Dim Season in the Sun

Determined to snare its share of Puerto Rico's bountiful tourist trade, the new nightclub El Cortijo opened the season in San Juan with 20 flamenco dancers, twelve waiters and two dance combos. Last week, with more than half of its 185 seats empty each night, El Cortijo was down to eight dancers, six waiters and one combo. It also dropped its $5 cover charge.

In traditional winter vacation havens from the Bahamas to Hawaii, the story is the same. Businessmen agree that this season in the sun has been the dimmest in years. They blame the decline largely on the slumping stock market and the general economic slowdown in the U.S., but many concede that outrageous prices at the resorts also played a part.

The Morning After. Pan American World Airways' bookings to many Caribbean resorts are down 10% from last year, and its travel to Hawaii has dipped by 5%. Tourism in the Bahamas has been feeble all winter, and some hotel bookings in February were running 20% below last season. "March projections are so terrible it scares us," says a spokesman for the Bahamian hotel industry. Antigua, St. Thomas and other resorts in the Caribbean have a doleful morning-after-Mardi Gras look, with hotel reservations 30% below last year.

One of the hardest hit is San Juan, where shopkeepers, concessionaires and restaurant owners complain that sales are limping 50% behind last season. The dice tables and roulette wheels in some plush gambling casinos are almost at a standstill. A main part of San Juan's problem is high prices. A double room in a "luxury" hotel runs $40 to $60 a day, not including meals. Stateside newspapers are sold for 30-c- and a package of Life Savers for 25-c-. Some hotels have a one dollar extra daily charge simply for having a phone in the room. Despite dwindling revenues, most hotel owners refuse to lower prices, figuring that it is too late to attract new business.

Vacation business in Miami is off by an estimated 15%. Travel from the U.S. mainland to Hawaii has fallen by 10%, and there are 78% fewer vacationers staying a month or more. Some Waikiki hotels are making the rare offer of reduced monthly rates.

Drastically reduced Atlantic air fares are doubtless drawing business away from the warm-weather resorts. From October to February, Trans World Airlines passenger traffic to Europe was up 21% compared with the same period in 1968-69. European ski resorts have been among the richest beneficiaries of the fares. The flight to European slopes also hurts such U.S. ski centers as Colorado's Aspen, Snowmass, and Buttermilk, which collectively suffered a 6% slide in January business.

The slump has sobered many of the tourist magnates. Sam Schweitzer, president of the El San Juan Hotel, says: "Next season we may have to take a tough look at ourselves." If that does not result in lower prices and less gouging, there may be nobody else to look at.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.