Y'all come--and stay a while: the travel industry hopes lower prices at the pump will mean more heads in beds and feet under seats.

• Position: TOURISM

Gasoline prices fell dramatically during the final days of 2008, but it wasn't enough to help the hospitality industry. Nationally, occupancy rates fell to about 53% during November and December--about five percentage points below normal. In North Carolina, most of the evidence was anecdotal, but recession seemed to discourage tourists from traveling to the state's top attractions, despite special deals offered by restaurants and hotels. Charlie Shelton is co-owner of Shelton Vineyards winery in Dobson as well as a nearby hotel and restaurant.

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BNC: Several large hotels have been announced or opened during the past year or so. Is the opened during the past year or so. Is the state nearing saturation?

Shelton: It depends on where you open. The bigger cities probably have been saturated. In our area, two have opened in the last 24 months. I don't see any others opening anytime soon. I don't think we're oversaturated, even though there's probably a surplus of rooms. In the summertime, when it's busier, we probably have a little shortage, but you can't just build for a few months out of the year.

Restaurants are hurting. How can they turn things around?

Until the economy gets better and people have more disposable income, there probably isn't a whole lot that can be done. But at the fast-food restaurants, from what I understand, business is up.

With more companies using teleconferencing, is business travel still growing?

We do have quite a few people whose businesses come here and rent the hotel and the meeting halls for their planning sessions and retreats. We still have our loyal business customers. We gain a few each week. That might be different in the bigger cities.

What can the state do to promote the hospitality industry?

One of my pet projects is to figure out how we can get businesses in the state, the university and community-college system and government agencies that have socials to pour North Carolina wine--not some wine that's imported from a foreign country. Because after all, it does help North Carolina if we can keep that business here in this state and help...