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Orlando vacations continue despite war"ORLANDO VACATIONS" Can't find what you need? Try a Google Web Search in the box below!
3/21/2003 "Mar. 21--Central Florida's parks were jammed on Thursday as tourists who spent hundreds or thousands of dollars on their Orlando vacations threw themselves into having fun despite the start of war in Iraq." "It kind of puts a damper on things," said Linda Lawrence, a tourist from Indianapolis, Ind. "It makes you feel guilty to know they're over there fighting for us, and we're here having fun." Linda's husband, Jon, didn't want a war to ruin the Orlando vacation they began planning last spring. "She's the one who's been thinking about it," he said during a visit to CityWalk at Universal Orlando. "I haven't been thinking about it at all," he said Packed parking lots and long lines at parks from the Magic Kingdom to Islands of Adventure made it seem almost like a typical spring break, but with a U.S.-led war going on a world away, Orlando vacations during wartime was sometimes jarring. "We were standing in line [to ride It's a Small World at the Magic Kingdom], and we were having a conversation about biochemical warfare," said Maria Muscente, a tourist from Ithaca, N.Y. "That's what the world has come to," added her husband, Paul Muscente. But despite the crowds, tourism industry leaders said this could be Orlando vacations last big week for a while. Some tourists are uneasy about stepping on a plane during wartime, and executives worry that arrivals could slow considerably over the next several days or weeks. Can't find what you need? Try a Google Web Search in the box below!
"Our phones aren't ringing," said Lori Babb, spokeswoman with the Renaissance Orlando Resort at SeaWorld. She said no group travel planners and only one tourist called to cancel, but a day into the U.S. war in Iraq, hardly anyone was committing to future trips. "It's very quiet," said Carol Blevins, a travel consultant with Go Travel in Orlando. Most of her calls on Thursday were clients with questions about Orlando vacations they had booked weeks earlier. "People want to know if their cruise has been canceled or their flight has been canceled," she said. Predicting the financial toll of a war on Central Florida's $20 billion tourism industry is tricky, said Danielle Courtenay of the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau. One reason is that the severity of any downturn will depend on how long war lasts, said Courtenay, the bureau's spokeswoman. A short war could trigger an increase in travel because of pent-up demand, while a long war could set back the clock on tourism's recovery from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. What's more, she said, tourists increasingly are waiting until the last minute to book their Orlando vacations, in part because they're unsure whether they'll be able to travel but also in hopes of finding last-minute bargains. So even without a war, it would be difficult to predict how many people might come in a week or two, she said. Both the Orange County visitors bureau and Visit Florida, the public-private partnership that promotes travel throughout the state, plan to launch post-war advertising campaigns in the coming weeks. Both groups are taking part in a survey of travelers organized by the Travel Industry Association of America. Visit Florida spokesman Tom Flanigan said the survey would help the agencies gauge the impact the war is having on travelers attitudes. If the agencies begin advertising before people are ready to travel, "then we're just spinning our wheels," he said. Courtenay said Central Florida officials are encouraged by the fact no conferences or conventions have canceled. Business travelers accounted for almost a quarter of all U.S. visitors to Central Florida in 2001, the visitors bureau said. But other businesses are being more cautious with Orlando vacations. Corporate travel planners WorldTravel BTI said the pace of corporate bookings was down 12 percent on Wednesday from a week earlier. "We are seeing cancellations [of travel] for internal meetings, and we're also seeing a lot of our clients putting a ban on travel from the onset of war to anywhere from 48 hours to two weeks out," spokeswoman Amy Berk said. Can't find what you need? Try a Google Web Search in the box below!
Back at the Magic Kingdom, Debbie Ralson, a St. Louis area housewife with two small children in tow, stood in a line of six people at The Bakery restaurant on Main Steeet. "I thought one positive thing out of all this would be smaller crowds," she said at 7:45 a.m., more than an hour before the park's scheduled opening. "But it looks like everybody is here."..... Compare Orlando vacations here /cheap airfares home |