Baldwin tourism officials warn of increasing competition

GULF SHORES — While big crowds showed up at Baldwin County's beaches for spring break and will likely continue to do so this summer, tourism-related revenue is forecast to fall in large part because of a price war among accommodations providers, officials with the Alabama Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau said last week.

'Shopping to the max'

"The consumers are very smart, and they're very educated, and they're shopping to the max," Leonard Kaiser, who owns one of the area's largest vacation rental management firms and serves as chairman of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, told the Gulf Shores City Council. "We're hoping to maintain occupancy, but the issue is the substantial discounting going on that's affecting our revenue."

The Convention and Visitors Bureau derives much of its budget from a 2 percent levy on lodgings in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, and the group's president, Herb Malone, said that although visitor numbers could be on par with those of years past, revenue will likely fall. The question, he said, is how much.

"Right now we're forecasting in our budget process about 8 percent," Malone said. "If (the decrease) stays single digits, we'll feel reasonably good."

Convention and Visitors Bureau statistics reflect the discounting. Except for a 41-cent increase this January, the average daily rate collected at rented condos has, since June 2007, been below that of the same month during the previous year. Hotel rates are also down. In February, for instance, the daily rate was $55.56, down $31.28 from the average rate in February 2008. Malone said that he attended a tourism conference last week where one of the themes of the discussion was how price trumps brand with today's vacationers.

Increasing competition

"People will change a brand in a heartbeat to save dollars; they'll even change a destination if they can save dollars," Malone said. "The competition is not just internally between ourselves; our competition with our neighbors to the east is greater than it's ever been."

Key to ensuring that Baldwin County maintains its 24.7 percent market share among the five Florida Panhandle counties with which it competes is for the area to keep hosting events that compel vacationers to choose Alabama over its neighbors, Malone said. The Widespread Panic concerts last weekend, the Interstate Mullet Toss this weekend and various athletic tournaments throughout the year are examples, he said.

Additionally, the Convention and Visitors Bureau plans to spend $1.9 million in its 2009 marketing campaign, pitching the area and offering promotions through numerous Web sites and print publications.

Coastal funding closer

SPANISH FORT — Two years after it was announced, nearly $50 million in Coastal Impact Assistance Program money was approved Tuesday for use by Alabama, and Mobile and Baldwin counties.

Well, almost, anyway.

U.S. Minerals Management Service Acting Director Walter Cruickshank visited the Five Rivers Delta Resource Center on the Causeway to sign an approval letter for the state's spending plan.

He said the Mobile-Tensaw Delta was the perfect backdrop because the program is designed to protect and showcase such "treasured landscapes."

For example, one of Alabama's projects is a $750,000 "water-based nature trail" with informational and camping stops throughout 100 miles of the Delta, he said.

Now, however, a grant application must be submitted and approved for each project, and federal officials could not give a timeframe for that.

Funds come from Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas production lease fees and are designed to compensate coastal states and counties for the impact of that activity.

Also Tuesday, Cruickshank announced nearly $500 million in program funds for 2009-10, with about $40 million for Alabama. Gulf Coast states are getting less because of the impact of hurricanes and because Alaska's share increased dramatically, MMS officials said.

But plan approval shouldn't take as long the next time, they said. Issues that stalled the release of the 2007-08 funds have been clarified, said Lars Herbst, regional director for the agency's Gulf of Mexico Region.

"We've worked through those bugs," Herbst said.

In spring 2007, nearly $33.2 million was announced for Alabama, $9.9 million for Mobile County and $7.8 million for Baldwin County. Plan approval was delayed by debate over whether money could be spent on public water access and recreation projects.

At one point, the federal agency was challenging $8 million for reconstruction of Gulf State Park Pier and $2 million for property to build a boat launch in Lillian. Those were approved, but Baldwin County was asked to remove a proposed $1 million boat ramp at its Bicentennial Park.

