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Wildfires Burning Up Tourism Dollars Like the oil spill in the Gulf, this natural disaster is also wreaking havoc on local tourism economies. Friday, June 15, 2012 Caryn Eve Murray

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Of all the popular attractions that welcome visitors to Florida’s Okefenokee Swamp – including cycling, overnight canoe trails and guided boat tours -  wildfires are not among them. When events such as these dominate the headlines, cancelled plans, travelers’ frantic phone calls – or simply no phone calls at all – often herald a screeching halt to business.

But like so many busy tourist areas in the south and southwest associated with the free-running blazes at this time of year, this region often struggles more with perceptions than actual perils that demand a business shutdown. And right or wrong, damage to tourists’ widely held beliefs about wildfires is still a form of destruction to be reckoned with.

“Many people don’t call, they just think there is no reason to go,” said Joy Campbell, who with her husband, Chip, operates Okefenokee Adventures, a private tour company at the national refuge. “They just assume it’s on fire and we are not going out [on tours] when truly, there is a fire way on the other side of the swamp and I can still have a tour.” In fact, wildfires elsewhere in the roughly 400,000-acre national refuge don’t impact Campbell’s tour boat mobility as seriously as low-water levels, during periods of drought, often do.

Still, it’s the hot, sweeping fires that grab most of the attention and draw the most public panic. “The refuge is way more than careful,” she said. “They will shut down if they think there is any possibility of danger. If it is still fairly far away and the wind is blowing in this direction, they will shut down.”

Campbell, who has operated the tour company for nearly a dozen years, said she has only had to close business from wildfires, for about a month in 2007 and then, not again, until 2011, for about six weeks.

The swampland is, of course, the big draw to the area. “There are not a lot of people who come to Folkston for no reason,” she said. “They are usually on their way to somewhere else. The majority of visitation to Folkston is because of the swamp or for train-watching.”

Admittedly, out-of-town firefighters who arrive to battle regional blazes do fill the otherwise vacant rooms in B&Bs and hotels and bring dollars to area restaurants and other businesses, said Campbell, “but when you have firefighters coming, the rates are discounted and there is no tax. So the community really misses out on those tax dollars,” funds that go to roads, schools and other necessities.

Such fires were also on the horizon beginning Labor Day weekend in September 2011 for the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa. The central Texas hotel is near the sprawling Bastrop State Park. And although the fires were about 4 miles from the resort, the 491-room Hyatt Regency felt the pain acutely – just not in the expected way of lost business. In fact, said Jill Williams, public relations coordinator, 2011 finished up as a particularly strong sales year.

“Even though our resort wasn’t affected from the standpoint on the ground, the community and our associates were affected,” she said. “Many lost their homes.”

“So many people who work here live in Bastrop County,” said Amanda Fier, director of public relations. The impact, she said, was huge. “Our resort is 405 acres and we are surrounded by a nature park of 1,100 acres, so we are proximate to all the elements in nature.”

Associates were given complementary housing and use of the employee cafeteria for a limited time, and housing was also provided at a discounted rate for area firefighters. Community residents who were displaced were also able to book, for $75 per night, rooms that normally sell for a nightly rate of $300.

 The resort launched a “We Care” offer to benefit the area’s Bastrop Recovery Effort, donating $25 from each booking that came in accompanied by that code.

With the region in the thick of wildfire season again, the resort has been taking its customary precautions, reviewing emergency procedures, testing fire hydrants and continuing with the operations department’s 24-hour patrol of the property.

“We are aware of fires that start in our area and we collaborate not just with the county but with our neighbors, the ranches around the resort,” she said.

And like the Campbells, the resort tries to keep pace with public perceptions as well as it can. “People when they see an area is under fire, the perception is that it is all of Texas,” she said. “When people are unfamiliar with an area, everything seems on fire.” Last autumn, the resort launched an ad campaign to let people know “the fires were out,” she said, “and the welcome mats were out.”

In June 2011, as New Mexico’s massive Las Conchas wildfire caused Los Alamos – an hour from Santa Fe – to be evacuated, and forced closings of numerous state and national parks, the New Mexico state tourism website kept the public informed.

“Last year’s fire was a challenge,” said Steve Lewis, spokesman for the Santa Fe Convention and Visitors Bureau. The Los Conchas fire, which began in the Santa Fe National Forest, was deemed the state’s largest ever.

 “The headline news for several days was that the Los Conchas fire was at its peak,” said Lewis. “Hoteliers in town took significant steps to first help all those people who were evacuated or had left out of Los Alamos [by providing emergency housing.] They were part of the solution when it came to taking care, first and foremost, of New Mexicans.”

Yes, he said, there were some guests who called and cancelled as a result of the fires and the attendant publicity. The CVB did its part, he said, by keeping information up to date on the website, and through general press releases. “We put word out about the hotels offering lodging at rates basically well below rack rate [which average $200 a night], every one of them,” he said. “The discount was significant. And we were taking calls every day about the fire.”

Lewis said that, for the most part, however, group bookings and business bookings remained unaffected.

This year, said Lewis, the region is locked into yet another dry cycle – at least until the end of June – with conditions that favor such fires before the rainy season arrives in July and August.

“We really don’t have any other natural disasters here to speak of,” said Lewis. “No tornadoes, hurricanes or earthquakes. Wildfires are our challenge.”