Apr. 4, 2003 - South Florida's hotel and convention business has held up well since the war with Iraq began last month compared with other parts of the state. 

Tourism officials in the tri-county area said Thursday that hotel occupancy levels frequently are up from last year, and that they've seen no significant cancellations. 

Their assessment came as Visit Florida, the state's tourism promotion agency, released a University of Miami survey saying that while 46.6 percent of businesses in South Florida were affected to some degree by the conflict, 22.5 percent of future bookings in the tri-county area were down, less than figures registered in other parts of the state. 

The survey, conducted March 24 and 25, included more than 250 hotels, restaurants, tourist attractions and other businesses statewide, as well as some tourism officials. 

"At this point, nobody is reporting major cancellations and we're working with a big convention coming into town the first week of May," said Nicki Grossman, president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau. The only cancellations for May have come from Japan and France, she added. 

"We had the strongest January and February ever and a great March, and we feel comfortable through mid-June," said the tourism official. To ensure a continued flow of visitors, the bureau is targeting people who have not yet made reservations but are ready to travel. 

Grossman pointed out that the county continues to bring in people visiting friends and family, and recently has attracted a number of high school and collegiate sports activities. 

In Palm Beach County, the war's impact on hotels has been slight, tourism sources said. "In January, February and March we had the leading occupancy rate in the state -- 83 percent -- and we're up from last year," said Enid Atwater, public relations director for the Palm Beach County Convention and Visitors Bureau. Several hotels reported they were seeing no unusual cancellations for June through August, she added. 

"We've not seen much of a shift since the war started," said Crissy Poorman, director of public relations at the Ritz Carlton Palm Beach Hotel in Manalapan. "We're looking at either full or near-full capacity in the resort, and we haven't seen any dramatic changes in current or future group bookings." 

The story was virtually the same at The Breakers in Palm Beach, with no changes in bookings, no change in business volume or cancellations, said Margee Adelsperger, the pubic relations manager. 

But, she added, the hotel is seeing more guests making last-minute reservations. 

Many hotels in the Miami area haven't felt any negative effects of the war so far, but future bookings are down, said William D. Talbert, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau. "After 9/11 there was an immediate impact, but the effects of this war will be a slow slide." 

Talbert noted that after the first Gulf War, "the effects on tourism lingered for four to six months. This will be slower." 

Occupancy rates at Miami area hotels in March were up 2 percent from last year, when hotels were still feeling the effects of the terrorist attacks of 2001, while room rates were down 1.3 percent, he said. 

But the bureau isn't taking any chances. On April 7, it's launching a campaign in 23 U.S. cities to attract summer business. 

"This is the largest sales mission we have ever done, and includes our top markets plus additional cities that are less familiar with Miami," the bureau president said. 

"Because of the war, many American travelers who might have traveled overseas will be looking to stay closer to home. We're repositioning ourselves a little, targeting people little who would ordinarily fly from here to Europe, letting them know they can fly or drive to Miami and get a first-class vacation." 

The Visit Florida numbers show South Florida to hold a significant tourism edge on other competitors in the state. While future bookings in the tri-county area were reported to drop 22.5 percent, they were off 32.8 percent in Central Florida, 34.6 percent in north Florida and 32.6 percent statewide. 

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(c) 2003, South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.