July 18, 1972
Descriptions of economic activity and the economic outlook generally run from good to booming. Out of the many reports received, only one, from an Alabama director, reported sluggish economic conditions. Economic strength appears to be widely based in construction, manufacturing, and commercial activity. Only one director reported apprehension over the inflationary consequences of election-year spending and the increased Federal deficit.
Tourist activity is up strongly. Disney World has upped estimated 1972 attendance from 10 to 12 million and is expanding its labor force by another 1,700 to handle the flood of visitors. Disney World is partly responsible for increases in motel occupancy and increased attendance at tourist attractions throughout the Southeast. Hotel occupancy on Miami Beach was 84 percent in the first five months of 1972, compared with 80 percent in the comparable period last year. Attendance at other Florida tourist attractions is up from 20 to 40 percent. An auto-train service, which transports people and their cars from Washington, D.C., to a town near Orlando, is proving popular, and the company providing this service has recently purchased 33 domed passenger cars from a West Coast railroad.
A special survey of the Georgia tourist industry indicates that business is up at least 10 percent this year. Visits to Georgia Welcome Centers were up 29 percent in the first five months of 1972. The historic Savannah Foundation reports tours up 50 percent above a year ago. Atlanta's Stone Mountain Park has experienced a 12- to 15- percent increase in attendance. However, attendance is up only marginally at Six Flags Over Georgia, an amusement park offering services in competition with Disney World. Rock City, a tourist attraction in Chattanooga, Tennessee, reports that attendance in the first two weeks of June was 25 percent above a year ago.
Both residential and commercial construction are strong. All areas of Florida report a construction boom, and there are numerous reports of new motel, residential, and industrial construction. Construction is slated to begin in August on a 31-story, 500-room hotel in Atlanta. The size of this hotel is a major change from earlier plans that had called for a hotel about half that size. The city of New Orleans has swapped land with a development firm that plans to construct a $150 million riverfront hotel complex.
Announcements of new plants and plant expansions continue to be numerous. Plans were recently announced in Mobile, Alabama, for a "mini-port" to handle general and containerized cargo trade with the Caribbean and South America. A major agribusiness firm is building a plant in Florida to process mushrooms. Insulating wallboard will be manufactured at a new plant to be built on the Georgia coast. A machinery manufacturing firm is building a plant in Meridian, Mississippi, and a business machines company is locating a distribution center in a planned community southwest of Atlanta. Plant expansions have been announced for a brewery in Jacksonville, an electric range manufacturing plant in Tennessee, and a water meter plant in Alabama. However, an on-again off-again $100 million expansion of a Lake Charles petrochemical plant has been indefinitely shelved, reportedly because of a shortage of natural gas and a negative legislative attitude by the State of Louisiana.