A fundamental freedom

NEW ORLEANS – Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the US president’s brother, came to this city Wednesday to give a pep talk at the 34th Pow Wow, the annual gathering of the international travel industry – the first since the terror attacks on Sept. 11. J.W. Marriott, chairman and CEO of the eponymous world-renowned hotel chain, addressed the gathering as well. Ex-President George Bush, meanwhile, is appearing in a TV advertisement, urging travelers to visit his country and asking, "What are you waiting for, an invitation from the president of the United States?"

The Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington devastated the travel industry, including ours, and the US has taken a major hit. The industry supports more than seven million American jobs. Marriott said that after 9/11, even car rental revenues and Kodak sales plunged. Now, just when people have forgotten anthrax in the mail and are no longer worried about a plane deliberately being crashed into Disneyland, along comes a warning straight from Washington about an imminent terror attack, possibly on the scale of 9/11.

The warning dampened Memorial Day weekend, the holiday here in honor of all the Americans killed in wars. This year among those honored in official ceremonies were the thousands who died last Sept. 11. Reports said the Statue of Liberty in New York was under heavy guard, with security cameras recording each visitor’s face and checking for possible terrorist links. In Washington, tours to the White House and the Pentagon have been suspended indefinitely.

You have to admire the Americans though for their zeal to recover and get on with their lives. Members of the US travel industry have closed ranks, getting their highest public officials and pop icons on board to promote travel to their country.

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Emphasis is being given to the recovery of New York City, Ground Zero of the terror attacks. Last year the state of New York lost an estimated 4.3 million in domestic visitors, with visitor spending down by 11.9 percent, according to records of the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA), organizer of the Pow Wow. At the opening lunch here Monday of Pow Wow 2002, guests sat down to a "picnic at Central Park": fresh apples, cold sandwiches, potato salad and a "Big Apple" pie. The lunch was sponsored by the New York delegation.

Mary Ellen Walsh of the New York State Department of Tourism told me that apart from continuing their "I Love New York" campaign, the state is promoting other attractions such as the wineries of the Hudson Valley, golf courses (the US Open will be held on Long Island), Niagara. Walsh told me the state "is now very much on the rebound, it is now recovering."

But what about the new terror warning from the US government? Walsh has no complaints, even if the warning may scare away visitors. "I think it’s important for people to be aware, to be safe," she said. "But I also believe that the freedom to travel is very important."

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The freedom to travel was the theme of the statements here of William Norman, TIA president and CEO. "Our research shows that Americans clung to their precious freedom to travel (after 9/11)... travel is a fundamental freedom," he said on the day TIA paid tribute to Marriott for leadership in promoting the US travel industry.

Marriott told Pow Wow participants this has been one of the worst travel recessions he has seen. But he echoed the assessment of many others here, that the industry is recovering and business is expected to pick up by summer.

"America is a great place to visit and there has never been a better time," he said.

The reassuring words, aggressive marketing and multibillion-dollar measures to improve security especially at airports and the airline industry must be paying off. In April hotel occupancy across the United States was 92 percent, up from its low of 25 percent after 9/11.

The terrorist threat did not scare away foreign participants at this year’s Pow Wow. TIA personnel told me some 5,600 people arrived for the gathering – slightly lower than attendance at the 2001 Pow Wow held in Orlando, Florida but higher than the one in Dallas, Texas in 2000.

"It’s a big world and we got to keep going," said Kathleen Bertolani, public relations director of the Kimpton Group, which is opening a new hotel in Washington, DC on June 15.

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In this city you can hardly feel the terrorist threat. New Orleans – the Big Easy, the City that Care Forgot – continues to live up to its reputation. The French Quarter is still alive with jazz, blues and Dixie music. Bourbon Street, where you find the voodoo and sex shops and Larry Flynt’s Hustler Bar, is swinging even on a hot, humid afternoon.

On Monday night the city staged a Mardi Gras for Pow Wor delegates at the Superdome. Sunday night the delegates partied in Jackson Square by the light of a huge yellow full moon, dancing and sampling delectable Cajun cuisine. This is food to die for. If only for the food and music, I can ignore any terrorist threat and keep coming back to this city. Members of the tourism industry here told me 9/11 had minimal effect on their business, and I’m not surprised.

But then there are no major US landmarks here that could be a prime target for terrorists. What about places like New York and California? Last year there were persistent reports that San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge was a possible target.

Mary Cochran of the California Department of Tourism told me the travel and tourism business is picking up in the state. Americans are tired of post-9/11 "cocooning" and are traveling again, she said. For starters, they are taking "driving tours" around their country, renting "recreational vehicles" that are big enough for a family to travel in comfort. "The economy is improving and they want to go somewhere," she told me. "They almost consider it a patriotic thing to do."

In New York, Elyse Topalian of the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art said business is again picking up. Despite the new terror warning, she said, "New York is actually in very great shape right now."

Douglas Baker, deputy assistant secretary for service industries, tourism and finance at the Department of Commerce, said international travel to the United States dropped by 11 percent in 2001. This year they are projecting a modest increase of two percent.

J.W. Marriott is not surprised by the recovery. "We sell a wonderful product," he said.

And what about the continuing terrorist threat? People will just have to get used to it, Baker told me. "We’ll continue to see terrorist warnings and that’s going to be factored into daily lives. Time will tell if we’ve created an environment that is too strict or not."