Reservations near capacity for holiday weekend, despite oil paranoia

Locals who had secretly hoped the BP oil spill might relieve some of that heavy Memorial Day weekend traffic will likely be out of luck.

“Thank god, actually things are much better than where we expected,” said Mike Chouri, general manager of the Hilton Sandestin. “We’re looking for a strong, very busy weekend here.”

The Hilton Sandestin is 100 percent booked for the long holiday weekend, Chouri said. With no oil in sight, others in the rental business and tourism officials are expecting strong turnouts this weekend.

“I’m hearing some good news,” said Kate Wilkes, executive director of the Santa Rosa County Tourist Development Council. “A lot of last-minute calls are coming in and people are just about booked. Everything I’ve heard is positive.

“With the beach road open between Navarre Beach and Pensacola Beach, we’re expecting a very good Memorial Day weekend,” she added.

With the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projecting the oil plume’s potential impacts on land for only up to 72 hours out, many tourists did wait until later than usual to book their trips.

“Last week, in one day we rented about six properties and we were like, this is great,” said Dorothy Slye of ERA Navarre Beach Realty, which rents out about 75 properties on the beach. “We were getting a little bit nervous. And every day we’ve added a few more reservations. If we have anything, it’s just one or two units left. Everything else is booked.”

In addition to renting the properties on Navarre Beach, Slye opened a beach store there called Sandy Bottoms on Memorial Day weekend last year. She said sales at her store are better than around this time last year.

The hope is the strong Memorial Day weekend will continue throughout the summer. Chouri, the general manager at the Hilton Sandestin, said the hotel was forecasted to do 99 percent occupancy in June, but it was still too far out to project July.

“The worry we have is not really the cancellations because we know the beaches were beautiful yesterday, they’re beautiful today and they’re going to be beautiful tomorrow,” Chouri said. “People are looking at the short-term reservations, they’re seeing that and they’re making those reservations.

“The one we’re worried about is the families who plan way ahead their vacations, such as July, August and September,” he added. “Those we are worried about, because somehow the perception outside our area or the feeder cities, they’re getting the wrong message. When they’re watching the news, CNN or Fox News, all they’re seeing is someone scooping oil out of the water and people associate the beaches with water. It’s not that people are cancelling, it’s that they’re worried about the future.”