Cape Cod Sees Tourism Boom Over July 4 Long Weekend
CENTERVILLE (CBS) -- If you spent the long Fourth of July weekend down the Cape, you weren't alone--the CEO of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce says it may have been their best tourism weekend ever.
"Business was phenomenal," Wendy Northcross, CEO of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, told WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Carl Stevens.
Northcross said the Fourth of July weekend is usually their busiest weekend of the entire summer, but this one was different.
"I think this weekend, we probably surpassed every other year that we've been in business," she said. "Sometimes it just depends on where the calendar falls. This year, we had a very nice pattern of the holiday coming on a Tuesday, and that was good for business."
She said it depends on who you ask, but that in terms of the numbers of people that were on Cape Cod, they may have reached a peak.
Despite busy 4th weekend on Cape, hotels/motels were not all sold out. Air BNB reports 7300 units sold on Cape & Islands from 6/30-7/5.
— Carl Stevens (@carlwbz) July 10, 2017
Northcross said their strong weekend speaks to a strong economy in the Bay State.
"We've always said, 'If Boston gets a cold, Cape Cod gets pneumonia,'" Northcross said. "We depend on a very healthy, strong economy in Massachusetts, so that people will in fact feel comfortable to take a vacation, feel that they've got the money in the pocketbook to do so."
There were a couple of indicators early on that this would be a strong summer for business on Cape Cod.
"Our website traffic was off the charts," said Northcross. "Not that a website visitor is an actual visitor, but it does show intent and it does show interest. We could have anticipated that it would be a very strong summer based on that, based on the strong Massachusetts economy, and the strong U.S. dollar."
Northcross says the Cape has had a worker shortage because of changes in the temporary seasonal work visa program--which she says should be alleviated in a few weeks, when the Department of Homeland Security is expected to allow more people under that program.
The new workers may not show up until August.