The key for getting recreational projects OK'd is to show a "direct or indirect benefit" to the environment by public access, said Stephanie Gambino of the MMS coastal programs section.

An insurance victory

LEGISLATORS FROM the more northern parts of Alabama seem to be catching on to the threat the deteriorating coastal insurance market poses to the state as a whole.

On Thursday the state Senate passed a basic and noncontroversial element of the reforms needed to make homeowners insurance more affordable in the areas of Mobile and Baldwin counties most threatened by hurricanes. The bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Ben Brooks, R-Mobile, would allow the owners of homes that meet international building codes to receive a discount on their insurance premiums.

But hold the euphoria over this minor victory: The bill still has to make it through the House, which, following the example of the Senate, has recently been tied in knots by dueling partisan filibusters over matters unrelated to insurance.

However, coastal homeown ers can find some encouragement from the fact the bill made it through the Senate without being challenged by the likes of Sen. Roger Bedford, D-Russellville, who warned last month that north Alabama lawmakers would frown on subsidizing the Gulf Coast.

The homeowners' premium credit isn't a "subsidy" of any kind; it's an incentive for hurricane-resistant building that promises to reduce the cost — to homeowners, insurers and state and federal taxpayers — of major storms.

This is a small but welcome step toward stabilizing the coastal insurance market. Other proposals pending in the Legislature would provide additional help, including a bill to allow homeowners to set up tax-deductible savings accounts to cover their insurance deductibles. The best long-term hope for reducing homeowners' insurance bills lies in measures that promote competition among insurers.

THE BIG BUY

It's official; relocating coastal property is more cost-effective than trying to protect that property by building artificial beaches.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last month released its proposed projects for the Mississippi Coastal Improvements Program, known by its acronym, MsCIP. The MsCIP was initiated after Hurricane Katrina to "reduce the vulnerability of the region."

There are portions of this plan that I disagree with, but those disagreements are overshadowed by the fact that the Corps of Engineers is finally proposing to buy out coastal properties and relocate public infrastructure.

To my knowledge, this is the first time that the agency has included a serious proposal for relocating property away from significant coastal hazards, rather than simply attempting to protect with expensive coastal engineering like sea walls or massive beach nourishment.

The cost-and-benefit summary in the MsCIP speaks volumes. A proposal to "restore" the undeveloped barrier islands of the Gulf Is lands National Seashore would cost an estimated $477 million. The benefits to the mainland shoreline are estimated at only $17.6 million a year in possible storm damage reduction.

So, we would spend almost half a billion in federal tax dollars, and we would break even after 30 years (if the restoration were a success).

From a scientific perspective, I am dubious about the storm-surge reduction benefits of the restoration, and I am also philosophically opposed to the use of a national park as an engineered storm buffer.

In the same document, we are presented with a far more enlightened proposed project, termed the High Hazard Area Risk Reduction Program. The centerpiece of this project would be the purchase of approximately 2,000 properties located in the most vulnerable locations.

The costs of this project are much smaller, at an estimated $187 million to $397 million, while the benefits are significantly larger, at $22 million to $33 million per year.

This plan could pay for itself in less than six years. Even better, the benefits are guaranteed and long-lasting.

The barrier island restoration project simply cannot guarantee protection and does nothing to get anyone out of harm's way.

This is a giant step in the right direction for sensible coastal management, for fiscal responsibility and for environmental protection. I hope that the residents of Mississippi (in fact, all the citizens of Mississippi) will embrace this voluntary buy-out and relocation proposal.

Relocation of property and infrastructure away from eroding shorelines and high-hazard areas should become the Corps of Engineers' official policy. Relocation of property is a viable (if not popular) alternative to the building of seawalls and beach renourishment, especially in communities with a low density of development.

Holding the line against coastal erosion will become increasingly difficult and costly as sea-level rise accelerates.

Granted, there is understandable concern within local coastal communities regarding the loss of tax base if beach-front homes are moved or if the lots are lost. Yet few, if any, studies have been conducted examining the potential benefits of relocating critical infrastructure away from an eroding shoreline. The benefits may outweigh the losses in many cases.

