Good news/bad news in latest tourism report (CORRECTED)

Okaloosa County tourism is looking good compared to the rest of Florida, Executive Director Darrel Jones of the Tourist Development Council says.

“The bad news is, we’re still down 8.22 percent for the year,” Jones told the TDC at its June meeting.

It’s not just Florida tourism that’s hitting tough times: According to the Florida Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus, the country’s supply of tourist lodging is up. Demand, however, is down and the rate of occupancy and the average price of tourist lodging have both dropped over the past two years.

The association’s report, which the TDC received last month, does show the percentage drop in rates in Northwest Florida has been smaller than any other part of the state, except the Tampa/St. Petersburg area.

“Guests are shopping,” TDC member Lino Maldonado of ResortQuest said. “Every call sounds like a negotiation (but) demand is up by 20,000 phone calls from last year, and last year was a good year for us.”

TDC Chair Ken Paine of Dale Peterson Realty agreed that tourists weren’t booking at what used to be the standard rates: “I think we’re seeing a new normal.”

The TDC members agreed that the trend toward booking at the last minute was intensifying. Maldonado said his customers were booking 10 to 12 days ahead instead of a month; Paine said he’d heard one of Dale Peterson’s reservation agents book rooms for a family that was already driving down.

Jones said everyone in the industry needed to keep faxing updated availability to the county’s Okaloosa Island visitor’s center: “Two families showed up this morning, just driving down and looking for a place to stay.”

Bill Lehman, the director of the Emerald Coast Conference Center, said the center was also doing well compared to most of the facilities in the state, or the Georgia World Congress Center, which is looking at a $5.6 million shortfall.

“We’re pretty lucky to be a small-size and mid-sized venue (and) we’re really lucky to be staying even as much as we are,” Lehman said.

He added that while many county residents say the center benefits nobody but motels and restaurants, the center itself does about $4 million a year in purchase-order transactions with local business, not counting credit-card purchases or transactions relating to construction at the center.