Will the Drop in Tourist Travel Affect Cedar Key?

The Cedar Key Beacon, September 20, 2001

While the economic ripple effects of last Tuesday’s attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., are just now beginning to become apparent, one industry that has experienced substantial setbacks is the airline industry. Current estimates are that the industry as a whole lost in excess of $100 billion worldwide while all commercial flights in the United States, as well as all inbound flights, were grounded for several days following the attacks.

Most of the major American airline companies have already approached the U.S. Congress looking for some form of financial support, and several of them are saying that without the multi-billion dollar assistance they will be bankrupt by the end of the year. Most of them are reportedly anticipating at least a twenty percent drop in airline travel, and several of them have already announced substantial layoffs of employees.

The implications of that news on the rest of the travel industry, say some experts, could mean layoffs totally more than 500,000 in the travel agency, motel and hotel business, and restaurant industry.

With tourism being the number one industry in Florida the Cedar Key economy, which has been enjoying a robust tourism business for several years, may experience some of those drops in business as well. The Beacon contacted many of the hotel and motel operators in the city earlier this week in an attempt to get a feel for the effect on Cedar Key.

As an example of the ripple effect that the attacks have generated, along with the fact that the state was also threatened by tropical storm Gabrielle that had developed in the southern Gulf last week, several of the operators said that the storm had perhaps caused more cancellations last week than anything, although the Cedar Key Bed & Breakfast reported that several overseas guests had cancelled immediately following news of the attacks. They added that this coming weekend looks good for bookings, as did most of the other people we contacted.

The largest annual event in Cedar Key, the Seafood Festival, is five weeks away and all motels indicated that they were still booked to capacity for that weekend, which is October 20th and 21st.

See September 20, 2001 issue of Cedar Key Beacon for original article.