These benefits can include: substantial savings for taxpayers, preservation of the recreational beach (the main economic resource for many tourist towns), an increase in the value of remaining properties, reduced future risk from storm damage, and a lighter load for emergency managers.

The benefits are rarely considered by local communities in planning for their future.

Beach nourishment — the cur rently preferred method of fighting coastal erosion — is becoming increasingly expensive. In the future, beaches will need more sand, more frequently.

The sand resources are simply not available to fight this battle into the 22nd century. In light of this, relocation may begin to seem like a more reasonable option.

The Corps of Engineers is to be congratulated for pursuing a policy that may not be popular with the Mississippi congressional delegation, but one that should be embraced by the majority of concerned American taxpayers.

Both fiscal conservatives and environmentalists alike should applaud this plan. It will save billions in tax dollars over the years. It will protect the coastal environment.

And it just might save lives as well. Indeed, it is the only viable long-term solution for the flood- prone coast of Mississippi.

I only wish that the corps would take the same approach in places like Alabama's Dauphin Island, an area even more vulnerable with less likelihood for successful protection.

Put Dauphin Island in coastal repair plan

DAUPHIN ISLAND should be included in a massive federal program to repair hurricane-damaged coastal islands in the Mississippi Sound.

Congress has approved a billion-dollar program for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to repair Mississippi's shoreline and its coastal islands of Horn, Ship and Petit Bois to fight further erosion.

Inexplicably, the program stops at the Mississippi state line.

Ecologically, it doesn't make a lick of sense to limit the program to political boundaries. Dauphin Island helps protect a portion of the Mississippi Sound as well as Alabama's coast.

Hurricane Katrina cut through the island's western end in 2005, letting salt water intrude into and threaten the Alabama portion of the Mississippi Sound. That endangered the production of oysters, shrimp and other sea life, and left the Alabama coast with diminished protection from storms.

Dauphin Island Mayor Jeff Collier wrote in a letter to Gov. Bob Riley that the residents of the island "are baffled as to why Mobile County was omitted from that study given the severity of the Hurricane Katrina impacts in Alabama." We're baffled, too.

Gov. Riley can help by encouraging Alabama's congressional delegation to push for Alabama's inclusion in the program.

Ironically, the Corps of Engineers' plan suggests dredging sand from the lower Tombigbee River in Alabama, and transporting it past Dauphin Island to the Mississippi coastal island of Pet it Bois. That adds salt to the wound of neglect.

The agency's office in Mobile, which is spearheading the plan, says adding Dauphin Island would slow down the project. But Dauphin Island leaders are convinced there's still time because much of the planning has yet to be completed.

Indeed, it appears the Corps of Engineers should have taken an ecosystem approach from the beginning, rather than arbitrarily leaving Alabama out. The ecological damage in Alabama from Katrina seems just as significant as that which occurred in Mississippi.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the Alabama-Mississippi chain of barrier islands is eroding from a rising sea level, more intense and frequent storms, and a lack of sand supply from dredging of nearby ship channels. The sand from the shipping channels would naturally replenish the islands as waves wash to the shores if the dredging weren't done.

The Corps of Engineers plans to haul sand onto the barrier islands to fill slashes cut through by storms and build up eroded beaches.

Because of the erosion, the barrier islands — including Dauphin Island — absorb less of the impact when storms crash out of the Gulf of Mexico and strike the Alabama and Mississippi coasts. The diminished islands also are less able to protect the natural estuaries in the Sound.

Now, though, only Gov. Riley and the state's congressional delegation can pry open the legislation and get Dauphin Island into the program. They should get started right away.

