Panic in paradise

seat 2b

By Joe Brancatelli

updated 11:56 a.m. ET Jan. 29, 2009

Weather wizards say this has already been the coldest, snowiest, nastiest winter in decades — and that would normally be great news for hotels and resorts in sunny climes such as Florida, the Caribbean, Las Vegas and Hawaii.

But there's panic in paradise in 2009. The colder the weather — and the economy — the fewer the number of travelers who are making their way to beaches and resorts in the sun.

Even a trip to Tampa for this Sunday's Super Bowl remains a bargain. As recently as last week, JetBlue Airways had flights from New York on Super Bowl weekend for as little as $99 one-way. Prices jumped to around $200 yesterday, but I still found rooms at a waterfront resort about 25 miles from Raymond James Stadium for $169 a night. Travelers are so parsimonious that PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts visitor spending on Super Bowl XLIII will be down 20 percent compared with last year's big game in Glendale, Ariz.

Things are even worse in Las Vegas, where high (and low) rollers have deserted the tables. The Nevada Gaming Control Board says profits at the state's casinos fell 69 percent last year and gaming revenue was the lowest since 2002. Gamblers who do make it to Sin City this weekend to get down a bet on the Arizona Cardinals or Pittsburgh Steelers will be there for the final weeks of the Les Folies Bergére topless revue. The famed show at the Tropicana Hotel closes in March after a 49-year run.

“I've been joking that I'm having trouble giving away the product,” says the general manager of a luxury resort in the Caribbean that is offering guests a third night free with every two paid days. “But if football and flesh doesn't bring them in, I'm not surprised that free rooms aren't working, either.”

The news is bad everywhere the sun shines. In Hawaii, room rates and prices have plunged. For the week ending January 10, for example, occupancy statewide tumbled 10.3 percentage points to 62 percent. On Maui, just 58 percent of the rooms were filled. The statewide room rate fell 6.6 percent and averaged just $200 a night.

Last spring, when Aloha and ATA airlines folded within days of each other and Hawaii abruptly lost about 20 percent of its flight capacity, state tourism officials worried there wouldn't be enough seats to accommodate potential visitors. Now, not so much.

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Inter-island carriers are selling flights for as little as $27 one-way. And when my old friend Jeanne Datz Rice called about a 25-day West Coast sales and marketing blitz being mounted by Marriott's 10 resorts in Hawaii, she couldn't help but talk about her flights to California. “I booked four days out and paid just $300 roundtrip on Hawaiian Airlines. And there were empty seats next to me.”

(By the way, Marriott is discounting lustily on its Hawaii properties no matter where you live. Among the offers on the Marriott Hawaii Web site: free room nights; free breakfasts for two; resort credits of as much as $75; shopping credits of $100; golf-and-spa packages larded with lots of freebies; and free car rentals.)

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