This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: June 24, 2008 - From the back window of her shop, Tina Henley has quite a view.
To the right, she looks out on a bridge stretching over the Lake of the Ozarks. To the left, she sees the Lodge of the Four Seasons. Straight ahead flows the main channel.
But this summer, that part of her view looks a little different.
"There's less people," Henley says.
Gas prices and rain have held down tourism in the Midwest.
Credit Courtesy Lake of the Ozarks Convention & Visitor Bureau
She also sees fewer people at the grocery store, on the roads and at her Lake Ozark business, Chic Boutique.
And she's not alone.
For the first time in 15 years, business hasn't gone up for Mark Barrett, who owns Dog Days and Shorty Pants restaurants in Osage Beach. High-end pontoon boats that get good gas mileage are selling at Marty's Marine in Osage Beach, but Mary Shadrick says the bass boats aren't.
"Then again, you have the working boys that buy these boats."
And business has gone down at Bridgeport Boat Rentals, also in Osage Beach, says owner and general manager Darrell Law.
Is it gas prices? The recent rainy weather? Are the Midwestern floods keeping tourists away? Yes, yes and yes, the business owners say.
During Memorial Day weekend, boats sped about the water. The lake was busy, Henley says.
"But not Memorial Day busy."
And according to the area's newspaper, the Lake Sun Leader, lodging tax receipts for the first four months of 2008 were down 14 percent from the same time last year.
But Trish Creach, executive director with the Lake Area Chamber of Commerce, says traffic has been consistent and the chamber is cautiously optimistic about a good season.
"Anything that impacts the economic prosperity of our community, we're concerned with," Creach says. "And gas prices have an impact."
Instead of fewer people, though, she sees visitors making other adjustments because of the economy.
"People are still coming," Creach says. "They are modifying what they do when they get here."
That includes less cruising up and down the lake, more swimming off the dock, coming less often but staying a little longer, carpooling and barbecuing at home instead of eating out.
"They're going to a cove and parking instead of riding around and then riding the jet skis," Law agrees.
Not Gary and Beverly Ruff of St. Charles, however.
"We just like to ride," Mrs. Ruff says.
She and her husband just bought a condo at the lake. They want to cruise, and they'll be barbecuing at home, which they'd do regardless of the economy.
And over the weekend, they did see a lot of boats on the water, Mrs. Ruff says.
"It looks like it's going to be a good summer. People aren't gonna quit boating."
The Ruffs also aren't going to stop other travels, but the tourism industry at the lake is hoping to catch other people who might.
The chamber touts the lake as an affordable driving destination.
"Not like you're going to France or anything," Law says.
After the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, people stayed closer to home and went to the lake, he says. "We were kind of expecting that this year with the weather cooperating, but it just hasn't."
And that's the main problem, at least to Barrett. "It's 80 percent weather, 20 percent economy," he says.
From January to March, rainfall at the Springfield, Mo., station broke records at 19.33 inches, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The average is 8.21 inches, they report, and was 9.16 inches during the same time last year.
With so much rain, the lake is full, and it looks like a mud puddle to Shadrick.
"It's kinda chocolate-y," she says.
The lake levels are at 659 feet, according to the most recent estimates from NOAA. But there have only been flash floods, Creach says, stressing people should get out and enjoy themselves.
"We are open for business."
One third of tourists to the lake are Missourians, Creach says. And from Barrett's perspective, those Missourians are still coming.
"I still see people from Kansas City and St. Louis who come down here and who were here every weekend last year and they're coming every weekend this year."
The other two thirds of visitors to the lake are from Illinois, Kansas and Iowa, Creach says. And the floods that have hit Iowa recently may have an impact, she thinks.
For the rest of June, NOAA predicts temperatures to be slightly lower than normal with rainfall slightly higher.
But thanks to gas prices, weather and area flooding, a few benefits have floated to the surface for people who make it to the lake this summer.
"No body should complain about a rough lake or traffic at the lake," Law says.
And that's not all, Shadrick thinks.
"Fishin's great."