1674-16 Ian Schrager a
mh HOTELS, RESORTS BATTLE 08/23/1992
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1992, The Miami Herald
DATE: Sunday, August 23, 1992 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: 3K LENGTH: 80 lines
ILLUSTRATION: photo: This billboard on West Broward Avenue (b) ,
Pasquale Falco with his wife Naomi and daughter Victoria at
Sunny Isles beach (TOURIST DADE)
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: LORE CROGHAN Herald Business Writer
HOTELS, RESORTS BATTLE
FOR CUSTOMERS -- MANY
FROM SOUTH FLORIDA
It's August. It's hot. The slow season is bringing this annual sounding
from Florida tourism operators: Spend your money close to home.
It's the anthem of resorts in Fort Myers, Sanibel, Marco Island; of small
hotels around the Orlando area; of shoreline properties from Jupiter Beach to
Key West.
Tourism businesses throughout the southern part of the state depend
heavily on Florida residents' traffic during summer and fall -- and South
Florida is a prime hunting ground.
That is particularly true this year. As the recession continues its grip
and people with jobs work harder than ever, many Floridians ar confining their
vacations to long weekends spent short distances away.
There's plenty of aggressive marketing to court them.
Consider the $100,000 campaign under way by The Registry Resort, a Naples
hotel that has beefed up traditional newspaper advertising with 84
eye-catching billboards erected throughout Dade, Broward and Palm Beach
counties at the most highly- trafficked locations.
They bear a blunt message: "Turn Your Back on Miami Crowds." And they
illustrate it with a view of the back of a woman wearing a hot-red bathing
suit and reclining on a bare beach. They list an easy-to-remember reservations
phone line, 1-800-9-NAPLES.
"We want to demonstrate to folks on the East Coast that there's a West
Coast tourism destination, " said Charles Popper, managing director of the
424-room luxury hotel.
He said he needed something unique and attention-getting
because the Registry counts on South Florida to provide 60 percent of its
summer revenues.
The promotion offers rooms starting at $98 per night, about half the
price of winter's premium rates. It runs through Sept. 15.
He is pleased with the campaign's results so far -- his business is up 10
to 15 percent this summer vs. last.
His summer traffic has also been boosted by an eight-page brochure
produced jointly with three other Naples hotels and American Express, and
mailed to 45,000 American Express cardholders in Broward and Palm Beach.
American Express targeted the mailing to customers who travel frequently to
luxury resorts.
Starting Aug. 28, Orlando's Walt Disney World launches a Floridians-only
promotion offering a sneak preview of Splash Mountain, a new attraction
featuring Brer Rabbit and other characters from the 1946 film Song of the
South. It includes discounts on passes to the Disney parks and
25-to-50-percent rate cuts at a brace of Disney-owned hotels and campgrounds.
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It runs through the end of September.
"South Florida is one of our most important markets nationwide, " said
Disney spokesman John Dreyer. "We find we have a tremendous attendance from
the South Florida area."
Some of the fiercest competition for South Floridians' patronage comes
from their neighbors.
In Sunny Isles, hotelier Bennett M. Lifter has slashed prices in half to
$16 per day at the 342-room Waikiki Oceanfront Resort and $24 per day at the
509-room Marco Polo Resort Hotel, good through mid-December.
South Floridians account for 50 percent of his summer and fall business.
Thanks to the locals, his hotels have been 95 percent full all summer, and
booked-up on weekends.
The rates also attract out-of-towners who arrive in Miami without
reservations. Lifter said he gets 40 to 50 walk-ins each weekend.
All along the beach, hoteliers are receiving surprisingly high numbers
of out-of-towners who show up without hotel reservations and shop around for a
place to stay, said Stuart L. Blumberg, president of the Miami Beach Resort
Hotel Association.
Further north, The Deerfield Beach Resort, a Crown Sterling Suites hotel,
is drawing Dade residents with an $89-per-night Floridians-only weekend
package. The Dade visitors make up 40 percent of the 244-suite property's
summer business, which is much improved over last summer's, said Ray
Ulwelling, general manager.
This is the first year he has tried a package specifically geared to
South Floridians. He's so pleased with it, he said, that he plans a similar
$99-per-night package for October through mid-December.
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