Gulf spill not affecting Hampton Roads tourism industry

Beachgoers fleeing the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico aren't coming to Virginia Beach and the Outer Banks yet.

Verne Burlage recently asked the reservations staff at his four Oceanfront hotels to find out whether customers were shifting their vacation plans from oil-threatened Gulf beaches.

No guests have fit that profile so far, said Burlage, president of the Virginia Beach Hotel-Motel Association.

None of his fellow operators have seen such vacationers, either.

"We're not expecting a big boom," said Karen Lane, marketing coordinator for Gold Key/PHR Hotels and Resorts, which operates six Oceanfront hotels.

Even without a boost in business related to the BP oil spill, hotel and rental property owners in Virginia Beach and North Carolina's Outer Banks said their bookings are up over last year. They credit an improved economy and travelers less worried about their own finances.

"We're not booked solid, but we're pretty well off for the summer already," said Cori Davies, marketing director for Sun Realty, an Outer Banks company that rents more than 1,200 properties from Corolla to Hatteras Island.

Burlage's sales for the past three months have surpassed the 2009 mark and advance deposits have climbed 20 percent, he said. "Last year, it just wasn't there," he said of the advance booking. "That's a good indicator."

Robert Coleman's nine Outer Banks cottages are nearly booked through October, he said. At least 30 percent of his guests are return visitors and most come from a 500- to 700-mile radius, from Ohio to South Carolina, said Coleman, who lives in Virginia Beach.

"I don't think we've seen any people coming from there yet," he said of areas closer to the oil spill.

Vacationers who prefer beaches on the Gulf likely would look for alternatives closer to their original destination, perhaps Myrtle Beach, S.C., and the Atlantic coast of Florida and Georgia, Lane said. She expected that tourists avoiding the spill would head east, rather than northeast.

"People are creatures of habit in terms of where they travel and how they vacation," she said.

Beaches along the Florida panhandle tend to draw visitors from the Midwest, while the mid-Atlantic beaches cater to the Northeast, Burlage said. "We might not be top-of-mind awareness for them," he said.

Sun Realty has heard from many travelers who say they usually vacation "more down south" and want know more about the Outer Banks. "We have been receiving calls every day," Davies said.

Sun's agents don't know whether these callers are changing plans because of the oil spill, she added.

"I'm sure we're going to get some business" dislocated by the spill, Burlage said. "But as of now, we haven't noticed."

Carolyn Shapiro, (757) 446-2270, carolyn.shapiro@pilotonline.com