A war with Iraq that stretches into the summer beach season will hurt South Carolina's travel industry, tourism officials say.

But if the war ends before May, the impact on South Carolina tourism is likely to be minimal, said Marion Edmonds, spokesman for the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.

"There's no good time for something to happen, but the middle of summer is critical to us," he said.

But hotel owners and other members of the Hospitality Association of South Carolina expect even an off-season war will hurt their business, said Tom Sponseller, president of the Columbia-based group.

While fear will keep some at home, others will fear they'll miss the show if they're not by their television. That curiosity was one of the biggest factors that hurt travel in the last Gulf War, Sponseller said.

"Our concern is they won't travel anywhere. They'll just sit and watch TV," he said. "It's kind of morbid, but that's what happened."

Business travel isn't likely to be affected, if for no other reason than it has yet to recover from 2001's drop caused by the recession and 9/11, said David Zunker, executive vice president of sales and marketing for the Columbia Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau.

"Corporate business is sort of in a bunker mentality right now," he said.

In South Carolina, hotel room sales were about $1.6 billion in the year ending May 31, about the same as 2001. But sales rose 6 percent for the seven months ending Dec. 31, based on S.C. Revenue Department figures for the 2 percent hotel room tax.

In Richland County, sales rose 9 percent for June through December, reflecting about $43 million in sales.

Associations have brought more travelers to Columbia in the past year, he said. Their by-laws generally require yearly meetings, and the only question is where. Some associations are moving meetings from New York, Washington, D.C., or other big cities to Columbia or other mid-size cities perceived as safer.

Some of these meetings are considered small on a national scale, but they are much bigger than meetings typically held in South Carolina, he said.