Tourism matters.

That’s the message out today from the Tacoma Regional Convention + Visitor Bureau – heralding the release of the latest numbers from the 2008 “Pierce County Travel Impacts Report” as compiled by consultant Dean Runyon Associates.

The impact? Total travel-related spending hit $968.1 million, an increase of 7.8 percent over 2007.

Within the latest figure are 430 more travel-related jobs than in 2007, for a total of 11,360. Add $20.3 million paid in local taxes by visitors to the county in 2008, and $51.3 million in state taxes.

“These findings are especially encouraging in the face of current general economic conditions,” said Tammy Blount, president and CEO of the local bureau.

I’ll be speaking with Blount tomorrow for a larger story.

One of the things we’ll discuss is the state’s annual Tourism Day, slated for next Monday in Olympia. More than 250 tourism professionals - from chefs to planners and hotel housekeepers – will descend on the capitol to have their voices heard.

If there’s anything you’d like to know about tourism in the South Sound – anything you’d like me to ask Blount on your behalf – leave a comment and I’ll add yours to my list of questions.

Hawaiian Airlines, a perennial winner in the on-time derby among the nation's airlines took the top spot again n February, according to FlightStats.com.

Nearly 91 percent of Hawaiian's flights arrived within 15 minutes of their schedule last month, according to the Portland-based airline tracking company.

SeaTac-based regional airline Horizon Air, was fourth on the list with 86.03 percent of its flights on time.

Horizon's sister airline, Alaska Airlines, was 29th in the ranking with 76.25 percent of its flights arriving on time.

One other airline with operations from Sea-tac Airport, Southwest Airlines, made the top five list with 85.65 percent of its flights on schedule during February.

The worst record belonged to Air Wisconsin with 70.34 percent of its flights on time.

You haven’t been this feisty since 2002. You’ve been wronged, and you’re making your voices heard.

The state attorney general has released the latest list of consumer complaints – 25,197 of which were filed in 2008. Not since 2002 have so many gripes been recorded.

Complaints concerning health care businesses and commercial banks moved into the top 10 last year, while telecommunications maintained its hold as the industry to generate the most criticism.

Information about consumer protection is available at the agency’s Web site, www.atg.wa.gov. For a look at the full list of the Top 20, click here.

We are, after all, in the middle of National Consumer Protection Week.

“Year after year, the same handful of industries are generating the most complaints but what I find reassuring is that our Consumer Resource Centers continue to resolve most of those disputes and help consumers recoup millions of dollars,” Attorney General Rob McKenna said in a release today.

“We often liken fighting fraudsters to the Whack-a-Mole game; you knock one down and another pops up,” McKenna said. “With prevention, we’re teaching people how to avoid the scams in the first place.”

Here’s a look at the Top 20 complaint-generating industries, the number of complaints received in 2008 and the respective raninkng in 2007.

1. Phone companies 1,728 1
2. Retail Sales 1,494 3
3. Collections 1,431 2
4. Auto Sales 1,402 5
5. Electronic Shopping 900 4
6. Contractors 868 6
7. Books/Magazines & Directory Publishers 785 8
8. Cable Networks & Program Distribution 667 10
9. Health Care 639 12
10. Commercial Banking 599 13
11. Credit Card Issuers 544 9
12. Auto Repair 433 11
13. Mortgage Lending 425 14
14. Residential Landlord/Tenant 416 7
15. Internet Service Providers 403 16
16. Advance Fee Fraud 395 n/a
17. Insurance 387 18
18. Consumer Lending & Transfer Agents 361 15
19. Travel 351 20
20. Health and Diet Clubs 321 21

Delta Air Line's omission of its inherited order for 18 Boeing 787 Dreamliners in a filing with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission has the industry speculating whether the airline has cancelled its order.

Delta inherited that order from Northwest Airlines with which it merged last year. Northwest was the first U.S. carrier to order the advanced new twin jet.

A footnote in the filing says the company didn't list the planes among those scheduled to enter service with the airline because Boeing won't meet its original in-service date for the planes.

But a spokesman for Delta says the air carrier hasn't canceled its order in spite of the two-year delay in delivery of the aircraft.

Aerospace analysts are speculating that Delta may shift its order to the larger 787-9 from the 787-8. The first 787-8s reportedly are overweight and won't meet all their guarantees for economy and range.

Boeing, which had unprecedented success in attracting orders for the composite-bodied aircraft, has seen 32 cancellations from airlines now unable or unwilling to buy the aircraft.

In the early '80s I made a weekly commute back and forth from Sea-Tac to the San Francisco Bay area to cover the Pierce County rackets trial in federal court.

My weekly commute was abetted by a price war among the airlines on the route then, United, Western and Hughes AirWest. The price? $85 roundtrip.

I never thought I'd see prices so low again, but now, nearly 30 years later, airline fares are once again below $100 roundtrip to the Bay area.

If you act quickly (there are only a handful of seats left at this price) you can travel via Alaska Airlines to San Francisco this weekend and back for just $97.

Unless the economy improves dramatically soon, expect to see more of those deals in coming weeks from Alaska and its competitors.

Those low farews are a sign of just how weak demand is during the financial meltdown. How about $117 roundtrip this weekend from Sea-Tac to Los Angeles. Or $482 return for a Sea-Tac-Rome flight? Or $498 roundtrip to London from the Puget Sound area.

Check Farecast.com for other record low bargain fares.

The median home price in Pierce County ticked up slightly in February to $239,950, making it the fourth consecutive month that the price either stayed the same or increased, according to figures released by the Northwest Multiple Listings Service Wednesday.

The county’s median home price in January was $235,000.
By no means is anyone calling it a recovery from the real estate bust that sent county home prices falling for more than a year. The county’s median home price was $260,000 in February 2008 and peaked at $285,000 in the fall of 2007.

But local real estate agents say they are starting to see a few glimmers of hope in what has been a dismal market.

The county’s median home price dipped to $230,000 in November. December recorded a median price of $235,000 and January was the same.

In King County, the median home price dipped to $348,000, down from January and from February 2008.
David Gala, a realtor with Windermere Professional Partners in Tacoma, said that homes priced at or below $250,000 have been selling.

“The affordable homes are starting to move,” Gala said. “That’s how you start, with baby steps. You start from the bottom and work your way up.”

The county’s pending sales were down 5 percent from February 2008 to 866. By comparison, King County reported pending sales down by 23 percent and Thurston County reported pending sales down by 16 percent.

Remove condos from the equation, and pending sales of homes in Pierce County increased by 1 percent from last year at this time. Meanwhile, condo sales were down by more than 50 percent, with only 53 units sold last month.

The area’s inventory is shrinking. The number of homes and condos for sale decreased by 20 percent over the year to 6,262 active listings last month. Those in the real estate industry regard this as good news as declining supply tends to bolster home prices.

Cheryl O’Brien, an agent with John L. Scott in Gig Harbor, said her office is done taking what she calls “unmotivated listings,” or homeowners who maybe don’t need to sell, but wanted to see what they could get for their homes.

“If you need to sell, we can get your house sold,” she said. “But you have to really want to sell.”