The 3 million recorded travelers that visited Newport last year yielded 680 million tourism dollars for Newport County's economy, according to Evan Smith, CEO of the Newport County Convention and Visitors Bureau (NCCVB).

However, the tourism industry leaders who track these figures don't limit their analysis to just the numbers of inbound visitors. They also want to know how well the local hospitality industry meets the needs of those guests.

In this era of global economics and a devalued dollar, Newport is seeing an increase in international visitors as well as a dependency on foreign workers.

"We are going to be cautiously optimistic this year," said Mr. Smith. "Travelers have a lot of choices and destination locations are wide open these days. People no longer automatically choose Paris or Rome. Now Cuba and even Vietnam are popular."

Despite the strong exchange rate of the British pound and euro contributing to the United States as a travel bargain destination, Smith said he still believes that America is losing its market share. "We know that traffic through T.F. Green is down and that will affect us," he said.

International travelers accounted for 14 percent of Newport County visitors until the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, after which that number dropped to about 4 percent, according to the head of the NCCVB. The tally has inched up about a percent annually since then, so the county is back to about 10 percent of international visitors.

Meeting the needs of visitors

Ted Schroeder, chairman of the board of directors for the Rhode Island Hospitality and Tourism Association and general manager of the Newport Harbor Hotel & Marina, expressed concern over the upcoming tourist season.

"Our challenge and that of other Newport-area hotels is to be properly and professionally staffed in order to service the guests," said Mr. Schroeder. Because of the community's seasonality, he added, the difficulty in "keeping a core staff is challenging in and of itself."

Compounding the issue is concern over the expiring legislation for H-2B visas, authorizing non-skilled seasonal workers to immigrate into this country for up to nine months. The Newport Harbor Hotel & Marina has employed and housed 20 immigrant workers, predominantly from Jamaica, Eastern Europe and Turkey, each season for the past couple of years, he said. Mr. Schroeder said the Hyatt Regency Newport utilizes 30 to 40 seasonal workers and the Newport Marriott close to 50.

H-2B visas face May deadline

For the past eight years, Newport hotels have depended on the H-2B system for many of their guest workers such as front desk clerks, housekeepers and food servers to join their staffs from mid-April until mid-November. In 2004, Congress passed a three-year legislation allowing returning foreign workers to receive visas without being included in the 66,000 national allotment. Further bipartisan efforts followed in May 2005 with the signing of the two-year "Save Our Small Business and Seasonal Businesses Act."

The time limit is running out on both of these pieces of legislation. U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Maryland) has introduced immigration legislation to permanently address the workforce shortfall and protect the workers. The bill has been co-signed and endorsed by Rhode Island congressional delegation, but has yet to be presented and voted on in the Senate.

Looking ahead with optimism

The Newport County Chamber of Commerce also recognizes the need for a greater understanding of the issues facing the local hospitality businesses. At a breakfast meeting Thursday, April 3, at the Hotel Viking, Mr. Smith will give a "Tourism 101" presentation. He'll examine the seven financial indexes to tourism: lodging, dining, shopping, attractions, special events, recreation and transportation.

Under the categories of lodging, dining and transportation, Newport County is experiencing growth. As the national trend of big-box stores, online and mall shopping impacts local retailers, it represents the only down index, according to Mr. Smith. With our attractions barely up 2 percent, the allure of quality special events and recreational activities are key.

While Mr. Smith predicted that the best term for this year may be "soft," he also noted optimism because the area's recreational activities of tennis, sailing, golf and fishing had a "banner year" in 2007.

"From an international perspective, New York is the number one destination and Boston, number nine. Considering our proximity to either location, we may get lucky," said Mr. Smith.

Mr. Schroeder echoed the call for confidence. "The economy may work in our favor, we're ideally located within the New York to Boston driving corridor and those two feeder markets are huge," he said.

By Lynne Tungett

editorial@newportthisweek.net