Gulf Coast Vacationers Flocking to Atlantic Coast This Year
Fox News Insider
The Insider caught up with FNC producer Brooks Blanton:
Mark Rodgers and his family usually spend a week each summer near Destin, Florida. But this year they are spending their annual beach vacation on the Grand Strand in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Rodgers says pictures of tar balls on the sand and oil patches closing waters to swimming these past few months caused them to avoid the Gulf Coast.
The beaches along the Atlantic Coast are a bit more crowded this year. Hotels in Myrtle Beach, SC say many of their guests say they cancelled vacations on the Gulf of Mexico because of the oil spill.
“It was basically what we saw on TV about the oil spill and the oil balls washing up on the beach and the smell,” said Rodgers. “We didn’t want that type of money invested in a vacation, we didn’t want to risk going down and having a bad experience.”
A father and his daughter walk along the shoreline in Myrtle Beach, SC
Rodgers says he knows of several other families in his hometown of Campbellsville, KY who changed their vacation plans as well this year from the Gulf Coast to the Atlantic Coast. Final occupancy rates for the Summer of 2010 will not be available until the fall, but initial statistics show that more and more vacationers might be following the same trend.
Mark Rodgers, his wife Lisa and children Kayla and Marcus usually go to the Gulf Coast every year. Fox News Producer Brooks Blanton found them in Myrtle Beach this year.
Steve Chapman, General Manager of The Island Vista Hotel, says he has noticed larger crowds packing the beaches near his hotel on Myrtle Beach this year. He also says his resort has been at near capacity all summer long.
Hotels like The Island Vista Hotel have reported being nearly full all summer long as more tourists pack the Grand Strand near Myrtle Beach, SC.
“We’ve definitely had calls and reservations from people who usually go down there or were thinking about going there and have come here,” says Chapman.
Many businesses in South Carolina are happy to see a crush of beachgoers and sunbathers this year, especially since 2008 and 2009 were two of the slowest travel years on the record books. But in an area that has suffered through economic hits from tropical storms and hurricanes, nobody is celebrating the hardship that Gulf Coast businesses are facing.
“I am a pretty firm believer in what goes around comes around,” says Ryan Swaim who runs Dunes Realty Vacation Rentals in nearby Garden Beach. “If someone from the Gulf Coast comes here, we are going to show them all the hospitality we can, but we are not going to be doing cartwheels over the fact that we are getting business from somewhere else.”
Many guests say they are vacationing on the Atlantic Coast this year, but likely will go back to the Gulf when the oil is cleaned up.
Mark Rodgers and his family feel they made a safe decision to vacation in Myrtle Beach this year. But they hope the oil is completely cleaned up and the all the beaches are open for business so they can spend next summer on the Gulf Coast.