Storm dumps on tourism even where it didn't rain.

• Position: Hurricane Floyd affects North Carolina tourism - Brief Article - Illustration - Statistical Data Included

Ask any North Carolina hotel owner, resort or golf-course operator to name the subject he'd most like Americans to brush up on, and you're likely to get the same answer: geography. The average traveler's geographical deficiencies, they claim, are what softened the Tar Heel tourism industry in the second half of 1999.

Only parts of Eastern North Carolina were flooded by Hurricane Floyd, but tourists blew off the whole state. "The overwhelming majority of the state is open for business," says Gordon Clapp, director of the N.C. Division of Tourism, Film and Sports Development. Problem is, "people don't know their geography. They think the whole state's been affected."

That might explain why business at Biltmore Estate, in the state's western corner, was down 1% in October from a year earlier. Biltmore "didn't receive a drop of rain from Floyd," says Chris Cavanaugh, the estate's vice president of marketing. Still, he says, it got calls from anxious tourists the day after Floyd hit land, asking about flooding in Asheville.

Or consider Pinehurst, which held the U.S. Open PGA tournament in June. Sales that month were up 150% from 1998. Floyd left Pinehurst's golf courses unscathed, but in September, business dropped 8% to 12% from a year earlier. "In the first couple of weeks after the storm, we had a drop-off in sales. People canceled," says Caleb Miles, director of the Pinehurst Convention and Visitors Bureau.

To combat misconceptions, the Division of Tourism mounted a public-relations campaign in October. It ran full-page ads in USA Today, for example, touting the state's tourist attractions and proclaiming them ready for visitors. In November, the division had spent $150,000 on the campaign, and Clapp had applied for $1 million more in federal funds. "There's a lot more we could be doing," he says. "We're limited by funding."

Though statewide figures were unavailable in November, Clapp says Floyd will dampen tourism expenditures by out-of-state travelers in 1999. But it's not all Floyd's fault. Remember Dennis, the storm that lashed the Outer Banks for nearly a week? And there was the hot, dry summer, which kept many people at home. "Most theme parks and attractions around the state are reporting they're down or flat from last year," Cavanaugh says.

In November, the North Carolina Hotel & Motel Association was studying the hurricane's impact on its industry. Early results: From August to October, occupancy levels dropped significantly...