Tourism Spree

"The Russians are coming. The Russians are coming.” Well, not exactly in the way they did in the 1966 Alan Arkin movied filmed in Mendocino.

But today, not only Russians, but Brits and Irish are. And so are the Germans, Swiss, Poles and Sicilians.

A surge of foreign visitors is helping turn the North Coast summer tourist season into a banner year, maybe the best in a decade in Mendocino County.

From Marin to Mendocino, hotels, motels and B&Bs are booked, restaurants are jammed, and stocks of blue jeans and flip-flops depleted.

On Tuesday, Canadians John Melville and Karen Turner were snapping photos of each other in front of the old Potter School in Bodega, which had a starring role in the classic Alfred Hitchcock film “The Birds.”

“It’s very easy to come down here,” said Melville, who is a radio station production director in Toronto. “American prices have stayed the same, but our purchasing power is much better.”

Tourism in Sonoma, Mendocino and Napa counties typically brings in up to $2 billion a year thanks to pastoral vineyard views, sweeping ocean vistas and towering redwoods.

Proximity to San Francisco, a city with global appeal, helps tremendously.

This summer could be a stellar season for the region’s tourism industry, a burst of good news in an otherwise gloomy economy.

“On a recent weekend, there were only six rooms available in all of Sonoma County,” said Julie-Ann Hill of the Sonoma Coast Visitors Center in Bodega Bay.

Hill said the number of coastal visitors has been on the upswing since 2006. This year, however, there’s been a noticeable surge, Hill said.

About 280 travelers a day are stopping at the Bodega Bay office seeking information, about one-third of them from Europe, she said.

While the majority of summer visitors are still from California, a weak dollar is attracting large numbers of international travelers to the region.

On Tuesday, the exchange rate was $1.54 in U.S. currency for every Euro.

“Every day is a fire sale for Europeans,” said chef Nicholas Petti. He is owner and chef at Mendo Bistro in Fort Bragg, a 10-year-old restaurant enjoying its best summer season yet.

“We couldn’t be happier despite the gloomy national economy,” Petti said.

Even the high gasoline prices that are forcing many Americans to stay closer to home are still cheaper by half than the cost of petrol in Europe.

“You’d be surprised how many Bay Area people are responding to our promotion that we’re just a half-tank away,” said Pam Amarante of the Beachcomber Motel north of Fort Bragg. Amarante said the motel is enjoying a great summer, thanks in part to the number of foreign visitors.

For Europeans, filling up a rental car costs about half of the $9- to $10-per-gallon price they’re used to paying back home.

“So please, don’t whine about gas prices to them.

They’ll laugh in your face,” said Scott Schneider, executive director of the Mendocino County Lodging Association.

A growing chorus of foreign languages is being heard above the din in tasting rooms, shops and hotel lobbies.

Antonio Vitrano and his wife, Francesca Soraci, of Sicily said after checking into a San Francisco hotel they decided to make day trips to Sonoma County.

“The prices are very good,” Vitrano said.

Isabelle Lehmann of Switzerland and her 17-year-old daughter, Anna, toured Bodega Bay with Lehmann’s sister, Christiane Traub of Sonoma.

Lehmann said the rising value of the Swiss franc against the U.S. dollar allows her to shop for jeans and athletic shoes that are too expensive back home.

“I always buy Levi’s,” said Lehmann. “They’re three times cheaper here.”

On the other hand, Traub, a French teacher at Casa Grande High School, said she almost never buys anything when she visits her family in Switzerland.

“I barely do any shopping because of the prices,” Traub said.

You can reach Staff Writer Mike Geniella at 462-6470 or mike.geniella@pressdemocrat.com, or Staff Writer Paul Payne at 762-7297 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com.