Tourism industry hurt by drop in foreign visitors

The doldrum in foreign visitors to the United States this summer has significantly slowed the tourism industry's recovery, and some regions have been feeling the effect more than others, especially at national parks in the West.

Consequently, opportunity has been created for more Americans to book trips to the Grand Canyon or Yosemite national parks on short notice. Some have been able to snag discounted rooms at park lodgings.

But the dearth of international travelers has the tourism industry worried. Spending by foreigners has been soft since 9/11, and this week industry leaders launched lobbying efforts to get government help in trying to shore up the $100 billion international travel market.

Leaders of the nation's $546 billion tourism industry plan to ask Congress this fall to create a national tourism agency to market the United States to international travelers. The group would allow individual states and destinations to compete in international markets they wouldn't normally be able to reach, said William Norman, president of the Travel Industry Association.

Car trips up

For national park officials looking at dwindling visitor numbers in what is usually the busiest month of the year, such efforts are particularly timely. Many admit they underestimated how the drop in foreign tourists - who account for at least 40 percent of the Grand Canyon's total visitors, for example - would affect the summer season, banking on a much-anticipated increase in drive-in traffic from nearby regions to cover any shortfall.

But while trips by car are up between 7 percent to 10 percent at the most popular Western parks and campsites still have waiting lists 30 names long, vacancies at lodges and hotels remain easy to find, as cancellations by international groups and tour operators opened up blocks of coveted rooms.

"We have 50 to 100 rooms available every day for the rest of the year," said Bruce Brossman, a spokesman for Xanterra Parks & Resorts, which operates the lodges in Grand Canyon National Park. "They'll eventually sell out, but they'll go to people just walking in on a weekend whim. You don't need a year to book ahead anymore. You may not even need an hour."

At Yosemite, park spokesman Scott Gediman said 90 percent of the summer's visitors are coming from within California, and any vacant hotel rooms inside the park are being snatched up at the last minute by travelers taking a spontaneous trip.

The number of overall visitors to Yosemite so far this year is down about 10 percent, Gediman said. July brought about 513,000 visitors compared to 551,000 for the same month in 2001.

In 2000, international visitors spent $103 billion in the United States. Last year, spending by foreign visitors dropped to $91.1 billion, a number that is expected to rise slightly to $94 billion in 2002. Overall, the number of international visitors is expected to increase 2 percent this year, with the majority of that growth coming from Mexico, said Ron Erdmann, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Commerce's tourism industries division.