1616-36 Various Miami Beach ,
TOURISM INDUSTRY OUTLOOK 'i-vitill 1LJc!i_ r1— �lJ�ll,l
_,
2002 ..,,,
..
, ,
Room at the Inn Hotels, restaurants and other
local businesses that depend on tourist traffic have seen some
improvement since Sept. 11, but wonder how much momentum will
carry into 2002. By Mike Seemuth
T U A R T B L U M B E R G area hospitality community had something strong,"says Chris Aldieri,general man-
I vividly recalls a television to be grateful for. Survey data released in ager of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in
moment in October when his late November by the Greater Miami Con- downtown Miami, who sees convention
tourism mission seemed vention and Visitors Bureau (GMCVB) bookings for the first quarter of 2002
impossible."I'm watching a showed that hotel occupancy and room holding firm. Overall, though, local
\444m...)\1411iimmik
Dolphins game and I go to rates had rebounded in Miami-Dade tourism's recovery in 2002 may be grad-
the channel where they just County from the depths of their dramatic ual at best, Aldieri says. "Tourism and
announced the bombing in decline right after Sept. 11. business travel are still down. I think it's
Afghanistan," says Blumberg, "Last week we climbed up to 60 per- going to be a slow crawl."
president and CEO of the Greater Miami cent occupancy,"said Blumberg after the Immediately after the September
and the Beaches Hotel Association. "It's news."My concern is,are we getting bet- attacks, and the subsequent temporary
like a movie.The country is on high alert. ter each week? And the answer is, yes. 'suspension of commercial US"air traffic.
Everybody keeps saying:What's next?" Phone reservation lines are getting "everybody came to a halt, since there
By Thanksgiving, however,the Miami- busier." were no planes,no nothing,"says Blum- ,
But when asked to predict whether the berg,whose trade association counts 175 •
momentum of the Thanksgiving-Christ- hotels and 275 allied businesses as mem-
Loc„. : mas travel season in 2001 would carry bers.A survey of the top 20 Miami-area
60%— over into 2002, Blumberg passed. "It's a hotels immediately after the attacks
crapshoot,"he says."It's not a normal sit- revealed an average occupancy rate of
uation. This one I wouldn't touch with a about 20 percent,down sharply from the
sow- ten-foot pole." 65 percent range in the weeks leading up
While leisure and business travelers are to Sept. 11, a seasonally slow period for
expected to remain relatively scarce in the tourism here.
40%_ months ahead, conventions booked From that low point, Miami-Dade ::_
months in advance are still bringing large hotels had nowhere to go but up. The is
numbers of overnight visitors to Miami- average countywide occupancy rate rose
30% .
Dade,industry sources say. to 59.5 percent during the week of Nov. ,"'
1 Sept.22Oct.6 1 Oct.20 Nov.3 Nov.17 "The convention side of it is very 17, from 35.2 percent the week of Sept. •
, Source.Smith Travel Research 22. Average daily room rates also rose
during the same period, to $96.15 from
$75.93, according to data compiled by
Smith Travel Research.
The GMCVB doesn't issue official
0 V. forecasts. But the bureau is actively
defying the slump in travel, striving to
•
w keep the total number of overnight visi-
tors to Miami-Dade above 10 million a
year.During the first six months of 2001,
the latest period for which figures are
available, the county hosted 5.582 mil-
lion overnight visitors,slightly more than
the 5.580 million visitors who spent at
l jai . ilegt, 1 1------
\
'41On Oct. 8, the convention bureau
announced the launch of a $2.2 million
/1/11111
' marketing campaign that asks, "What
Makes You Happy?"The tag line:"What-
1 ever it is that makes you happy, it's
I continued on page 30A
MIAMI BUSINESS / DECEMBER 2001 29A
•
TOURISM INDUSTRY )UTLOOK ]ifS1LG1E][9J["
2002
continued from page 29A
going on in Miami. You should be happy. things are going to get better," says Peter It's also very costly to run an airline,
You should be here."Financial support for Knezivic, general manager of the Rusty and money-losing carriers at Miami
• the campaign has been contributed by Pelican restaurant, which gets some of its International Airport have slashed their
Miami-Dade County, the City of Miami business from tourists. "We are running schedules. For example, American Air-
Beach, the Beacon Council, American about 16 percent behind last year." lines,the leading passenger carrier at the
Express and Herald Custom Publishing. "I don't think the problem is going to Miami airport,reduced its total schedule
The convention bureau's ad agency, be fixed in the first quarter or the second of flights in Miami by 9 percent shortly
Turkel Schwartz & Partners, accelerated quarter. I think it's going to be the third after the Sept. 11 attacks — distressing
development of the marketing campaign quarter before we see any normality,"says news for the tourism industry of Miami-
• - which was already in the works before Jorge Gonzalez, the general manager of Dade, where more than 90 percent of
Sept. 11.By early October,ads and promo- the Mandarin Oriental Miami, a new lux- overnight visitors arrive by air. Happily,
tions funded by the campaign were being ury property on Brickell Key. however, schedule reductions by such
seen in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, The Mandarin is one of several high-end major passenger carriers may not stay in
Atlanta,and Los Angeles,and key cities in hotels that have been built in Miami-Dade place throughout 2002.
