June Tourism Statistics Confirm Resort’s Season Got Off To Slow Start

June Tourism Statistics Confirm Resort’s Season Got Off To Slow Start
June

OCEAN CITY – There was a mix of increases and decreases in tourism statistics for June, the first month Ocean City began utilizing a new way of gauging how business is in the resort.
The Tourism Commission met on Monday afternoon and was presented with the Tourism Metric Report for June by Tourism Director Donna Abbott. The report included a wide variety of factors, including weather variables, occupancy rates and online activity.
The average high in June was 84 degrees and an average low of 55 degrees, with a precipitation measurement of an unusually high 6.21 inches. Compared to 2012, the high was 74 degrees and the average low was 58 degrees, with a precipitation measurement of 2.76 inches.
The amount of room tax collected in June was close to $2,607,000 compared to 2012 when about $2,585,500 was collected, which is an increase of 0.83 percent. This year about $175,000 was collected in food tax compared to about $186,400 in 2012, which is a 6.14-percent decrease. About $148,500 in admission and amusement tax was collected compared to $156,000 in 2012, which is a decrease of 4.8 percent. June’s sales tax numbers had not yet been released from the state comptroller’s office.
Lodging data collected from Smith Travel Research reflected June’s occupancy was 68.6 percent compared to 70.7 percent last year. The Average Daily Rate (ADR), which is a measure of the average rate paid for rooms sold, calculated by dividing room revenue by rooms sold, was $177.81 this year compared to $175.68 last year, which is a 1.2-percent increase. Revenue per Available Room (RevPAR), which is the total guest room revenue divided by the total number of available rooms, was $121.93 this year compared to $124.15 last year, which is a 1.8-percent decrease from past year.
The category of Web Marketing Results showed a .46-percent decrease in unique visitors to the town’s website, OCocean.com, but a 64.4-percent increase in users of Ocean City’s mobile app and a 11.2-percent increase in web advertising clicks.
Approximately 72,424 prospective visitors received Ocean City’s Department of Tourism e-newsletters in May. The number of subscribers grew 13.5 percent compared to June of last year.
In June, there were 2,044 print advertising requests in travel information for Ocean City. There were 14,777 Visitor Guide requests through the town’s website compared to 11,412 last year, and there were 2,562 phone calls made to 1-800-OC-OCEAN compared to almost 4,097 last year.
The top zip codes that requested Ocean City’s Visitor Guide were in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey and New York.
The Visitor Center Stats showed 4,167 visitors this year compared to 4,431 last year, reflecting a 6-percent decrease.
As of the end of June, Ocean City’s official Facebook page had 532,632 fans compared to 414.459 that time last year, and 16,036 Twitter followers compared to 11,612 that time last year. Also, Ocean City marked 1,543 Instagram Gallery page visits, 1,369 Tumblr followers and 849 Pinterest followers.
The Dew Tour was held from Thursday, June 19 through Sunday, June 23. Attendance was estimated at 103,000, which is up 10.7-percent from the record-breaking event held in 2012.
Transportation reported bus ridership in June at about 736,708 compared to last year with about 784,781, which is a 6.13-percent decrease. There was $634,648 collected in bus revenue compared to $639,818 last year, which is a .81 percent decrease.
The Inlet parking lot this year collected $445,412, a slight increase of .54 percent.
There were over 42,400 rounds of golf booked in June through hotels and Ocean City’s golf course compared to about 41,800 last year, which is a 2-percent increase.
Almost 4,290 tons of solid waste was collected in June compared to over 4,560 last June, and there was 214,890,000 gallons in water pumpage compared to 248,630,000 last year, which is over 13-percent decrease.
The last category presented was Demoflush, which had been Ocean City’s way to measure tourism for years. Demoflush figures are estimations on the population in Ocean City based on wastewater flow from Ocean City provided by the Ocean City Wastewater Division and calculated by the OC Tourism Department.
In June of 2013, the weekend average was 225,784 compared to last year when it was 250,146, which is a decrease of 8.9 percent. The weekday average this year was 197,701 compared to last year when it was 222,614, which is a decrease of 11 percent. This year the daily average was 207,065 compared to last year 230,359, which is a 10-percent decrease.
The final category, calls for service, reflected 16,300 police calls for service compared to 17,391 last year, which is a 6.3-percent decrease. There were also 909 fire calls for service compared to 1,016 last year, which is a 10.5-percent decrease.