Olympics fail to bring home gold for tourism.

To put it bluntly, the joke was on most everyone in North Carolina who made their living off tourism in 1996. It was going to be a banner year, they were told. Millions of people would be converging on the Southeast for the Atlanta Olympics. Some of them would want to do things en route, organizers said, and they'd do it in North Carolina.

As the games approached, expectations only increased. Leroy Walker, the president of the U.S. Olympic Committee and a former chancellor of N.C. Central University, told tourism and visitors groups that the state could expect a multimillion-dollar dividend from the Olympics.

But someone forgot to tell the tourists, who never showed up. "I call it the 'other game in town' syndrome," says Craig Plocica, a spokesman for Nantahala Outdoor Center in Swain County. "It was a once-in-a-lifetime deal, and a lot of people reallocated their vacation dollars."

In late October, NOC already knew 1996 wasn't going to meet projections, Plocica says, mostly because of a disastrous July. Its rafting trips on the Ocoee River were off 50% that month compared with July 1995.

That's indicative of western North Carolina as a whole, says David Huskins, managing director of the Smoky Mountain Host of North Carolina Inc. tourism bureau in Franklin. "Our indications are that things are anywhere from 8% to 18% off from the previous year, depending on where you are," Huskins says.

Like Plocica, Huskins suspects the Olympics are the culprit. "People may have avoided our area thinking it was more congested than it was. Maybe a lot of people went to Atlanta for a day and didn't make those side trips, or they may have spent a whole week in Atlanta, and that consumed their resources."

Despite this gloomy assessment, the state's travel and tourism revenue was expected to approach $9.6 billion in 1996, up 4% from 1995, says Gene Brothers, an associate professor of parks, recreation and tourism management at N.C. State University. That's less than the 5% annual increase the sector usually posts, he adds, but it's better than it might have been because of the industry's diverse base. Despite the subpar summer, the winter ski season was great, and early indicators are that the fall leaf season was better than average, he says. Even the beaches did fairly well, considering that twin hurricanes cast a pall over two of the biggest weekends in the season.

First was Bertha, which started brewing the week of July 4th. It didn't hit until a week later, wiping out a week of prime beach time, says Carol Lohr, executive director of the Carteret County Tourism Development Bureau. Business in July was off 10%.

EMPLOYMENT AND WAGES

HOTELS AND LODGING              1991          1993         1995

Employers                       1,501          1,559         1,647
Employment                     30,508         30,442        32,779
Annual wages (000s)          $316,479       $343,059      $395,200
Average weekly wage           $199.48        $216.71       $231.85

AMUSEMENT AND RECREATION        1991           1993          1995

Employers                       2,150          2,354         2,504
Employment                     22,735         25,800        28,954
Annual wages (000s)          $282,441       $355,310      $419,502
Average weekly wage           $238.90        $264.85       $278.63

Source: Employment Security Commission
TOP COUNTIES

(impact from out-of-source tourists; includes primary and secondary
expenditures)

                        IMPACT (in millions)
                       1995          1994           CHANGE

Mecklenburg          $1,943.3       $1,808.8           7.4%
Wake                    931.8          856.9           8.7
Guilford                658.1          611.2           7.7
Forsyth                 355.4          335.4           6.0
Buncombe                348.0          323.2           7.8
Dare                    349.8          313.4          11.6
Durham                  308.1          277.9          10.9
New Hanover             220.9          202.8           8.9
Cumberland              217.3          203.0           7.0

Source: N.C. State University Office of Park and Tourism Research.

Then came Fran, which started heading for the East Coast over the Labor Day weekend. Like Bertha, it arrived after the holiday. But its approach undoubtedly scared some people away, says Alvah Ward, executive director of the Dare County Tourist Bureau. The Outer Banks weathered the storms without major damage, he says, and when people weren't dodging storms, business was good. "But I would say overall the season has not been a bell ringer for anybody."

Tourism's bright spot was skiing, helped by an unusually early and cold winter. North Carolina ski resorts generated strong numbers in the 1995-96 season, according to a study for the ski industry by Rick Kirkpatrick, assistant dean at Appalachian State University's Walker College of Business. Skiers tallied 641,000 visits and spent $96.4 million.

As for the tourism that didn't happen, most operators hold out hope that they may yet get an Olympic dividend. "We think that a lot of people coming through the area were able to get the kind of exposure that will bring them back in the coming years," Huskins says.

Don't count on it, says Harry Hoover, vice president of Charlotte-based Loeffler Ketchum Mountjoy, which handles advertising for the state Division of Travel and Tourism. "I don't think the Olympics gave us much exposure," he says flatly. "People went to the Olympics, stayed there, spent their money and went home. They may have driven through North Carolina, but I don't think we had them long enough to capture them."

FOR MORE INFORMATION

N.C. Travel and Tourism Division; 301 N. Wilmington St., Raleigh, N.C. 27601; [phone], 1-800-847-4862.