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For LIers, home may be where the vacation is this year

BY TOM INCANTALUPO | tom.incantalupo@newsday.com

10:18 PM EDT, May 1, 2008

Expensive gasoline and airline tickets have the local leisure industry hoping that Long Islanders opt to spend their vacations closer to home this summer.

But experts worry that other factors weighing on consumers this year -- rising food prices, a slumping economy with rising unemployment, the credit crunch and rising variable-rate mortgage payments -- might keep some would-be vacationers literally at home, in their own backyards.

"If you just had the effect of gasoline prices alone, the impact would be a redistribution of how people are traveling," said Gary Praetzel, dean of the College of Hospitality and Tourism Management of Niagara University in upstate Lewiston. "But the impact of the economy could be more frightening because it means the number of trips could decline."

At Splish Splash in Riverhead, general manager Mike Bengston said attendance has been steady for the past four or five years despite gasoline prices that each summer were higher than the one before. But to keep the numbers from dropping this year, he said the park has cut the price of its season pass by $10 -- to $69.99 -- and is offering ticket buyers this month and next free one-day passes for a friend or relative.

Mark Smith, who owns four moderately priced East End restaurants, said last summer's $3-plus-per-gallon gasoline prices did not impact his businesses, but this year he is "a little concerned."

"I think the mortgage crisis is certainly worrying everybody. Obviously, the stock market, too. And the gas prices are significant," said Smith, whose eateries include Nick and Toni's and Rowdy Hall in East Hampton, Townline BBQ in Sagaponack and La Fondita in Amagansett. "We're staffed for a regular summer; not staffing down. But we're being very cognizant of our purchasing."

On Long Island there are big bucks riding on the success of the summer vacation season; leisure was a $1.9-billion business in 2006 in Nassau and Suffolk, according to a study done for the Long Island Convention and Visitor's Bureau and Sports Commission. That includes money spent by day trippers and by more than 3 million leisure visitors that year who stayed overnight.

Commission President R. Moke McGowan said he thinks that even the combination of economic angst and high fuel costs won't be enough to keep most customers home. "People need to travel and I think they will look at that almost as a necessity," he said. "They'll enjoy what Long Island has to offer, but I think they probably will second-guess that cross-country trip or the trip down to Florida."

Hotelier Rosemary Parker has had past skirmishes with tough economic times -- and said she has often done well.

"When there's a concern about money in general, it has usually worked in our favor," said Parker, owner of A Victorian on The Bay, a hotel in Eastport. "They say, 'Rather than going out of the country or taking a cruise, let's just take a couple of days off.' "

Cost-conscious vacationers opting for a couple of days in a tent or RV may also bode well for the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. The department said summer reservations for its campgrounds are running 16 percent ahead of last year's.

At Eastern Long Island Campgrounds in Greenport, co-owner Myron Goldstein said reservations are running about even with this time last year. But he added that most of his customers -- 400 to 600 on a summer weekend -- are Long Islanders.

"We're not affected by gas prices that much," he said, "because people are staying close to home when they come to us anyway."

Staff writer Dave Marcus contributed to this story.