and one from Nevada, Orlando Mayor Glenda Hood, and from Las Vegas, we have with us Mayor Oscar Goodman.

Good morning, folks. Glad to have you with us today.

Let's do ladies first.

Mayor Hood, how are thing looking in Orlando right now? I assume that it's got to be better than what happened in September, but are you back to about where you thought you would be?

I'm sorry, Mayor Hood, hang on just a second. We are having some sort of an audio problem. Do we have it straight now? I will tell you what, in the meantime, while we work on that problem with Mayor Hood, let's check in with Las Vegas and with Mayor Goodman.

Mayor Goodman, how about you. I was just out in Las Vegas, what was it, maybe about a month ago, a month and a half ago, and I was talking with some hotel employees, hotel industry employees, and they were saying that they felt the pinch big time.

MYR. OSCAR GOODMAN, LAS VEGAS, NEVADA: There's no question about that.

HARRIS: Have things rebounded.

GOODMAN: Oh yes, absolutely rebounded. We had a terrific, I mean outstanding New Year's Eve attendance here, sold out. All of the hotels were sold out. The streets were full of people having a great, great time. And I think we've come back myself.

Of course there are a lot of displaced workers at this point in time, but gradually, they will be absorbed back into the economy, into the new hotels that are being built here as well. So I think Vegas is back.

HARRIS: Good deal. What about convention business? Is that picking up again?

GOODMAN: Well, it really wasn't hurt that much. None of the major conventions were canceled here. We didn't have as many folks as we would have liked to had, but the truth of the matter is, Vegas has a it better than any other place, because 90 percent here is -- we all cry and we complain, and any other city in the world would be happy to have that.

The conventions, they are coming in. I'm always asked to speak as the opening speaker, the keynote speaker of these conventions, and I really don't see much of a tail-off at all.

HARRIS: Good. Good to hear.

Let me ask you about this, because one of the other concerns that people have is that to bring people back to Vegas, businesses had to lower price so much that no one was making profits. Are you still seeing that?

GOODMAN: It's a different kind of customer we have now. Instead of the folks flying in from out of the country, the high rollers, as we call them, they have stayed away. That's what the word is. But we have a tremendous amount of middle Americans coming in by way of car, and they are looking for bargains, there's no question about that. But once they get here, they spend their money, they have a good time , and they leave and tell their friends. It is continuum. It's wonderful to see folks keep on coming back. I took my wife out of town for just a couple days over Christmas, and we were driving back, and it was bumper to bumper all the way from Southern California all the way up to Las Vegas.

HARRIS: I'm sure that's a traffic jam you were happy to see.

GOODMAN: You bet. You bet. That's the kind I like.

HARRIS: Let's check with the Mayor Hood from Orlando. I think we've got that problem straight now.

Mayor, can you hear me.

MYR. GLENDA HOOD, ORLANDO, FLORIDA: Yes I can hear you.

HARRIS: And I can hear you.

GOODMAN: Good. Good.

HARRIS: All right, let's start with what I asked you the first time around. I don't know if you heard me or not, but we know that September 11th and the weeks thereafter were pretty bad for Orlando, particularly for Disney World. How do things look today?

HOOD: They look very good. In fact, we are very optimistic. Since Thanksgiving, we have had excellent numbers, many people have come with their family and friends to enjoy everything we've gad offer. We are still down from where we normally are this time of year. Our hotel occupancy, for example, will be down about 8 percent at the end of this past year, and we don't know if that's solely attributed to people not traveling as much, or if it's because we have 3,500 new hotel rooms that have come on board since last year at this time.

And then our attractions certainly are not where they normally are, but we are very positive, because as I said, since Thanksgiving, people have not come back. We are seeing those numbers continue to increase, we're seeing consumer confidence very high, we are being very aggressive in our marketing, and we hope for more cold weather in the north so people will come to Florida.

Well, the problem is we have cold weather here, too close to Orlando.

HOOD: I know, that's the thing.

HARRIS: And let me ask you about that marketing, did you do anything different to market the city to come out of this, or what?

HOOD: We really did. What we did was we focused on our southeastern market, on our Florida market, trying to encourage people within short drives or a day drive to come to Florida, to come to Orlando, in particular. That has worked. I think right now, people are really looking for an opportunity to do something fun and special with their families and with their friends. And so we will continue with that marketing effort, certainly in the first part of this new year.

And the days are up and down. I mean, some days we have seen the attractions actually close, because they have been too crowded. And other days, we are below what we normally are this time of year. So it's still too soon to tell exactly what it will be like in the first quarter of 2002, but as I said, we are extremely optimistic.

HARRIS: OK, that's good to hear.

Mayor Goodman out there in Las Vegas, what are you going to do to get the high rollers to come back in?

GOODMAN: We've got a very aggressive marketing campaign out here as well. Our convention authority is sending out the word, that, you know, if you want it get your cares and woes behind you, Las Vegas is the perfect place to come to, to be free, to feel as though you don't have any responsibility, and I think it's that kind of a message that's so very, very important at this time, that people from around the world, especially we in America, should not let the evil enemy disturb our lifestyle and our quality of life, and our ability to laugh and have a good time. So I think that's the message that we're sending out here.

HARRIS: Well, here is hoping that good times are nearby. Here is hoping that you both are going to see some in the horizon on fairly short order.

GOODMAN: Thank you.

HARRIS: Good luck to you.

HOOD: Come to Orlando.

HARRIS: Listen, if I could slide down there, I would. If we could open up these interstate and get us out of these snow banks that we're in right now, it's a good idea.

Mayor Goodman, good luck to you out there in Las Vegas as well.

GOODMAN: Thank you.

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