Hotels on the S.C. coast have been in summer doldrums for the past two years, but tourism officials hope a stronger economy will draw more vacationers to the state’s beaches and historic sites.

The Travel Industry Association of America predicts the number of vacations and excursions will rise 2.3 percent nationwide this summer.

The association also said 6 percent of people surveyed included South Carolina on their list of places they would most like to visit if they could go anywhere. South Carolina was followed by Washington, D.C., which fell just shy of 6 percent of dream destinations.

Marion Edmonds, spokesman for the S.C. Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department, said the survey shows the conditions are favorable for the state to attract more visitors this year, but he wouldn’t predict how many.

“The general economic indicators are stable to positive,” Edmonds said. “People are driven by their general sense of how the economy is doing, and how they individually are doing in the economy.”

Vacationers will spend more this summer for hotels and gas than a year ago, the travel association predicted. Average nightly rates for May 15-21 were $87 in South Carolina, 14 percent higher than a year ago. Rates nationwide were $93 a night, up 8 percent.

For families headed to the beach, higher prices likely will mean fewer T-shirts, ice cream cones, and a shorter trip, Edmonds said. The travel association found most people expected to spend $1,019 on their longest trip, $82 less than last year. Vacationers planned to stay an average of seven nights, down from 7.6 nights last summer.

STAYING IN THE STATE

Tourism brings a small wave of cash to South Carolina every summer, when the state’s six coastal counties draw 85 percent of hotel revenues, up from 68 percent during the off season.

Many of those vacation dollars merely move from one side of the state to another. South Carolina residents account for about a quarter of overnight stays at S.C. hotels and resorts each year, according to the S.C. Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department.

And the money the state earns from neighbors is lessened as some S.C. residents cross the border. The state tourism agency estimates that out-of-staters make 24 million trips to South Carolina each year, while S.C. residents make 10 million to 11 million trips out of the state.

The vacation wave produces a small ripple in South Carolina’s overall economy:

• In 2002, the state produced $122 billion in goods and services. Of that, about $4.7 billion came from hotels, restaurants, arts, entertainment and recreation establishments across the state, according to the latest detailed gross state product data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

• South Carolina’s leisure sector accounted for about 4.2 percent of its gross state product, about the same as the rest of the nation.

• Over the past five years, restaurants, hotels and other leisure businesses have hired about 7 percent more workers in the summer than in the off-season months. If that trend holds this summer, the state would gain about 14,000 seasonal jobs. That’s a bump of less than 1 percent in a state with about 1.8 million jobs.

TURNING AROUND

Still, summer at the beach is one of the state’s most visible features, and millions savor memories of vacations there. And the money makes a difference along the coast in key destinations from Myrtle Beach to Hilton Head.

Hotel revenues on Hilton Head Island and the rest of Beaufort County were flat after the 2001 recession, but rose 5 percent last summer to $45 million, finally nosing ahead of 2001 after adjusting for inflation.

It’s about time, says Bob Pfeffer, who came to the Hilton Head Marriott Beach and Golf Resort in January 2001 as head of sales and marketing. Occupancies and room rates fell after the recession that year and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“In 2004, things really started to turn around for the better in both occupancies and rates,” Pfeffer said.

Room rates for June and July average about $200 to $250 per night, about $25 more than last summer. He said he expects occupancy rates will exceed 90 percent.

About half of the 512-room hotel’s business comes from association and corporate groups, which are particularly important in the off-season. Revenues per room from January through April were 22 percent higher than a year ago, and this fall’s bookings are up substantially as corporate events rose for the first time in years, he said.

Georgia has been the hotel’s best source of customers. Most drive from South Carolina and North Carolina or as far away as New York, Ohio or Canada.

More than 300,000 people came to Myrtle Beach for a motorcycle rally that ended last weekend. That number rushed the start of the summer season, when weekend visitors range from 300,000 to 450,000.

About three-quarters of rooms along the Grand Strand were filled May 15-21, an improvement from a year ago when less than half the rooms were filled. Room rates were $100 to $124 per night, up 19 percent to 40 percent, according to Smith Travel Research.

“It was great for business,” said Wendy Cogan, director of research for the Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce.

Reach DuPlessis at (803) 771-8305 or jduplessis@thestate.com.