Victoria’s billion-dollar tourism industry may be anxious to see the end of a miserable 2009, but according to industry experts there’s not much to look forward to in 2010 either.

With the spectre of a harmonized sales tax looming in 2010 and uncertainty over U.S. travel patterns, industry insiders say there are few bright spots on the immediate horizon.

“There’s not many of them, though we will see a short blip through the Olympics,” said Frank Bourree, hospitality industry consultant with Chemistry Consulting. “It will be a tough year in 2010, but it’s been a tough year this year as well.”

Indeed, according to Chemistry’s latest collection of data, hotel occupancy is down 3.15 per cent through the first 11 months of the year compared with 2008, while revenue per available room is down $8.46 to $81 and average daily room rate is down $6.66 to $126.86.

“It’s been a pretty scary,” said Bourree, noting the industry has been concerned over the future of marketing organizations like Tourism B.C. — swallowed into the provincial tourism industry — further declines in U.S. visitation, border issues and the general state of the economy.

Rob Gialloreto, president and CEO of Tourism Victoria, said overall tourism revenues are likely to be down by about three per cent in 2009.

“This is the year we expected to have. We expected to have a tough year and we got it, we knew we’d have to work to keep it where was,” he said. “Our members had to work very hard to get rates and the successes that they got this year.”