Page 28 The Dispatch/Maryland Coast Dispatch October 4, 2013 Business Panelists Review ‘Interesting’ Summer By SHAWN J. SOPER NEWS EDITOR OCEAN CITY – With the calendar flipping over to October this week, resort business officials began taking stock of the summer season of 2013, and the general assessment is there is still much work to be done to improve for next year. The Ocean City Economic Development Committee (EDC) met on Wednesday for the first time since the beginning of the summer and the conversation focused on the recently completed 2013 season. EDC Chairman Michael James presided over a discussion with four panelists including Ocean City Tourism Director Donna Abbott, Ocean City Hotel-Motel-Restaurant Association Director Susan Jones, City Councilwoman Mary Knight and D3Corp President John Gehrig, who each weighed in on the early reviews on the season. Jones said the reviews were as diverse as the number and type of businesses in the resort. “Depending on who you talk to, it was either the worst summer or the best summer ever,” she said. “The reactions have been all over the board. I’ve never seen this much emotion attached to a review of a summer season.” All agreed the summer season was slowed by the rainy, damp and cool June for the most part, although most businesses made up ground through July and August and even into September with near-perfect weather and numerous special events. Jones said the business cycle trend continued for heavy weekend numbers and slow weekday figures, especially in June. “June was wet and cold and that definitely didn’t bring tourists,” she said. “However, room tax figures were up but occupancy was down. The demand for weekend travel was extremely high and some took advantage of that and raised their rates, some by as much as $150 per night.” Jones said a lesson learned for many businesses continues to be the importance of a strong online presence for Internet-savvy consumers. She pointed to an episode of Hotel Impossible featuring the historic Lankford Hotel that aired last week on the Travel Channel as an example. “Some are doing business the same way they did 50 years ago,” she said. “We saw that last week with the episode of Hotel Impossible. Travelers now have more choices and focusing on what you look like online is very important. 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They want to see what they’re buying.” Gehrig said anticipation was high for the summer season after a highly successful spring marked by good weather and lots of traffic on the town’s website and individual business websites, but when the summer season rolled around, the same recent trends continued. “Last spring was so great weather-wise that we got a little spoiled,” he said. “The phones were ringing and the website hits were increasing, then we went back to the way it was two or three years ago with the last-minute bookings. There was a lot of website traffic in advance, but not a lot of booking in advance.” Gehrig agreed many of the larger properties took advantage of the weekend trend and last-minute bookings by adjusting their rates to meet the demand. As a result, room tax figures were up, while occupancy figures were down in many cases. He said many of the smaller properties didn’t have the flexibility to adjust their rates to match the trends. “It looks like revenue overall was up,” he said. “Some of the smaller properties were having a difficult time. The bigger places with more staff and more resources have more flexibility with their rates. The smaller properties were setting their rates for the summer and sticking with them.” Gehrig encouraged properties of all shapes and sizes to adjust their rates to best meet the demand and ultimately get heads in beds. “Each business has a responsibility for itself,” he said. “You have to make sure your rates are the best they can be because it’s highly competitive. If you’re not booking your rooms, you have to change your strategy.” Throughout the summer, much of the discussion surrounding the season centered on the town’s advertising budget and marketing plan. Abbott said this offseason, like every previous one, will focus on how the town can get the best bang for its buck with its limited marketing budget. “We have a $5 million advertising budget and we’re going to look at how things went over the winter and see what markets we need to target,” she said. “We’re going to use the money the best way we can. As you all know, we are outspent by a lot of our competitors. This has been an interesting season, and we’re going to take all the feedback and see where we need to go.” Going into the 2013, it was widely believed Ocean City would benefit from the condition of the resorts in New Jersey and New York devastated by Super Storm Sandy last October, and that appeared to play out to some degree, however, those resorts got a fiscal shot in the arm from federal relief for advertising and marketing in the wake of the storm and challenged Ocean City for the mid-Atlantic and East Coast SEE NEXT PAGE