Canada,Latin America and Europe. in recent years, and more are on the way, Several major passenger airlines in
Here at home, the convention bureau including two Ritz-Carlton hotels (in Miami are expected to resume the heftier
• also has been pushing a public service Coconut Grove and South Beach) sched- service levels that existed prior to Sept.
announcement campaign, in cooperation uled to open in the first quarter of 2002. 11, says real estate professional Jack
Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas, to Their timing could be better.With the travel Lowell, who co-chairs a new Greater
encourage local residents to behave like market's overall rude reception these days, Miami Chamber of Commerce task force
tourists in their own backyard, by patron- low occupancy can be particularly painful formed to soften the local economic
izing local hotels and restaurants. for high-end hotels designed to draw room impact of the terrorist attacks. "What
Many local hotel and restaurant owners rates of$300 a night or more. Compared we're hearing about American and
have responded,in turn,with special deals with hotels offering cheaper room rates, United Airlines," Lowell says, "is that
for Florida residents.But few expect to see "we suffer a little more,obviously,"says the they're expecting their flight schedules
• a quick fix for the slow travel market in Mandarin's Gonzalez,"because it's costlier to be very close to what they were before
2002. "I think within the next six months to run a hotel like this." Sept. 11 —once things stabilize." ■
TELECOM AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
continued from page 19A
five officer of Internet Coast Exchange, a While Swerdlow's 1-million square- In the telecommunications field, few
local company that buys and sells trans- foot LightSpeed Miami Center in Airport companies are currently hiring"for obvi-
mission capacity on broadband networks West was already on its way to full occu- ous reasons," says John Mestepey, vice
in the Americas."We don't have too many pancy before Sept. 11 (with such tenants president and managing director of A.T.
dot-corns,and a lot of them didn't survive. as Telefonica Data),the LightSpeed Mira- Kearney Executive Search in Miami.
But we're now seeing a lot of Internet de Center is now being leased by firms But, he says, "We're optimistic about a
traffic between the two regions." ranging from a Latin American satellite turnaround after the first of the year, in
The other trend in the local telecom and company to more traditional firms, such terms of executive demand."
high-tech industries has to do with the as local law giant Greenberg Traurig.The Still, some industry observers believe
='. effects of the Sept. 11 attacks. Earlier in building itself will be ready for occupancy that the local growth of telecommunica-
the year, the dot-corn implosion led to a by mid 2002. "The industry is still slower tions and information technology may be
fall-off in the transformation of many than people would like, but we're seeing stunted by a lack of skilled workers in
buildings into "telecom hotels," specially an upward turn that's gaining momen- Miami-Dade.
outfitted to act as 24-hour-a-day data cen- tum,"says Lehman."It's looking good for But M.Lewis Temares,dean of the Uni-
ters, fully equipped with back:up genera- next year,especially the technology office versity of Miami's College of Engineering,
tors, reinforced flooring and industrial air part of it." disputes that view,contending that there is
conditioning. As for all those former employees of a shortage of local job openings in teleco-
Now such projects are back on track, failed Internet start-ups, many have gone munications and information technology,
functioning as what the Swerdlow Real to work for established companies to help not a lack of qualified applicants.
Estate Group calls "mission critical them develop their online presence, says "We graduate from FIU, FAU and
office space" —high tech, secure offices Myriam Cohen of Equilibrix.com, a local [the University of] Miami more engi-
with data storage and transmission capa- firm that develops email-based marketing neers than can be accommodated in the
bilities. "The phone is ringing a lot programs for other companies. [local] marketplace," Temares says.
lately," says Scott Lehman, vice presi- "The [online] area that is growing in "Most of the engineers go elsewhere.
dent of Swerdlow Group's LightSpeed South Florida is related to your traditional There are not enough jobs for them
Infrastructure. "After Sept 11, people retailers," Cohen says. "There's still a lot here."With the NAP acting as a nucleus
became concerned about their back-room of opportunities. Large retailers are pro- for future growth, however, that picture
operations,and their data security." ducing half of their sales online." could change. ■
30A MIAMI BUSINESS / DECEMBER 2001