Storm's strength didn't include power to chase tourists

It is going to take more than a tropical storm -- a sloppy, lumbering one, at that -- to rekindle the kind of hurricane fears that drove tourists away from Florida in droves during the hyperactive 2004-05 seasons, experts said.

Tropical Storm Fay drew days of national media coverage as it pushed through the Caribbean and set on a rain-drenched path across this state on Tuesday, but failed to take with it a Southwest Florida summer tourism season that has shone despite a morose economy.

"Obviously anything with Florida and hurricanes is not a positive thing, but all in all, the Weather Channel and CNN seemed to be less panicky than usual," said Virginia Haley, president of the Sarasota Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The bureau suspended its Web-based advertising for a September two-for-one special at the area's museums and attractions for two days as Fay moved toward Southwest Florida, but planned to restart the campaign today.

Recalling the perceptions after the previously storm-packed seasons, Haley said she plans to arm her staff with digital cameras to snap pictures of Sarasota County's various tourist destinations and post them on her agency's Web site to show that all is well post-Fay.

"If anything, that is the most effective way to show consumers that we are fine in this case," Haley said. "We are here, and we are fine."

Becky Bovell's promotional responsibilities are much closer geographically to Fay's Tuesday landfall in Collier County, but like Haley, the director of the Charlotte Harbor Visitor's Bureau does not expect any lasting effects.

"It is just one of those things we are aware of and deal with," Bovell said. "Just look at all the tourists that were in Key West even with the threat of hurricanes."

Still bolstering the region's season should be "staycationers" -- mostly cash-strapped Florida families who have been taking day-trips and weekend getaways rather than full-fledged out-of-state vacations.

It is a phenomenon that already has saved, in the view of some tourism promoters, what could have been a bleak summer season because of high gas prices and the poor economy. In-state visitors filled hotels in Manatee, Sarasota and Charlotte counties, with some resorts reporting occupancy rates as high as 98 percent.

"People are making decisions to stay very close to home, and they'll say, 'We'll just go next weekend," said Visit Florida's Richard Goldman, referring to the crimp that Fay might have put on staycationers' recent travel plans.

"As long as the media makes the comparison to the 04-05 season, it will be natural that some folks will, too," said Goldman, chairman of the state's tourism marketing agency. "But memories are short, and they are going to come to Florida for the beauty."

Conventions and all of the tourism dollars they bring with them also should not be affected in the short term by Fay or even subsequent 2008 storms because conventions are usually booked two to three years out, Goldman added.

"The impact of Fay, if there is any at all, is three years hence," he said.

Jim McManemon, general manager of the Ritz-Carlton Sarasota, does not see problems on the other end of the spectrum, either.

"I don't anticipate the majority of leisure tourists will be affected," McManemon said. "More frequently this market group are booking trips last minute and shorter booking windows, and thereby are more flexible with planning."

To Ed Chiles, owner of The Sandbar and two other popular restaurants on the barrier islands in Manatee County, Fay was a "nonissue."

"We've seen over the 29 years we've been in business that people have short memories and are pretty optimistic about storms," Chiles said. "Anna Maria Island is a place people want to be and certainly a nonevent storm like this will not do anything at all to temper that."