Gearing up for tourist season

FLORIDA WEEKLY FILE PHOTO Sanibel's Bowman's Beach is a popular tourist destination. For some Fort Myers residents (especially those who live here year round) it is a monumental headache, an amalgam of congested traffic, crowded restaurants, teeming beaches and packed stores. For others, however, it is their lifeblood, the phenomenon that pays the bills, puts food on the table, finances homes and educations and, in a real sense, is the raison d'être for Fort Myers and Southwest Florida in the first place.

We're talking here about The Season, that time of the year when snowbirds and tourists make their way to Southwest Florida to spend the winter months in warmth and sunshine. Regardless of how you view it, there is no disputing that the season, which is loosely defined as running from sometime after Thanksgiving to Easter, is the lifeblood of the local economy.

In Lee County, tourism-related industries employ an estimated 20 percent of the population, according to statistics compiled by the Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau. More than five million tourists visit the area annually, and they generate some $3 billion in economic activity. The overwhelming bulk of that tourism comes during the season.

FLORIDA WEEKLY FILE PHOTO If experts are correct, Fort Myers Beach may fill up this season. "Christmas is the beginning of the peak season," says Suya Davenport, executive director of the LCVB. "The first three weeks of January are a little soft, but then it picks up and is strong again until Easter."

Predicting how busy any season will be is difficult, but Ms. Davenport says there are signs that despite the struggling economy, this season might be rather robust. From October through July of this year, she observes, visitation was up 2.6 percent and expenditures by tourists increased by 2.8 percent over the previous year.

Ms. Davenport says that hotels and motels, which have been hit hard by the recession, are offering discounted rooms and other packages that make the area particularly attractive to budgetconscious travelers.

"All of this bodes well (for the upcoming season)," she says. "We have a positive feeling."

Recent news coming from Southwest Florida International Airport also trends toward the positive. Air Canada resumes service from the airport to Montreal in December; Frontier Airlines is resuming service to Denver in November; Southwest Airlines is adding more flights to Baltimore in January, and Midwest is returning service to Kansas City in December, says Vicki Moreland, director of public relations for the Lee County Port Authority.

"We are cautiously optimistic," says Ms. Moreland about the prospect of increased air travel this season. There has been a slow but steady decline in the number of passengers using the airport — travel for this year is down about 3.6 percent — but Ms. Moreland says airports like Phoenix and Detroit have recorded double-digit losses in passenger traffic.

"We have been resilient," she says, "and it is evident that the airlines have confidence in Southwest Florida."

Out on Sanibel Island, Milissa Sprecher, who runs Friday's Child (a store specializing in children's clothes and toys), says business increases a whopping tenfold during the season.

"It is amazing to see the difference between season and off-season," she says. To accommodate the increased business, she brings in more sales personnel and extends store hours. She also expects that moving Friday's Child to the popular Periwinkle Place will boost sales.

"We rely on the snowbirds and the vacationers," she says. "Sanibel is almost deserted in the off-season, but we are fortunate because the island is such a prime vacation destination and we also get people coming over for the day from Fort Myers and other locations."

Scott Saxon, general manager of the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall, delivers a mixed message about the season.

"We expect attendance to be flat when compared to last year, but the good news is that last year was a very good year," he says.

Mr. Saxon says the "anchor" for this year's season will be the musical "Jersey Boys." He expects that production, which runs Feb. 17 through March 7, to draw nearly 50,000 people. For the entire season, running December through April, he predicts that about 150,000 people will attend events at the hall. He says audiences during the season tend to be older — baby boomers and above — and the entertainment is booked with that in mind.

Also, the performances this season will edge toward comedy and light entertainments, he says. Bill Cosby and the comedian Tim Conway, both of whom are booked, are prime examples.

"Comedy is doing very well nationally because people want to feel good," he says. "Lighthearted fare plays well in hard times."

In other words, people don't stand in line to see "Death of Salesman" when their own jobs are in jeopardy.

Brad Lewis, managing partner at the Parrot Key Caribbean Grill on Fort Myers Beach, is strongly optimistic about his restaurant, which recently celebrated its seventh anniversary.

"People with money are starting to spend it," he says. "The economy seems to be turning around. I think this season will be an improvement over last."

Mr. Lewis says a key to being successful during the season is keeping a handle on labor costs.

"Our wait staff can more than double during the season," he says. "Where we might have five servers on the floor now, we could have 12 working during peak times. We are lucky in that regard. We have what you might call 'career servers' who show up during the season. They've worked with us before and we know they are good and they know how we do things. It takes maybe a day of retraining to get them up to full speed again."

Mr. Lewis says "value" is the driving force in today's restaurant industry. But delivering value doesn't always translate into drastically slashing menu prices. At Parrot Key, the focus is on matching price with quality.

"People with money will spend, but they are definitely value conscious and very aware of how they spend their money," he adds. "You positively have to deliver value and quality or they will go somewhere else. We believe quality is the key because it is a luxury to eat at a restaurant, particularly when the economy is slow."

Although Mr. Lewis says no splashy promotions or discounts are contemplated at the moment, he maintains an open to mind to all possibilities.

"Running a successful restaurant requires constant adjustments," he says.

While no one can predict with any assurance when the first strong wave of visitors will arrive, Ms. Moreland at the Lee County Port Authority says she has her own way of anticipating the onslaught.

"When I see it is down to 22 degrees or colder in places like Chicago or Michigan or Wisconsin then I know they will be on their way down here," she says. "I hope for some really, really cold weather up there. And I hope it gets real cold, real early."

Ms. Moreland's theory may lack scientific validation, but she does have a point. After all, they don't call them snowbirds for nothing.