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Local businesses<br>seeing fewer tourists

GCNP-TUSAYAN — Empty parking lots. Unused motel rooms. Airplanes and helicopters remaining parked.

Those have been common scenes over the past few weeks in Grand Canyon National Park and Tusayan. Not only have Americans been staying home since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, but foreign travel is significantly down.

It all adds up to red ink on the budgets of tourism-related businesses in the area.

"Business went to zero," said Ann Wren of the Quality Inn in Tusayan, adding that she had thousands of cancellations after the terrorist attacks. "It’s the first time I’ve ever had to layoff people."

Those comments were echoed by other businesses.

"It has impacted us in every way," said Bruce Brossman, director of sales and marketing for Grand Canyon National Park Lodges. "How long it will last is really the only question. It’s going to be very much of a downturn in the short term and from what I’m reading in the industry newsletters, it will be a matter of time before people will be confident in air travel again and coming to the United States."

It’s the lack of foreign travelers that seems to be the biggest worry for local businesspeople. Grand Canyon visitors from overseas represent a significant percentage of money spent here.

"It is having a significant impact already, primarily due to the fears of airline travel," said Greg Bryan, Best Western Grand Canyon Squire Inn general manager. "There’s nothing wrong with our product, but there’s a hesitancy about security in the United States. The second concern is that disruption of travel once they do get to the United States."

Many foreign visitors travel to Grand Canyon as part of tour groups. The lack of this market segment has represented a hard hit on everything from restaurants where tour groups eat their buffet lunches to the airline tours which serve visitors of nearly every nationality to the blocks of rooms purchased by these groups.

"We don’t track it as well as we could ... but groups are down and we’re getting more cancellations than bookings," Brossman said. "Selling rooms in blocks makes selling out easier. They’re an important part of the mix with our business. The individual travelers from Europe have an impact, of course. They’re less in numbers but just as important."

Tourism, the No. 1 industry in the State of Arizona, is down all over. In Phoenix, Bryan said there are businesses experiencing 75-percent cancellation rates.

"All the foreigners basically cancelled on me," Quality Inn’s Wren said. "Winter’s here and we’ll have to buckle down for next year. Hopefully, we’ll have an outcome to this situation."

Out at Grand Canyon National Park Airport, tour operators report the same downturn in business.

"On the 10th (of September), we were at just about 6 percent below last year’s revenues," said Ron Williams of AirStar Helicopters. "As of yesterday (Sept. 18), we were 36 percent behind. In September of last year, it was our second-best month of the year. For the last four or five years, we’ve been getting the late influx of Europeans."

Williams estimated that foreigners represent about half of his business. The lack of income has forced AirStar into "winter mode" early.

"I’m thinking that if I’m bringing in 50 percent of what I did last year, we’ll be lucky," Williams said. "I don’t know how we can forecast anything. We’re at the tip of the iceberg on how people may retreat. It’s just scary times out there and we're into areas we’ve never been in before."

Business was already down earlier this year for most with lower Grand Canyon visitation numbers. Some attribute the lower-than-usual numbers through the first 8 1/2 months to a low exchange rate for foreigners.

In other places, such as in Pacific Rim countries, governments are strongly discouraging their residents from traveling to the U.S. at this time.

Still, many foreign travelers may not be put off by the heightened security measures. In Europe, for example, it has become common for travelers to experience the type of security-related delays now being seen in the United States.

With many Americans turned off to the idea of flying, it’s possible that Grand Canyon could be the benefit of a wave of tourists taking to their cars again.

"The cars and trains and buses, perhaps, will become the favored method of transportation in the short-term if people really want to go somewhere," Brossman said. "It depends on what happens next."

Bryan said northern Arizona could greatly capitalize on regional travel, especially for those who have not made that trip to Grand Canyon in a few years. But he added, "it depends on what happens with our gasoline prices."

Many businesses have dismissed their seasonal employees a little earlier than usual. Grand Canyon Coaches closed its "eco-shuttle" operation for the season.

"We are experiencing a reduction in traffic since the 11th and therefore will be discontinuing our eco-shuttle for the season," the company’s Dan Hakes said in an e-mail. "We also will discontinue the daily sunset tour from Tusayan."

Hakes added that taxi services locally and anywhere else will continue, along with various charter tours and the smoothwater float trips with their partners. "We are business as usual, except the winter came a bit early," Hakes said.

Over this past weekend, there appeared to be a sudden upturn in visitors from prevoius days, specificially on Saturday. But that was a small victory in the overall picture for local businesses.

"We’re going to survive this," Bryan said. "We’ll come out in some better ways in terms of streamlining business. This will be another avenue of support for the potential of rural tourism and promoting it. I have concerns, but I think we’ll weather this. It’s just part of a national impact."


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