Summer season strong in OC, mixed at Delaware Beaches

The dust is starting to settle after the beach's summer season unofficially ended with the Labor Day holiday.

Now businesses Ocean City and Rehoboth Beach are starting to take assess how the summer went.

When the beaches thrived, it was built on the traditional expectations of what people come to the beach for — "perfect beach days" throughout July and August helped restaurants, businesses and hotels. They were reporting mixed, albeit still strong, numbers. Many establishments said this summer was one of the best on record, while others said summer 2015 still reigned supreme.

Melanie Pursel, the executive director of the Ocean City Chamber of Commerce, said the summer started off slow because of bad weather but that benefited businesses such as arcades on the Ocean City Boardwalk.

"The summer was very strong, but the storm at the end put a hold on it," she said. "But it was a strong season, and most people were very happy with the way things went."

Pursel said events, such as the OC Air Show in June, are crucial to getting people to Ocean City on the weekends when school is still in session and carrying up to the Fourth of July, which kicks off the busiest time of the season.

The weekly activities we continued, such as the fireworks and the laser light show, added entertainment, she said, and people come to Ocean City for entertainment.

"I would say this summer is up over previous summers," she said. "Obviously, the weather is so important, but I think the core of the summer was so good we're going to be up over year over year."

Although specific numbers have not been released for this season, Pursel said since she started working for the Chamber, the money collected from beverage and food tax as well as room tax has increased, which is a good indicator of how many people are visiting Ocean City.

"Anecdotally, and after talking with some of the businesses, it has been a very solid summer," she said.

Looking forward, Gov. Larry Hogan's mandate requiring school start after Labor Day beginning with the 2017-18 school year has Pursel expecting more Marylanders to visit Ocean City when other states might still have kids in school.

Sports tournaments are also a big part of Ocean City's economy because people in the tournaments stay in Ocean City for the tournaments, then enjoy the beaches and shopping after.

MORE: Bridge problems are big problems for Ocean City

On the restaurant side of buisness, Longboard Cafe in Ocean City also reported a strong summer.

"For us, we were way up," said owner Rick Vach. "We had our best summer ever by far. We seemed to get very popular. We won a couple of awards, and I think the word is out and I would say we had a really good year."

In Ocean City, especially along the boardwalk, things were good according to Jay Knerr, owner of the Kite Loft.

"But last summer was exceptional," he said.

Knerr said the consistency of the weather throughout the heart of the summer, July and August he said, made for a good season.

"We had these perfect beach days and people were out on the boardwalk shopping and enjoying Ocean City," he said. "It was a great time to take a family vacation."

Delaware Beaches

This year, hotel occupancies were up from Jan. 1 until the Labor Day weekend over the previous year in both the week days and the weekends, said Carol Everhart, president and CEO of the Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce. However, retail stores were reporting similar sales to slightly lower than last year, she said.

"Restaurants were mixed, as well," she said. "Some are reporting slightly up, some are reporting slightly down."

Everhart did say they are unsure of visitation numbers to the town so far but signs are looking good that the area had plenty of people.

"All appearances for traffic showed traffic was heavy," she said. "There was heavy foot traffic, heavy vehicular traffic, a lot of increased activity on Route 1 and increased activity in Dewey."

"I think we were pretty much on par the way things have been over the previous year," said Eddie P, who works at Pig + Fish Restaurant Co. in Rehoboth. "Our bar was busy, our restaurant was busy, it seemed like a good year."

Hermine and hotels 

On the Rehoboth Boardwalk, stores such as the Candy Kitchen, reported this summer was slower than last summer, according to Pat Ash, daytime manager.

"Fourth of July is always the busiest couple days of the summer," she said. "The Labor Day storm did not hurt us at all. We were extremely busy on Saturday and Sunday."

MORE:Hermine makes for a quiet Labor Day weekend

Paul Kahn, the general manager at the Beach Plaza Hotel in Ocean City, said while occupancy was down it was one of their best summers yet.

"It was a slow start," he said, "May was not great for anyone, but we had a very good July and a very good August."

Kahn while overall occupancies were down, they were up financially from last year overall.

"It was one of our best summers," he said. "But we would have loved for that hurricane to hold off. It was a good season for us."

Back in Rehoboth, Virginia Powell, the front desk supervisor at the Breakers Hotel and Suites, said this summer might have topped the last one.

"This summer, to me, seems like it will be in a close running to last summer," she said. "Last summer, business was very, very good and this summer was good, too, definitely better than the past eight years before."

In terms of how the summer went for local businesses? Ash summed it up well.

"All in all, I think we had a good summer," Ash said. "I can't say it was a great summer but I can say it was pretty good."

And even though the summer tourist season is over, does not mean people will stop visiting Ocean City and Rehoboth.  Based on requests for information on the beach towns, both Everhart and Pursel said they are expecting a busy autumn.

rghughes@dmg.gannett.com