Gas Gift Cards Used To Entice Tourists

May 24 - KGO (KGO) -- Find out what the Bay Area tourist industry is doing this summer to ease the high cost of driving here on vacation.

AAA is projecting Memorial Day weekend travel will be flat this year as consumers get used to higher gas prices. However, hotels and other sectors of the tourism business are concerned how gas prices will impact summer travel.

The first big wave of tourists is due in town this weekend. The big unknown is how high gas prices will affect summer travel plans and spending.

The Taylor family from Ohio is already thinking about that.

Mark Taylor, Ohio tourist: "I expect that we'll travel less with gas being so high. It's cutting into just getting back and forth to work."

The Tuscan Inn at Fisherman's Wharf is offering its visitors $20 in gasoline gift cards to help ease the pain. The hotel is already seeing guests trimming their spending as a result of high gas prices.

Jan Misch, Tuscan Inn General Manager: "We have honor bars in the rooms, and our honor bars aren't doing as well as they usually would so that's probably one of the things that they're cutting back on."

It's not just hotels and restaurants, of course. It's also hundreds of retail stores that also depend on tourists and the dollars and cents they bring along to spend.

It's disturbing to them to see so many empty parking spaces at the wharf.

Tony Tjandla, store salesman: "The business is not too good... not busy, sometimes slow."

The tourism industry remains confident that people will drive and travel this summer. Advance bookings at some hotels are even or higher than this time last year.

Ray Johnston, Best Western Chairman: "I think we adapt very fast, and again, if you're going to take your family on a roadside trip, you may give up a dinner, but you're not going to give up a family vacation for a dinner? We don't think so."

Some tourists echoed that sentiment. They're hitting the road, even as they grouse about the price of gas.

Don Hanrahan, North Carolina visitor: "We'll go and do and have fun just like we would any year. Gas prices won't change what I do. I wish they were lower. I'm not saying I like high gas prices, but they're not going to change what I would do anyway."

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