Slump Continues for Summer Tourist Trade : Economy: The industry is one of the area’s most important. Hotels in Ventura, Oxnard and Ojai report that their occupancy rates were down from last year’s.

Ventura County’s summer tourism trade remained in a slump this year, despite predictions from hotel operators that the ailing industry would make a comeback.

Hotel managers in Ventura, Oxnard and Ojai, three primary tourist spots in the county, reported a disappointing season.

“We all optimistically hoped it would be better, but obviously the economy has changed,” Ventura Visitors and Convention Bureau Director Russ Smith said. “Travel is off. Tax revenues are down.”

The average occupancy rate at Ventura’s hotels for June, July and August was 68%, down slightly from last year, Smith said.

Hotel owners said that last year was one of the worst years for the tourism industry in recent history. Foggy weather, overcast skies and the downturn in the economy were blamed for discouraging tourists during what is supposed to be the peak traveling season.

This summer, however, weather was not the culprit, Smith said.

Though the weather remained clear and warm, corporate cutbacks throughout Southern California have eroded business travel, and the recession has weaned tourists from the freewheeling spending habits of the past.

Holiday Inn General Manager Stan Jacobs said he recently attended a convention where hotel operators groused about the poor showings of the season.

Despite competitive prices for rooms, “in the Ventura area, most of us found it to be pretty flat,” he said. “People are just being more conservative with their money.”

The $500-million tourism trade has been one of the county’s most important industries. Tourism provides about 8,000 jobs countywide, about 1,400 in the hotel industry alone, according to a joint 1988 study by visitors’ bureaus in Oxnard and Ventura.

Communities reap benefits from the influx of travelers by charging hotels a percentage of their revenues in the form of a hotel occupancy or bed tax.

But there are signs that tourism’s past years of steady growth have come to a standstill.

So far this year, the cities of Ventura, Ojai and Oxnard have reported a decrease in bed-tax revenues compared to 1991.

Between January and July, the city of Oxnard collected $802,256, 2.5% less than what it received during the same period last year.

The first two months of summer, June and July, were particularly bad months for Oxnard. The city collected a total of only $258,416, 12% below what was collected for the same two months last year, officials said.

Between January and June, the city of Ojai collected $361,066, .3% less than it did last year, officials said.

Ventura collected $487,331 in bed-tax revenues between January and June, a drop of 3.2%, officials said.

Everette Garmon, revenue manager for the city of Ventura, said the city does not expect any growth in bed-tax revenues this year.

“Staying flat is positive, given the current economic climate, which is doom and gloom,” Garmon said.

The ongoing war over room rates is one reason why hotel revenues are down.

When occupancies are low, hotels must reduce prices to attract travelers, managers said.

Some hotels are offering discount packages to conventions, tour groups and weekend travelers.

At the Holiday Inn in Ventura, conventions can book a room for about $5 less than they could a year ago, Jacobs said.

“People do ask for better rates,” said Jerry Tononi, general manager at the 285-room Doubletree Hotel in Ventura, where revenues are running about 4% below last year. “That never used to be the case a few years back.”

Even at the 250-room Radisson Suite Hotel in Oxnard, which maintained the highest occupancy in the county, the summer was somewhat less than stellar.

By offering cheaper rates, the hotel managed to fill 70% to 80% of its rooms in June and July, said director of sales Bob Burk. And it finished August with nearly all the rooms filled at 96.7% occupancy, primarily because the visiting Los Angeles Raiders football team booked 80 rooms for its annual training camp.

“We definitely led the market in terms of occupancy,” he said.

But the increase in occupancy has not meant a jump in revenues, Burk said. Although the hotel has remained full, it has not met its revenue projections, he said. Burk declined to say what the drop was.

Ojai Valley Inn General Manager John Sharp said the hotel chose not to get involved in the rate war. The inn remains at the high end of the market, with rooms ranging from $190 to $250.

The hotel tried to attract guests by promoting Ojai to tour groups interested in the hotel’s golf and tennis facilities, Sharp said.

Still, overall occupancy is in a slump, down by 1.5% compared to 1991, he said. The last three months of summer were a roller-coaster ride in terms of occupancy.

Hotel occupancy at the 218-room resort remained the same in June, fell by 15% in July and shot up by 19% in August. Sharp said he was at a loss to explain the fluctuations.

Usually, July “is not a great month up here,” he said. But “this year was worse than ever.”

Hotel operators say they have had to lure travelers with freebies and extras, including breakfasts, late checkout times and special family discounts.

And recently, in addition to selling Ventura’s sun-swept coastline and mild weather to fun-seekers, the visitor’s bureau began marketing the city as a destination spot for travelers interested in more sober pursuits.

The bureau wants to attract technicians and researchers interested in the county’s agricultural industry, people who want to inspect seed farms, packing plants and horticultural operations, said Smith of the visitor’s bureau.

“We’ll go after any group we can,” Smith said. “We’ll do sprinkler work if that’s what they want to see.”