Beach business owners positive despite lackluster holiday weekend

As the opening weekend for Delaware’s beach tourism season closed Monday with vacationers clogging area highways, business owners – particularly those who operate outdoors – reported lackluster revenues due to days of drizzly weather.

Still, many were confident they would see a turnaround during upcoming weeks as warmer temperatures become more consistent.  

Matt Carter, the owner of Quest Adventures, a company that rents kayaks and other small watercraft, said unpredictable forecasts kept many vacationers from spending time on the water. 

“The weather predictions kept changing and changing and that was what really kept the business away,” Carter said. 

Carter said revenue from his locations in Lewes, Cape Henlopen State Park, Milton and Massy’s Landing were down slightly from last year – a time when his business only had two rental sites.

While most vacationers who passed by his locations did not rent a boat, their presence did give his outfit welcome exposure for the rest of the summer, he said.

His optimism was shared by his competitors, who also said sales receipts were down this weekend compared with a year ago. Mitch Mitchell, co-owner of Coastal Kayak on Fenwick Island, said although the weather prevented a prosperous weekend, a boom of residential building in the region likely signals long-term fortunes for the beach economy.  

“That’s probably good for businesses, but it's a little tough for people getting to the beach with so many new home sites going up,” he said. 

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Windy, wet weather over the past week even impacted Tom & Terry’s Seafood Market in Ocean View, said owner Joe Godleski. Many customers come to buy crab, he said, which were in low supplies because commercial crabbers weren’t able to set their pots in stormy seas.

“We’re hoping for a good summer, we’ve built every year we’ve been here for 35 years and we hope to continue that trend,” said Godleski.

It was a similar story in Rehoboth Beach, where lower-than-expected sales combined with heavy traffic, said Mel Damascena, co-owner of the Coffee Mill, a cafe located on a pedestrian pathway just off of Rehoboth Avenue.

“Friday and Saturday could have been better, then Sunday was similar to last year,” he said.

Sales for the weekend as a whole were down 10 percent from a year ago, Damascena said. 

On the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk, Ken Williams, general manager at The Greene Turtle Sports Bar & Grille, said sales also were below last years, but not by a catastrophic amount.

“I would say we were down maybe 3 percent," he said. “The rain obviously was a bit of a deterrent for us.”

Williams, like many of the business owners, noted how 2016 was a peak year after nearly a decade of consistent growth.  

The past growth, said Carter, was a result of Delaware beach towns' evolution from sunny-weather destinations to year-round communities.

“There’s more restaurants, more stuff for them to do. It’s not just a beach town anymore,” he said. 

Traffic wrap-up

Despite the uninspired sales for businesses, vacationers going to and coming from the Delaware and Maryland Beaches caused predictable traffic jams on major highways in Sussex County.

On Monday afternoon, vehicles on U.S. 13 near its interchange with Del. 1 north of Milford were creeping northward at 4 mph, according to the Delaware Department of Transportation. Vehicle speeds were 13 mph on Del. 1 approaching the interchange.

The convergence of Del. 1 and U.S. 113 frequently creates slowdowns in the northbound direction, as three lanes merge into two.

There were signs of hope for late-afternoon drivers at 3 p.m. as the exodus of vehicles from southern Delaware Beaches and Ocean City, Maryland showed signs of tapering off. By 6:30 p.m. most of the area congestion had dissipated. 

Other afternoon slowdowns included U.S. 113 in Millsboro and Del. 26, west of Bethany Beach. 

Contact Karl Baker atkbaker@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2329. Follow him on Twitter @kbaker6.