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KEY WEST GETS CONKED OVER GLUT OF VISITORS

Poll: Tourists stifling charm

Key West may be losing its appeal, judging by the view of a leading travel magazine, which calls it a victim of 'crowding, poor planning and greed.'

BY CARA BUCKLEY

cbuckley@herald.com

KEY WEST - For a city that trumpets its quirkiness and offbeat charm, the shops and sights of Key West's Duval Street are notable for their homogeneity.

Tightly crammed T-shirt shops flank chain stores, clamoring to capture cruise ship passengers who stream by the thousands from seaborne mammoths obscuring the sky. Tourists strain to catch sight of the island's much-vaunted ''local characters'' on a strip filled with endless reflections of themselves -- khaki-clad throngs in tropical shirts and sun visors, clutching shopping bags and cups of beer.

This vision of Key West, not of paradise lost but of paradise overrun, has led editors at National Geographic Traveler -- estimated readership 5.7 million -- to call Key West a destination that is Getting Ugly.

In its March 2004 issue, 115 of the world's ''great places'' are ranked based on their environmental stewardship and tourism management, Key West is tied with Thailand's Phuket area at third from last and is cited as a victim of ``crowding, poor planning and greed.''

It isn't the first time that Key West has been publicly flogged for its swollen tourism industry. A 1998 Newsweek article decried the city as "spoiled.''

'HEADLESS MONSTER'
"The Key West that brought us here and made us stay here is slowly dissolving,'' said Shirley Freeman, former Monroe County mayor. ``Tourism here is not managed. It's just a headless monster that keeps growing.''

Numbers bear out Freeman's assertion. In 1998, Newsweek noted that the ratio of one year's tourists to permanent residents was 4-1 in New York City and 50-1 in Key West. The latest statistics show New York City's tourist-to-resident ratio as unchanged. But with 1.4 million overnight visitors last year and a population of 25,428, Key West's ratio is now 55-1.  Add the one million disembarking cruise ship passengers, and the tourist-to-resident ratio mushrooms to 94-1.

Jonathan Tourtellot, National Geographic Traveler's geotourism editor, said 200 geographers, anthropologists, photographers and travel experts were polled for the survey, with 20 to 40 panelists going to each destination. Key West was heavily criticized for its influx of cruise day-trippers, coral reef die-offs, spring-break-like atmosphere -- and an overriding sense that the city's character was lost.

``There is a real sadness and disappointment,'' Tourtellot said. ``You can tell a lot of these panelists really like Key West. I was frankly surprised at how low it was.''
 

Peter Ilchuk, executive director of the Florida Keys Lodging Association, believes the glut of cruise ship day-trippers widens the discrepancy between reality and the image the city peddles -- that of an easygoing, unique place.

''I'm not so sure when we have 5,000 or 10,000 cruise ship passengers in the port that it's the same image we are marketing to the world,'' Ilchuk said.

City officials are aware of such concerns. Mayor Jimmy Weekley recently assembled a panel to address concerns about traffic, water and reef quality, and noise, all the while creating sustainable tourism.

But critics, like restaurateur Elliot Baron, note that similar studies have come before with little effect, such as a 2000 report that found that half of Monroe County's voters wanted tourist levels reduced. Baron also believes the only way to curb cruise ship traffic is by increasing, even doubling, passengers' disembarkation fees.
 
QUESTION OF WILL
``I am not optimistic that there is the will within leadership to change the juggernaut of destruction that we are headed on,'' he said.

The city remains divided on whether tourism needs curtailing. Virginia Panico, president of the Key West Chamber of Commerce, points to the employment and tax base generated by tourism's $1.2 billion infusion into the county.  "Someone needs to tell me how we're going to replace all this,'' she said.
 
"Are we doing a bad job here? Not at all,'' said Ed Swift, operator and part owner of the Conch Tour Trains, the Old Town Trolley and a number of shops, boats and museums. "People vote with their feet. If they weren't satisfied with the product, they wouldn't come back.''

But some people might not be coming back. A recent study by the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary showed that repeat Keys visitors were less satisfied with their trips than newcomers and that overall satisfaction with the area's quality of beaches, crowd levels and sea life had declined. The report's authors forecast "potentially dire predictions of the future
natural-resource-based economy, if actions are not taken to reverse these trends".

EXAMPLE OF CHANGE
Asked to identify a city that reinvented its tourist base for the better, Tourtellot pointed to Fort Lauderdale, which shut out spring-breakers in 1985 and successfully drew a higher-end clientele. Nikki Grossman, that city's tourism leader, said hoteliers begged for change because their industry had gotten tired, seedy and cheap.
 
Key West, however, boasts some of the highest room rates and occupancy levels in the state.

But in the debate over Key West's future, how much weight should National Geographic Traveler get?
 
Harold Wheeler, executive director of the Monroe County Tourist Development Commission, points to a recent warm review of Key West in The New York Times. Last month, first lady Laura Bush gave the city an award for preserving its historical heritage.  In the March 2004 issue of National Geographic Traveler itself, not 40 pages from Key West's sorry listing as a threatened travel spot, a page in the Smart Traveler section pays homage to the Conch Republic.
 
"Margaritaville's inns offer a slice of paradise,'' the article notes.
 

PARADISE IMPAIRED?
* A recent study by the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary shows that repeat Keys visitors are less satisfied with their trips than newcomers.
* Overall satisfaction with the area's quality of beaches, crowd levels and sea life also has declined.
* With cruise ship passengers factored in, the ratio of one year's tourists to residents in Key West is now 94 to 1.

 The good, the bad and the ugly, according to experts in sustainable tourism

National Geographic Traveler asked more than 200 specialists in sustainable tourism to evaluate 115 of the world's best-known places on their cultural, environmental and aesthetic integrity. Ranked in order:
 

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