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As more and more families paint and examine remotely, beach resorts offer exciting rates, advanced Wi-Fi and dream charms as reasons for the summer that is coming to an end.
By Elaine Glusac
For classic summer destinations like the New York Hamptons, Nantucket, Massachusetts and Saugatuck, Michigan, the business was strangely colorful last summer as travelers were looking for outdoor entertainment at a healthy distance.
Now, in the back-to-school season, as families re-examine opportunities for distance learning and home work, many resorts hope to make the season bigger until the fall. The appeal of autumn activities, they hope, will be an impossible incentive to resist.
“There is a period here, Tumbleweed Tuesday, when everyone leaves after Labor Day,” said Kristen Jarnagin, president and CEO of the Discover Long Island tourism company in Long Island, New York, a few days before school in New York. schedule your startup. “We don’t expect to go through this this year. “
According to marketing company MMGY Global, in the seventh example of an ongoing survey of 1,200 U. S. adults on their intentions, 61% said they will most likely take a domestic vacation over the next six months. The company uses the term “seasonal extension” to describe the widespread interest in fallArray
“People should make their summer bigger or, if they don’t have kids coming back to school, come here and run from Nantucket,” said Jason Curtis, general manager of Jared Coffin House, a 48-room inn on Nantucket Island, where bookings are getting louder and longer (4 or five days on average instead of two or 3 general days) for the fall.
Many resorts are being repositioned for extended stays. A week after providing approximately part of its 67 rooms at Baron’s Cove in Sag Harbor, New York, for rent from October 12 to April 1 to $14,000, the owners, Cape Resorts, said the company also offers four-month terms from January to April in its rooms and rentals in Cape May, New Jersey, for $4,100.
For those on tight budgets, the fall is also the value season, as accommodation rates tend to drop after Labor Day. The Vrbo home rental site said rates for popular destinations like Cape Cod in Massachusetts and Cape May, New Jersey, fell 20% on average from August to October compared to the busiest dates of the summer.
“By the fall weekends, somehow, it’s harder to get rooms than in the summer,” said Reg Smith, vice president of hotels in Stafford’s, which owns 3 hotels in the Petoskey, Michigan area.
Midweek continues to offer price for those who have flexible schedules. In mid-September, a room at Stafford’s Perry Hotel in Petoskey was recently rated at $169 compared to $459 the previous Saturday in the month.
Wild Dunes Resort near Charleston, South Carolina, offers seven nights for five nights until December for the remains through March 2021 (from $175 per night).
Even if more low-price hunters and flexible staff this fall, operators expect figures to be compensated through the possible decline among others over the age of 60 who are generally more vulnerable to covid-19 in the fall.
Some summer communities are also about to have a quieter-than-normal fall. Bar Harbor, Me. , It has its busiest months in September and October due to stopovers of New England cruise ships, which will be absent this year while the cruise industry determines how to safely restart.
Resorts and home rental agencies are eager to attract more visitors mid-season with a variety of amenities designed to ensure staff and parents can have productivity paints and school hours while enjoying the wonderful outdoors thereafter.
“We see that many hotels sell the quality of their Wi-Fi to appease others fleeing their home or others who attend school digitally,” said Jim Paino, executive director of the Cannon Beach Chamber of Commerce in Cannon Beach, Oregon. a popular summer seaside town.
On the East Coast, Gurney’s Newport Resort
The historic Smithton Inn in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, has used its virus-related slowdown to update its Internet formula and has just brought in “workplaces,” adding a “video conference menu” that includes complimentary breakfast pieces to be delivered to online meetings (starting at $143).
In New Paltz, New York, 151-year-old Mohonk Mountain House, offering 85 miles of hiking trails on its 1,200 acres and surrounding area, adapts its old rooms to cell phone staff with its new “Work from Our House”, which offers a chair for multiple shots, printing and workplace (from $656). Fix for adding meals).
Some stations even offer remote educational programs. Starting November 1, Coppola Family Hideaways, which comes with 3 resorts in Belize and Guatemala, will offer a variety of categories according to the categories for young people staying on pro-party terraces. guests would possibly come in Spanish, examine birds or medicinal plants as clinical subjects and paintings on sustainability projects such as mangrove recovery ($150 consistent per day for 3 to 4 hours; room rates starting at $179).
Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Golf Resort, Spa and Marina in Cambridge, Maryland, has established a taste of “learning room” for consumer use and will provide a list of regional tutors to rent by the hour (rooms starting at $199).
“Instead of ” How far is this from the beach?”People ask, “Do you have a position where young people can paint silently and how Wi-Fi works?”, said Chris Dekker, General Manager of Michigan Properties for Vacasa, the house. rental agency. ” The device has been very repositioned. “
For others, lack of connectivity is a component of attractiveness. Getaway, which operates 12 locations with small cabanas spaced for privacy in wooded outdoor spaces in cities such as New York and Austin, Texas, follows the sold-out months of July and August. with an occupancy rate of 99% in September and October, compared to 88% last year (rooms starting at $99).
“We don’t have virtual nomads,” said Jon Staff, founder and CEO of Getaway. “We don’t need it either. We need you to take a break.
Since the pandemic freed many employees from their offices and prevented young people from going to school in person, flexible vacations, or what some call “flexcations,” have increased, take the form of longer remains or weekday visits, and have been a source of liquidation this summer in the Hamptons.
In a survey of 887 of its clients in July, Vrbo found that 67% said they needed a “change of scenery” through the family vacation circle, with some agreeing that flexible school hours presented more opportunities to learn. how and when to leave, adding more time. remains and visits during the low season. Interest in the remaining week is up 25% from last year, according to studies on the site.
“When we reopened in June, travelers who had booked well in advance kept their bookings from Thursday to Monday, however, we filled the gaps with travelers who stayed Monday through Thursday because their plans were so flexible that they can come and remain the week of paintings,” Mr. Dekker of Vacasa said.
The portfolio includes 50 homes in the city of Saugatuck, Michigan, on Lake Michigan, where summer occupancy flowed between 95-100% over the weekend. Collection capacity is 75% for some weekends already in September, while it would be 50%.
Travel accounted for 80% of the local economy in Cook County, Minnesota, home to Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Gunflint Trail Scenic Byway. Officials were preparing for summer business, throughout their busy season, to drop by at least 50% due to the pandemic. By contrast, it has been higher by at least 10% compared to last year.
Linda Jurek, executive director of Visit Cook County, a regional tourism group, said she hopes the recovery will continue until the fall. “Now that other people are forced to paint from home,” she says, “They say, “Okay, I can still wake up from a space overlooking Lake Superior. »»
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