A key indicator that measures the health of the area's tourism industry showed a slight drop in the last six-week period - the first time since 2004, economists said Friday.

Revenue per available room for hotels and condo-hotels - basically the amount of money hoteliers are making per room - dropped to $25.48 from $25.79, said Taylor Damonte, director of The Clay Brittain Jr. Center for Resort Tourism.

Experts say cold and soggy weather played a part, especially during the Thanksgiving holiday.

Four economists presented their Business, Investment, Tourism and Economics reports on Friday at Coastal Carolina University.

Damonte says the measure has dropped in one- to two-week periods, but then would bounce back.

"The weather in November hit at the most inopportune times, like Thanksgiving weekend," said Gary Loftus, director of The Coastal Federal Center for Economic and Community Development.

Damonte said the slight drop doesn't mean as much as it would if it happened in the middle of the summer. The number is a combination of occupancy, which was up, and the daily room rate, which was down.

"Up until that time we had a pretty healthy increase in [revenue per available room]," he said. "As I recall, we had a pretty strong early fall, which was good to see because we had a soft second half of the summer."

During the seminar, Loftus also announced results of a Grand Strand Leadership survey of 1,200 Horry County voters.

The voters said the top issues facing the Grand Strand are roads (81 percent), the rapid pace of development (47 percent) and education (26 percent).

The fourth and fifth issues were affordable housing and property insurance premiums.

The survey will be shown to Horry County Council next week, Loftus said.

Nationally, the economy is doing well with gains in employment and moderate economic growth, said Yoav Wachsman, assistant professor of economics at CCU.

But consumer confidence is falling due to a housing market slump and the ongoing war in Iraq, Wachsman said. So far, real estate prices have fallen by 3.5 percent, the largest annual drop in recorded history, following the largest historical increase in prices last year, he said.

Some economists predict that housing prices will continue to fall in 2007, but Wachsman said this depends on if economic growth slows down next year.

In South Carolina, the state saw moderate economic growth in 2006 and job gains above the national average, but unemployment is still well above the national average, Wachsman said. He projects employment will rise 1.7 percent in 2007.

Horry County's population growth and job growth remains high. Employment grew by 6.6 percent in 2006, the highest rate in the state and well above the national average. Unemployment was 4.8 percent in October, but it tops 7 percent in January - the slowest time of the tourism year.

Wachsman said seasonal jobs, low wages and low college graduation rates remain the biggest economic problems for Horry County. The median wage is $10.54, below the state average of $12.43 or the national average of about $15.

The county has a good high school graduation rate, but only 18.7 percent of students earn a bachelor degree, compared to 24 percent nationally.

Mark Mitchell, chair of the Department of Management, Marketing and Law, asked professors to think about the possibility of growing tourism through "agri-tainment," a growing trend of farmers who use their land to attract visitors.

Boone Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant is an example and La Belle Amie Vineyard in North Myrtle Beach is another.

Mitchell said this could be a way for farmers who need to supplement their income - and don't want to sell their land to developers - to make extra money on some type of farming tourism like a pumpkin patch or berry-picking farm.

These types of attractions provide family-friendly entertainment and educate people too, he said.