Labor Day weekend has come and gone, and the official end of summer is just days away, but that won’t slow shore activity, says Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan.
“Labor Day weekend has traditionally signaled the end of summer,” Meehan said, “but now it’s really the gateway to the fall.”
With summer-like weather sticking around through the beginning of October and a boatload of popular weekend events, Ocean City tourism stays in gear into autumn, said Donna Abbott, spokeswoman for the city’s visitors bureau.
“People have learned the fall is still a good time to come to the beach,” she said.
After the strong summer months of June, July and August, September and October have ranked highly in terms of monthly Ocean City visitors, according to city data. The city tracks visitor estimates based on wastewater flow.
In 2006, September (1.04 million visitors) and October (561,000) were the third and sixth most-popular months during the year, respectively. In 2007, September (1.04 million) and October (513,000) were the fourth and sixth most-popular months.
With Labor Day weekend falling early this year, visitor numbers will be reflected on August’s total. But through two weekends of September, about 370,000 people have hit the beach in Ocean City. Hurricane Hanna put a damper on the first weekend of the month, but almost 198,000 people flocked to Ocean City last weekend for Delmarva Bike Week.
Ocean City is prepping for one of its biggest events of the year this weekend — SunFest. With live entertainment, art, crafts and food, SunFest brings another 200,000 visitors to the shore every September. And from Oct. 12 to Oct. 14, thousands more will come for Oktoberfest, which drew 173,000 in 2006 and 161,000 in 2007.
“We really extend our summer season into the fall,” Abbott said. “It seems like every weekend, there’s something going on.”
City officials recognize that they’re pitching Ocean City at a time when up-and-down gas prices are affecting family budgets. In fact, after welcoming 4.06 million summer visitors in 2006 and 4.1 million summer visitors in 2007, Ocean City saw its summer visitor tally dip to 3.96 million this year.
For sure, gas at around $4 a gallon for much of June and July, including a record high of $4.05 a gallon in Maryland on June 17, didn’t help Ocean City’s cause.
“We held our own in a very challenging economic climate. Even with high gas prices, we had a pretty good season,” Abbott said.
City officials got a jump on things earlier in the year, increasing their advertising budget and even producing a cleaver commercial, warning people to get to the beach before the oceans “evaporate in 1 billion years.” Hotels lowered room rates and businesses offered discounts, while the city organized free events like movies, concerts and bonfires on the beach, Meehan said.
“We were certainly very cognizant of [gas prices] during the summer,” Meehan said. “When you’re increasing the cost of taking a vacation, we wanted to make sure people had a good time when they were here.”
With gas prices creeping downward — they stand at about $3.70 a gallon now — Ocean City officials are confident the city’s three-mile boardwalk, 200 restaurants and 21 golf courses will keep the visitors coming.
“We’ve really become a year-round destination,” Meehan said.
Ocean City accounted for 9.8 percent of tourism spending in Maryland
• Lodging: $589.2 million
• Food: $234.4 million
• Shopping: $119.9 million
• Entertainment: $63.1 million
• Other: $19.4 million
• Transportation: $13.6 million
• Total: $1.04 billion
Source: From 2006, most recent data. Department of Business and Economic Development
