Bush calls Americans to travel as US tourism industry drops sharply

WASHINGTON (AP) – President George W. Bush is trying to pump up Florida’s struggling tourism industry, bearing a feel-your-pain message on the economy as he renews his call for Americans to return to their normal routines and travels.

Bush was looking to coax Americans back onto planes and trains during his fifth visit to Florida, a tourism-dependent state and the one that decided the presidency a year ago. The visit Tuesday came one day after his homeland security chief issued a new terrorism alert.

The president was meeting with laid-off workers in Orlando, home of Walt Disney World, and touting his proposal to spend $3 billion to help them get by financially, maintain their health insurance and train for new work. His brother Gov. Jeb Bush was appearing with the president at both events.

The trip also gave Bush a new opportunity to prod the Senate into sending him an economic stimulus bill. The legislation has become bogged down in partisan disputes over tax cuts and how much aid it should include for the unemployed.

Bush has called for a blend of corporate tax cuts, accelerated personal income tax reductions and aid to hurting workers, but the emphasis was on the aid.

He also seemed determined to avoid repeating the mistake of his father, whose approval rating soared during the Gulf War but who lost the presidency when the economy turned sour.

Tourism is Florida’s largest industry at $50 billion annually in gross sales. But the number of visitors has declined by 6 percent compared with last year, with a drop apparent since Sept. 11, said Tom Flanigan, a spokesman for Visit Florida, the state’s public-private tourism marketing corporation.

Bush’s tourism rally at the Orange County Convention Center “sure can’t hurt”, Flanigan said.

Disney World has laid off scores of workers, and they were the kinds of employes who were meeting with Bush, along with hotel and restaurant workers.

“The president is deeply concerned about the economy, he’s deeply concerned about unemployed workers and those who may lose their jobs in the future if the economy doesn’t recover,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

Homeland security chief Tom Ridge asked Americans to return to a high state of alert, citing threats of more terrorist attacks, possibly around “important religious observations” this month. Federal officials said the alert should continue at least through the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in mid-December.

While Bush was boosting Florida, District of Columbia officials were coping with a sharp drop in tourism caused partly by the federal government’s closure of popular attractions.

The White House and Capitol are both off-limits to tours. The Capitol is scheduled to reopen to tourists on Wednesday, but the White House is closed to the public indefinitely.