Travel expert advises area to boost customer service until recession recedes

The Hilton Head Island area's tourism trade is positioned for a rebound along with the national economy, but local businesses will need to work harder than ever to make it happen, an industry expert told business and civic leaders Wednesday.

Economists are seeing a light at the end of the recession's tunnel, but tough times in the travel business are likely to persist through 2010 and into 2011, said Judy Randall, president and CEO of Randall Travel Marketing.

"Understand, that is one slow-moving train," Randall said during the quarterly meeting of the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce's Visitor & Convention Bureau at the Holiday Inn Oceanfront. "It's not going to come roaring back the way it was."

The recession has disrupted an industry that had grown consistently since average Americans began to vacation en masse shortly after World War II, said Randall, who travels extensively and advises dozens of destinations nationwide.

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