Outer Banks tourists spending less money

Sophomore Lauren Hollowell knows to expect traffic down the Outer Banks’ Route 12 at the start of summer, as tourists from across the state and the country pour into the strip of beaches along North Carolina’s coast.

“You usually start to notice around Memorial Day that rental prices go up and there is an increase in traffic,” said Hollowell, who has lived in Kitty Hawk her whole life.

“It gets to the point that you don’t really go out Saturday and Sundays.”

But this typical picture, Hollowell said, was not the case this year.

Though the total number of visitors didn’t change much, they came later in the season and spent less money, according to the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau.

The Outer Banks, one of the biggest tourism money generators in North Carolina, was hit by the current economic situation.

Aaron Tuell, director of public relations for the visitors bureau, said it is the first true test on how the economic strain will affect tourism in the state.

So far, many industries throughout the coast have seen losses in revenue.

Many places are giving large discounts to travelers, and many tourists are looking for the free attractions the beaches offer, like Jockey’s Ridge State Park or public access beaches.

“People have adjusted their budgets to allow for travel if they can afford it,” Tuell said.

“They are just looking for more frugal ways to do it.”

Beach rentals, which make up 80 percent of the region’s lodging revenue, were especially hard hit.

According to the visitors bureau, rental homes on the coast have seen more than a 9 percent revenue drop so far this year.

However, the hotel industry, which gives tourists opportunities for shorter and more last-minute vacations, has watched its numbers go up more than 10 percent this year.

Another thing that people have cut back is going out to eat. The food industry in the Outer Banks has faced back-to-back years of decreases in total revenue.

Hollowell said that the restaurant where she worked had a major drop in its number of customers.

“Elizabeth’s Cafe and Winery started offering more wines from the cellar that our proprietor didn’t think we could sell as a bottle. They started offering them by the glass to get rid of them,” Hollowell said.

Junior Madison Ambrose also said she noticed the crunch while returning to her home in Kill Devil Hills to look for summer work.

“The competition for serving jobs at restaurants was really intense,” she said.

“Because of the competition, the restaurants were looking for more experience.”

Ambrose ended up settling for a hostess job that paid a smaller salary after struggling to find a serving job.

Tuell said the Outer Banks spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on online advertising during the summer to ease economic pressures.

They have added new television commercial campaigns, newspaper advertisements and digital advertisements throughout the northeastern part of the U.S. — even reaching the Jumbotron on the New York Times’ building.

“We are really trying to market hard,” he said.


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