By RYAN DEZEMBER
Staff Reporter
GULF SHORES Some 4.7 million people vacationed on Baldwin County's beaches and spent $2.3 billion last year, and the area's top tourism officials have forecast better returns this year despite a slumping economy and record high gas prices.
Speaking to a few hundred local business leaders Tuesday at the Erie Meyer Civic Center, Alabama Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau President Herb Malone said that in addition to this winter's lodgings income being up 4.5 percent over last year's, a survey of five of south Baldwin County's top accommodations providers found that summer reservations are up from last year between 6.2 percent and 8.5 percent for May, June and July.
Notwithstanding data that show Baldwin's tourism trade is as strong as it's ever been, Malone said he still gets questions about the progress of the area's recovery from Hurricanes Ivan and Katrina, which struck successively in 2004 and 2005.
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