Tourism boomed in Virginia Beach and North Carolina’s Outer Banks over the past two years in the wake of the pandemic, but that trend slowed this summer.
Coupled with a rainy start to the season and businesses struggling with staff shortages, the 2023 tourist season overall lacked the luster of previous years, according to the region’s destination leaders. Williamsburg, however, did see growth in the number of visitors staying overnight.
On the Outer Banks, which also saw its highest visitation numbers in the two years after the pandemic, this summer has been busy — but not record-breaking.
From January to June, Dare County saw just under a quarter percent increase in monthly occupancy rates compared with the same time frame last year, according to the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau.
Lee Nettles, executive director of the bureau, called it a “normalization” period, as tourism returns to pre-pandemic levels.
This year’s numbers show a “strong demand for Outer Banks travel while reflecting a more sustainable rate of growth compared to tremendous increases felt by the community during COVID,” Nettles said.
Travel to the Outer Banks hit historic highs soon after local officials lifted pandemic travel restrictions in May 2020, and peaked in 2021.
While the “unprecedented highs” in the number of vacationers have dropped, visitor spending is on the rise, said Nettles. In 2022, visitor spending reached an all-time high of $1.97 billion, according to the North Carolina Department of Commerce.
Nettles said that amounts to $3,700 in tax relief per local resident, emphasizing one of tourism’s positive impacts.
In the first half of this year, gross occupancy receipts totaled $314 million in spending while monthly gross meals receipts were just above $167 million, a 9% increase over last year, visitors bureau statistics show.
At the Virginia Beach Oceanfront, businesses also noticed a difference from the last couple of years.
In 2021, as the pandemic carried on, vacationers seeking a “drive-to” destination to get out of the house were drawn to Virginia Beach. The city had lifted some regulations to keep the beach open and expanded outdoor cafes the year prior.
“We were more ready than anybody,” said Mayor Bobby Dyer. “It was one of the best years ever.”
Tourism spending in Virginia Beach reached a record $2.1 billion in 2021, according to the city. Dyer said it provided $1,700 in tax relief for local residents. Data for 2022 will be available soon.
This summer marked a noticeable drop in overnight stays, said John Zirkle, president of the Virginia Beach Hotel Association.
“I don’t think there are a lot of people you know on the verge of going out of business, but you came off of two record years,” he said. “You have high expectations.”
Zirkle cited the weather, along with consumers feeling the pinch of inflation and opting to travel farther distances.
“People getting over the COVID fear,” he said. “Now, they’re saying, ‘I think I’m comfortable enough to go on a cruise now; I’m comfortable enough to go to Europe now.'”
Memorial Day Weekend, which is the unofficial start of summer and typically a busy weekend in the resort area, was soggy this year. But some Oceanfront businesses benefited from a large wrestling tournament held at the Virginia Beach Sports Center.
Hotels that had accepted block room bookings for athletes and their families saw a bump in business, as did some retail shops and restaurants.
“Had the sports center and those teams not been here on that Friday, Saturday, Sunday, it would have been wonderfully challenged,” said Dee Nachnani, president of the Atlantic Avenue Association, which represents the businesses and residents on the avenue.
Meanwhile, Williamsburg experienced increases in overnight stays this summer.
The city’s occupancy rate so far this year is 52.6% — 6.3% higher than in 2022, and 3.3% higher than in 2019, according to Smith Travel Research, which provides market data on the hotel industry worldwide.
“The number of rooms sold has increased nearly 7% and hotel revenue has exceeded 2022 levels by 6%,” Visit Williamsburg CEO Victoria Cimino said in an email.
Though occupancy has been up, some restaurants in Williamsburg have seen fewer customers than expected this summer.
“We were really shocked about how quiet the summer has been,” said Mirella Minichiello, manager of Sal’s by Victor in Midtown Row.
Business slowed a bit at Pierce’s Pitt Bar-B-Que on Williamsburg’s East Rochambeau Drive.
“There weren’t as many people as we’ve had in the past over the summer,” said Nicole Pereira, director of operations. The restaurant experienced an uptick in bulk orders.
Summer’s been good to The Cheese Shop on the city’s historic Duke of Gloucester Street, said owner Mary Ellen Power Rogers.
The shop’s main clientele are local or regional, so it doesn’t depend as much on tourists as some other restaurants in the area, but the lack of staffing has continued to be an issue, Power Rogers said.
The Power family also owns the Fat Canary restaurant. Both were open seven days a week before the pandemic but now operate on reduced hours.
“I don’t think that we’re alone,” Power Rogers said. “That’s more the problem than the number of customers.”
In Virginia Beach, the natural progression of the season felt like it was thrown off-kilter when the rainy weather finally broke and unbearable heat took hold in July.
“It seemed like summer took forever to get here and then it came in blazing,” said Jungle Golf General Manager Rachel Cook. The miniature golf course, built in 1970, is a popular attraction for tourists and locals.
“It was not our best year,” said Cook, who is waiting to see how the fall season unfolds.
But over at Margie and Ray’s seafood restaurant in Virginia Beach’s Sandbridge, this summer left the staff breathless.
“It was balls to the wall,” said Manager Jessica Council. “We stayed slammed the entire time.”
Customers waited an hour-and-half nearly every night for a table, she said.
A bulk of the restaurant’s business comes from families who rent vacation houses in Sandbridge, a more remote beach south of the resort area.
Farther south, North Carolina’s Outer Banks beaches continued to draw visitors.
Cape Hatteras National Seashore, which recorded its third-highest visitation in 2022 with 2.8 million visitors, continues to see those numbers go up this year, though in less dramatic fashion than 2021 and 2022.
The seashore recorded nearly 1,192,272 visitors the first six months of the year, just slightly higher than the same time frame in 2022, which saw 1,187,760 visitors, according to National Park Service statistics.
Tourists showed up for new events and holiday celebrations across the region.
A combined 22,000 tickets were claimed by guests for Juneteenth and July Fourth in Colonial Williamsburg’s historic area and art museums, which were open to the public at no cost, according to The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
Virginia Beach ramped up its Oceanfront calendar with a new beach rodeo early in the season, an action sports event and a three-day country music concert, among others.
The number of “heads in beds” citywide was 73% in June and 81% in early July, according to data provided to the city from Smith Travel Research. A city festival report with overnight lodging data is forthcoming.
“The weather’s not been our friend, the economy has not been our friend, people getting more comfortable post COVID,” said Zirkle, of the hotel association. “Shame on us for thinking we were going to have three record years in a row.”
Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, [email protected]
Kari Pugh, [email protected]
Sian Wilkerson, 757-342-6616, [email protected]
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