Nov. 6--Almost 80 organizations have canceled events in South Carolina since the NAACP first called on visitors to boycott the state in July.

�And those are just the ones we know about,� said Tom Sponseller, president of the S.C. Hospitality Association. He said 79 groups have canceled events.

The association has refrained from estimating the economic impact of these cancellations, which it gleaned from hotel operators throughout the state since Oct. 20.

�I can tell that the cancellations are up from 46 just two weeks ago,� said Sponseller.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People initiated the boycott to protest the Confederate flag flying over the South Carolina State House.

NAACP officials hope economic pressure might persuade lawmakers to remove the flag from the State House dome, where it has been flying since 1962. They targeted tourism because it is South Carolina�s largest single industry.

The numbers tell why. The state Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism estimates 29.5 million people visited South Carolina in 1998.

Those visitors spent $6.75 billion, which translated into a $14.1 billion total economic impact, as the money is spent and re-spent.

The hospitality industry also supports 121,000 jobs in restaurants, hotels, parks and other sectors serving visitors.

PRT estimates that about 2.1 million African-Americans visited South Carolina in 1997, the most recent year for which the estimates are available. Those visitors spent an estimated $280 million, or about $133 per person.
�That $280 million helps to support about 4,800 jobs,� said PRT spokesman Lou Fontana.

The business community takes that seriously. �We�re talking about possible economic harm to the community,� said Stephen Greene, spokesman for the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce. �That doesn�t help anybody.�

Effects felt regionally

The Columbia Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau estimates that at least 22 events have been cancelled since July.

�We figure the economic impact will be about $2.3 million,� said Tom Volz, president and CEO of the bureau.
�That�s about 10 percent of our total tourism business for next year.�

About 16,000 people were expected to come to the Midlands for the 22 events, said Volz. Of those, about 12,000 visitors would have taken part in the two largest events, both church-related.

The 301-room Adam�s Mark Hotel in downtown Columbia has seen some black church conventions and family reunions cancel reservations since the summer.

�It�s disappointing to us, because we�ve always had a good relation with minority visitors,� said Peter Garapic, director of sales at Adam�s Mark.

Officials on the Grand Strand estimate they will lose about $500,000 in business over the next year.  Cancellations related to the boycott will keep away 12 events that would have brought 1,505 visitors to Myrtle Beach.

�We still hear from groups that are interested in coming here, but they say they�re not sure how it�ll work out,� said Greene, the Myrtle Beach chamber spokesman.

The chamber�s 26-member Board of Directors unanimously urged the General Assembly to remove the flag from the State House.

Charleston has counted five cancellations since mid-summer, said Amy Ballenger, spokeswoman for the Charleston Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The cancellations mean 1,240 participants will go elsewhere in the next year. The estimated economic loss, said Ballenger, amounts to $1.33 million.

A lack of focus. Despite all the publicity about the boycott, an academic expert on tourism in Charleston, Georgetown and Horry counties sees little measurable economic effect from the cancellations.

�This type of boycott has little impact because it�s just too diffuse,� said Al Parish, professor of economics at Charleston Southern University.

By contrast, a boycott of Charleston�s Spoleto cultural festival would have much wider economic impacts, said Parish.

The Charleston and Grand Strand suffered far greater losses from the two hurricanes that swept the coast in September.

�Lodging occupancies were down 30 percent from our expectations,� said Parish. �So was attendance at attractions. But that came from bad weather, not the boycott.�

Parish acknowledged that the boycott might harm black-owned hotels and restaurants the most. He added that even the owners of these establishments had offered few, if any, complaints about losses of business since mid-July.

Tourism experts believe the economic impact of the boycott will become more difficult to measure as time goes on.

�So far, the cancellations we�ve heard about have come from the groups that were tentative about coming here,� said Sponseller of the Hospitality Association.

The next series of losses will come from groups that wrote off South Carolina without contacting hotels or
visitors� bureaus.

�We won�t even know who they are,� said Sponseller. �Therefore, it�ll become harder to put numbers into the economic impact.�

Sponseller fears that, even if the flag dispute were resolved now, some groups still might stay away from South Carolina. �It�ll take a lot longer for their meeting planners to put us back on their books,� he said.

NAACP officials have considered extending their calls for economic boycotts to products made in South Carolina, such as Michelin tires or BMW automobiles.

More recently, the association has said it was counseling black athletes about the flag situation before the athletes commit to going to South Carolina colleges.

�There�s no indication it will get any better in the future,� said Volz.