Dauphin Island wants to join huge rebuilding plan

Dauphin Island leaders have appealed to Gov. Bob Riley for help incorporating the barrier island into a massive coastal restoration program that has been proposed for the neighboring shoreline in Mississippi.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' plan for Mississippi — ordered by Congress in the wake of Hurricane Katrina damage to the coastline — calls for more than a billion dollars in coastal work, including $477 million to rebuild the barrier islands of Horn, Ship and Petit Bois to fight erosion.

Dauphin Island, too, has been eroding away, and leaders there want to be included in the rebuilding.

"The arbitrary decision to define the eastern limit of the study as the political boundary separating Alabama and Mississippi ignores the ecosystem approach that should be pursued to thoroughly address the Hurricane Katrina related problems that affect the entire Mississippi Sound barrier island chain, including Dauphin Island,"

Mayor Jeff Collier wrote to Riley.

"We are baffled as to why Mobile County was omitted from that study, given the severity of the Hurricane Katrina impacts in Alabama," Collier wrote in the March 11 letter.

The letter asks Riley to urge Alabama's congressional delegation to take all necessary steps to include Dauphin Island in rebuilding efforts.

A Riley spokesman said his office is reviewing the request and declined further comment.

A recent U.S. Geological Survey report found that the Mississippi-Alabama chain of barrier islands are eroding rapidly due to sea level rise, more intense and frequent storms and a lack of sand supply from dredging of nearby ship channels.

Barrier islands naturally grow, change shape and move as sand moves westward on the currents. The islands buffer salty waves from the Gulf of Mexico, providing at least some protection to the mainland during storms.

Under the Mississippi plan, barrier islands would be restored by placing 22 million cubic yards of sand into that current-drive sand delivery system, allowing the islands to grow more naturally.

A cut in Ship Island that was slashed by Hurricane Camille in 1969 would be filled in, rejoining the two halves of the islands.

Other parts of the plan call for wetlands restoration and federal buyouts of flood-prone land.

Pat Robbins, a spokesman with the Corps of Engineers in Mobile, said Congress only authorized his agency to develop a plan for the three coastal Mississippi counties of Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, and it would require congressional action to make any additions to the plan.

"There's no authority for us to look at anything on Dauphin Island," Robbins said. "If you were to add a new element ... obviously it would slow this program down tremendously."

Collier wrote that based on the town's review of the Mississippi plan "and informal discussions with the Corps Project Manager, we are convinced that it is not too late to add Dauphin Island to the Comprehensive Barrier Island Restoration Plan, work on which has not yet begun."

The letter points to the plan's suggestions for possible sources of sand for the island rebuilding, including dredging material from the lower Tombigbee River in Alabama.

"We find it ironic that the (report) proposes to use sand obtained from sources within Alabama for placement on Petit Bois Island to protect Mississippi's estuarine resources and coastline, while ignoring the similar and equally damaging Hurricane Katrina-created shoreline problems that significantly eroded Dauphin Island, now threaten the estuarine resources of the Alabama portion of the Mississippi Sound, and have exposed Alabama's coastline to increased risk from future storm events," Collier wrote.

Corps officials have said the plan requires further study of some specifics, including looking for other sand sources.

Leaders on Dauphin Island have continued to search for ways to fund rebuilding the several hundred feet of beach on the eastern and western ends that have been lost.

Katrina cut a breach in the undeveloped western part of the island, which has grown to be about a mile wide. Many in the local seafood industry say the intrusion of saltwater through the breach threatens the ecosystem that supports oysters, shrimp and other sea life.

The Civil War Preservation Trust this month listed Fort Gaines on Dauphin Island as one of the nation's 10 most endangered Civil War battlefields. Erosion has stripped about 400 feet of land away from the grounds, a landmark in the historic Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864.

The Alabama House of Representatives passed a joint resolution by Rep. Spencer Collier, R-Irvington, last week that urges federal funding for rebuilding of Dauphin Island and inclusion in the Mississippi Coastal Improvements Program.

The draft of the Mississippi plan must be open to public comment and finalized before being passed to Congress for approval, possibly by November, officials have said.