The St. Thomas Source is reporting that things are slow for hotels this September - for some hoteliers it is shaping up to be as slow as after the terror attack on 9/11:
August was better at Bolongo -- down only 15 to 20 percent from the same month last year.
This has been Bolongo's worst fall since 2001, the year terrorists attacked the United States, Doumeng said.
"November '08 looks similar to November '01," he said.
At Caneel Bay Resort on St. John, occupancy has dropped to about 18 percent after running about 85-percent full on Labor Day, down just 1 percentage point from the same time last year, said Manager Nikolay Hotze. However, Caneel has an all-inclusive plan for this September to bring guests into the resort.
I was living on St. Thomas in 2001 - that was a tough period. It seems the combination of the economy, fuel prices, and hurricanes have keep a lot of people home this fall.
