CLEARWATER - Florida's battered tourism industry should rebound slightly this year from a tough 2009, said travel professionals at a major trade show Monday.

"It'll be fairly flat," said Caroline Smith of British Airways Holidays during a break in meetings with hotel representatives at Florida Huddle inside Clearwater's Harborview Center. "I don't think it will drop any farther, but I don't see any massive growth, either."

An estimated 60.3 million people came to Florida in the first three quarters of 2009, down 2.3 percent from a year earlier, the state's quasipublic marketing agency, Visit Florida, reported in November.

Business increased slightly starting in September and "we're hoping the momentum continues to build," said Eileen Forrow, the agency's top sales and marketing executive. She acknowledged that meant small, single-digit growth over anemic numbers last year.

Sales reps for 300 lodgings and attractions from across the state held face-to-face sessions with 182 domestic and international buyers for tour operators. They talked pricing for room blocks later this year and in 2011.

Hotels and resorts typically follow up with contacts and hope for the best, said Tony Satterfield, general manager of the Alden Beach Resort in St. Pete Beach. Sometimes the contact generates dozens of room sales, he said; sometimes he hears nothing back.

Room rates took a beating last year as business travel - and to a lesser degree, vacation trips - dropped off steeply. In Pinellas, the average daily rate was 7 to 9 percent lower last year than in 2008, said D.T. Minich, the county's tourism director.

Cheaper hotels were one big reason business boomed for Tour America, Ireland's largest tour operator to the United States. The strong euro and airlines lifting steep fuel surcharges also helped drive a 56 percent increase in customers for the company, said managing director Mary McKenna.

She doesn't expect that kind of knockout growth this year. "But if we have 14 to 30 percent, I'd be terrifically satisfied."