cil legislative session, Councilman
Brent Ashley brought up the de-
creasing tourism stats so far this
summer and the possibility of it be-
ing related to rainy weather.
tially down for many months. The
Smith Travel Report also shows
monthly and yearly declining occu-
pancy numbers," he said. "I received
the May Smith Travel Report this
morning with a note from our tourism
director that said, `Cooler temps defi-
nitely impacted the month.' I recently
saw an online post from the president
of our advertising agency mentioning
the `lousy' spring weather. If we're go-
ing to blame the weather and not our
marketing approach or how visitors
perceive Ocean City for our falling
numbers, let's prove it. I would like to
request a five-year comparison of
weather and tourism data for the
months of April and May."
City based on wastewater flow from
Ocean City provided by the Ocean
City Wastewater Division and calcu-
lated by the OC Tourism Depart-
ment. For the week ending June 30,
each day's estimation was reduced
by at least 20,000.
weather comparison would provide
a clearer picture for Ocean City's
tourism data.
mission is in the process of coming
up with an expanded tourism metric
besides Demoflush and the commis-
sion has agreed to include weather in
the data. "Weather has become im-
perative," she said.
$5 million in marketing and has ex-
panded their advertising market to
reach traditional Jersey Shore visi-
tors who may have been looking for
an alternative vacation after Super-
storm Sandy, New Jersey has step-
ped up their marketing budget to
$20 million, as well as Atlantic City
with a $25 million budget.
is another thing that may be affect-
ing it," Dare said. "That is $45 mil-
lion they are spending in the same
market place we are. We are being
out spent 10:1, so that may be as
much of an issue as the weather."
the equation of Ocean City's declin-
ing number of visitors but weather is
key.
but I will tell you, as somebody who
makes their living outside, this is the
worst spring I can remember in a
long time cold and rainy," Coun-
cilman Joe Mitrecic said.
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