During last year’s Spring Pilgrimage, no one cancelled reservations at Arlington Heights Bed and Breakfast.

But this season, owners Ken and Jeanie Attenhofer have seen four cancellations &045; and they don’t believe it’s a mere coincidence. &uot;I think it’s awfully strange,&uot; Ken Attenhofer said, &uot;that we went a whole year without a cancellation and then we had four just in the last month, right after the price of gas went up.&uot;

That’s just one of the innumerable ways the rising price of gas has affected the Miss-Lou &045; from those who depend on tourism for their livelihoods to local governments, school districts and transit authorities.

Ken Attenhofer’s comments didn’t come as a surprise to John Saleeby, marketing director for Natchez Pilgrimage Tours. While the timing of Easter and some rainy weather have also contributed to lower-than-expected Pilgrimage ticket sales, gas prices are certainly having an impact, Saleeby said.

&uot;The last two weeks have not been good. Š We’ve had quite a few cancellations on bus (tours),&uot; Saleeby said, while noting that tourist numbers could improve in the last few days of Pilgimage.

Pilgrimage visitors driving into town on an individual basis outnumber group bus tours 2 to 1, with both groups are affected greatly by an increase in gas prices, he said.

&uot;It’s affected (tourists) coming in, for sure,&uot; Saleeby said. &uot;And it started happening right after (gas prices) hit $2. Maybe $2 is the magic number.&uot;

And commercial bus tour operators haven’t been able to raise rates because, while prices have risen much in the last month or so, tours are booked up to a year in advance.

The high cost of fuel also plagues the day-to-day bottom line at Bus Terminal Charters, said Gordon Brown, owner of the business.

&uot;It’s serious with us. The amount of diesel fuel we purchase for these coaches is tremendous,&uot; he said.

Bus station blues

Bus Terminal Charters has a fleet of about 20 large coaches and a smaller number of small coaches located in Natchez, McComb and Jackson. &uot;Gas prices are up about 90 cents a gallon over this time last year,&uot; Brown said.

His buses average about six to seven miles per gallon. &uot;We’re able to put on a small fuel surcharge but not enough to recover all the costs,&uot; he said. &uot;We’ll be OK, but, like everybody else, we don’t understand it.&uot;

Brown said many of his spring tours, especially church and school groups, have been planned well ahead of time and are based on a contract. That makes it difficult for him to attach any new charge for fuel. &uot;For the last 30 days, we have not had a coach sitting around here,&uot; he said. &uot;It’s our biggest time of the year.&uot;

To fill a big coach takes 200 gallons; the small ones take 80 gallons of fuel. &uot;To go to Jackson and back is about 60 dollars’ worth of diesel fuel,&uot; he said. &uot;We’re struggling, but the entire industry is struggling.&uot;

Tourism-related businesses aren’t the only ones affected, however &045; local governments, with vehicle fleets numbering in the dozens, are feeling the pinch, too.

‘The cost of business’

The City of Natchez, which depends on gas to fuel everything from fire trucks to 24-7 police patrols to lawn mowers, spent $1,200 more on gas in March than February.

While some of that increase is due to seasonal grass cutting, some is certainly due to rising gas prices, City Clerk Donnie Holloway said.

&uot;Just the cost of doing business,&uot; Holloway said.

Fuel prices for his vehicles have created dramatic problems at Waste Management, said Jim Funderburg of Natchez, the company’s district manager for southwest Mississippi.

&uot;Anybody in transportation is having problems,&uot; he said. &uot;It’s tires, oil, a whole litany of things, including steel and plastics, as well. But fuel prices are dramatic.&uot;

The company tries to conserve, he said. They track costs. And they have passed some fuel surcharges on to commercial and industrial customers.

Waste Management, as the largest garbage collection company in the world, is looking into new ways to provide fuel for their extensive fleets, Funderburg said.

&uot;In California, they are looking at alternate energy sources, such as electric and hybrid,&uot; he said. &uot;And we’re working on efficient collection of methane generated by the garbage to use as fuel. These are all things we are working on right now.&uot;

His trucks pull up to local pumps just as individual car and truck owners do, Funderburg said. &uot;We buy all our fuel locally and at the pumps. We don’t buy wholesale. In Natchez, we buy about 10,000 gallons a month,&uot; he said. &uot;In McComb it’s a little more than twice that amount.&uot;

Like Brown, Funderburg said understanding why fuel prices have risen so sharply has been difficult.

&uot;I simply do not understand the politics of this,&uot; he said.

Lemons from lemonade

Meanwhile, the Attenhofers have found a way to turn the gas crunch into positive publicity. They and other bed-and-breakfast inns listed on bedandbreakfast.com will soon discount rates to help offset rising gas prices and bring in more guests.

In Arlington Heights’ case, rates will be cut $25 starting later this month. Perhaps it couldn’t hurt in the race to attract travelers. As Ken Attenhofer put it, &uot;only the next few months will tell for sure.&uot;