ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 10, 1996 TAG: 9612100094
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS AND ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITERS
TRAVEL AGENTS are ready and waiting for the pre-Orange Bowl onslaught of Miami-bound fans.
A buzz rose from behind a movable wall set up Monday at Blacksburg's University Travel Consultants Inc., where workers hired just for the occasion answered calls that poured in from bowl-goers hoping to spend New Year's Eve in Miami.
For days, agency owner Bill Ortega had been getting ready. Sunday night the announcement finally came: The Hokies would head for the Orange Bowl in Miami on Dec. 31, where Virginia Tech will meet Nebraska at Pro Player Stadium.
Sara Ortega said the agency was prepared to fly 3,500 fans to Miami, and more if needed.
The contest between Tech and Nebraska - "a big-time team," Ortega said - appears to have stiffened the interest of local football fans.
"It's busier than last year," when Tech met Texas in the Sugar Bowl, said Gene Swartz of Travelmasters. "Everybody's excited about Tech playing Nebraska."
In general, travel agents reported Orange Bowl bookings to be as brisk as a Miami breeze, but with Tech football fans showing a little more savvy as the Hokies head to their fourth bowl game in a row.
"It's different than last year; it's steady but there's no rush," Mel Ludovici of Martin Travel said. "It's a much more controlled excitement."
Ludovici said he also hired extra help this year, after Tech football fans overwhelmed his business for last year's Sugar Bowl. But based on the initial response, Ludovici said he wouldn't expect as big a turnout of fans overall this year.
One thing that may have had a calming effect on his business, Ludovici said, is that it's easier to drive to Miami than to New Orleans and some fans may be choosing to use their own transportation.
That may be the case with Tech students, said Jay Hulings, the Student Government Association president. He has decided to drive this year.
On the other hand, Ludovici expects that the selection of Nebraska to play Tech is going to make hotel rooms scarce in the Miami area and that could help his business.
Some agencies, including Martin Travel, have reserved banks of hotel rooms, which they are selling in package travel deals that include airline tickets and ground transportation.
But the different agencies are offering deals that range widely: from a one-day express package with no overnight hotel stay for $390 to a four-day package with accommodations in a "superior" hotel for $799 per person, double occupancy.
Because of the commitments his agency already had made to hotels and transportation companies, Travelmasters' Swartz was sighing in relief with the heavy rush of business his agency was seeing Monday. "Thank goodness," he said.
After the Sugar Bowl, some travel agencies were beset with problems getting their customers back home from New Orleans when bad weather closed the Roanoke airport. The air carrier that at least one agency had chartered turned its attention to other flights, leaving Hokie fans stranded in New Orleans for two days.
Martin Travel has taken steps to prevent Orange Bowl travelers from suffering a similar fate this year, Ludovici said. Martin Travel will be controlling the airplanes it uses this year, keeping the planes on the ground in Florida until the Tech fans are ready to return home, he said.
And in Blacksburg, Omni Travel & Tours owner Patti Cowley said she's chartering with a different company.
"If there's poor weather, we're better covered," Cowley said. But, she added, "when there's poor weather, no one is fully covered."
Meantime, Tech's ticket office has been so busy selling its initial allotment of 15,000 tickets that nobody had time to tally sales late Monday, said athletic department spokesman Jack Williams. Tickets cost $60, $75 and $125.
"They're selling and not counting right now," he said.
University spokesman Larry Hincker said Tech officials "feel confident" they can get more tickets if they sell this batch.
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