Busch Gardens new president faces headwinds in amusement park industry

By Justine Griffin, Tampa Bay Times, March 1, 2017

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TAMPA — After spending more than 30 years working at SeaWorld Entertainment parks across the country, Busch Gardens’ newest park president, Stewart Clark, still wasn’t prepared for the backlash he and his family faced after the release of the documentary, Blackfish.

Clark’s wife, Kelly Flaherty Clark, a longtime animal trainer and spokeswoman at SeaWorld, was prominently featured defending SeaWorld in the documentary from 2013, which explored the controversy over captive killer whales and the death of a SeaWorld trainer.

“There were several very personal and demented attacks on my family,” said Clark, who left his role as vice president of Discovery Cove to become park president of Busch Gardens and Adventure Island in Tampa on Jan. 16. “I told my kids this then and still tell them to this day: Hundreds of thousands of people come to our parks on any given day. They are the quiet supporters who don’t want to engage in a fight on Twitter, but they’re seeing first hand the great conservation and educational work we do.”

Clark, 52, doesn’t have much time to look back. He has a challenging path ahead — in helping bolster both Busch Gardens and his parent company. SeaWorld Entertainment, which operates Busch Gardens and Adventure Island, has struggled financially in recent years. Attendance has dropped significantly at SeaWorld Entertainment’s Florida parks — down 547,000 visitors in 2016 — company officials said during an earnings call earlier this week.

Read more here.

Tampa Bay Times: When is the next recession going to hit Tampa Bay? Maybe sooner than you think

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Another recession is coming, Tampa Bay.

The main questions are: When will it arrive and how severe will it be?

A team of Tampa Bay Times business reporters have talked to dozens of business owners, Realtors, bankers, economists, tourism leaders, retailers and others to gauge the arrival of the next recession. We put together a special section on the topic.

Here are links to the stories I contributed.

A recession could be a bloodbath for restaurants in Tampa Bay 

After the last recession, it took a while before people in Tampa Bay started splurging again on dining out.

Eventually they did. And as the economy recovered, new restaurants began to sprout all over the area, turning Tampa Bay into an exciting new foodie destination.

But a number of those restaurants might not be here for the long haul.

Some analysts say the next restaurant recession is on the horizon. There are too many restaurants to choose from and communities can’t support every new corner cafe and bistro popping up in hot neighborhoods around downtown St. Pete or South Tampa.

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Tourism continues to thrive in Tampa Bay despite Zika and Brexit, but is it recession proof? 

When gas prices go up and wages go down, one of the first things consumers slash from their budgets is a vacation.

But with thousands of new hotel rooms coming online and existing room rates continuing to climb, local tourism boosters in Tampa Bay don’t see any signs of an economic recession in sight.

Pinellas and Hillsborough counties have reported record-shattering bed tax collections for years since the Great Recession and rates are only just starting to reach the peak pre-recession levels seen in 2006 and 2007. Both counties have regularly outpaced the state in tourism growth. And with more than 2,000 new hotel rooms set to open in the next few years, tourism officials don’t see a slowdown in their forecast any time soon, even with some hiccups like Zika and Brexit along the way.

 

Tampa Bay Times: Not every beach community in Pinellas County wants to be like Clearwater Beach

By Justine Griffin for the Tampa Bay Times. Aug. 5, 2016.

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Longtime residents of Madeira Beach remember when they affectionately referred to their sleepy gulfside community as a “fishing town with a drinking problem.”

But then came the condominium towers. And now some say two proposed projects valued at a combined $200 million threaten to change the landscape of Madeira’s quaint, beachy atmosphere.

“That old quaintness has somewhat gone away already and probably will never come back” said Joe Jorgensen, who has lived on Madeira Beach since 1984. He and other residents started a petition to fight against the development, which generated more than 1,000 signatures in two weeks. “I’m not against all development. I just want to see something that is conducive to our lifestyle. We don’t want to turn into Clearwater Beach.”

Tourism has boomed in Pinellas County since 2011, shattering records set before the recession and driving up hotel room rates from St. Pete Beach to Clearwater Beach. Mom and pop motels that have operated along Pinellas County’s “middle beaches” in Treasure Island and Madeira Beach since the 1950s could face new competition as local municipalities tweak ordinances to attract new development.

Read more in the Tampa Bay Times here.

Bay area hotels are adapting to the smartphone generation

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At the Aloft Tampa Downtown hotel, guests can bypass the check-in desk in the lobby and go straight to their room — if they’ve downloaded the Starwood Preferred Guest app on their smartphone.

The Aloft, on Kennedy Boulevard, is the only hotel in Tampa Bay that offers keyless entry — where guests use a barcode from the app on their phone to enter their room. It’s one of many innovations, from mobile check-in apps to hip, late-night bars with affordable craft cocktails and local DJs — that hoteliers are using to lure younger travelers.

Despite misconceptions that they’re all broke, many millennials do travel. They’re nearly twice as likely to travel for business as baby boomers these days, according to a recent study by the Global Business Travel Association.

The hospitality industry has noticed.

Read more here

Will slumping Canadian economy keep snowbirds away from Florida this winter?

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The Florida tourism industry has an affectionate relationship with Canadian snowbirds. The retirees from Canada who flock here for the winter months have helped build a year-round, bustling tourism season.

But some economists worry that the usual influx of Canadians — who own property here, spend weeks in seaside vacation rentals and camp out in RVs across the state — may rethink their travel plans this year as their economy slumps and the U.S. dollar remains strong.

“What very well could dampen Canadian visitation this winter is how their economy contracted during the first six months of this year,” said Sean Snaith, director of the Institute for Economic Competitiveness at the University of Central Florida. “The good thing is it’s still cold and snowy up there, which could still drive people here. But they face some significant headwinds for their economy.”

Canada is having a rough year. The country’s unemployment rate was 7 percent in August, continuing a spiral that’s steadily grown for more than six months. Canada is facing an impending housing bubble. The loonie, or the Canadian dollar, is currently worth about 76 cents when compared with the U.S. dollar, which is about the highest rate of depreciation for Canadians since 2009.

Read more here.