This summer, lousy weather accomplished what planning, timing and finger- crossing have failed to do in the past-assure plenty of available room at marinas, restaurants and bars in Door County and the West Michigan shore.
For years, my husband and I have cruised in our sailboat to these hot vacation spots, resigning ourselves to waiting for seats in our favorite restaurants and being turned away from the most popular marinas. But in our 17-day cruise this year, ended Aug. 13, we encountered neither problem. Rain, or fear of rain, had kept the crowds away.
”We find that weather, disaster, the economy and the availability of gasoline-in that order-are the greatest deterrents to travel,” said Gary Fischer, president of the West Michigan Tourist Association.
”We`ve had liquid sunshine 11 out of the last 14 weekends,” he lamented. ”If the weather isn`t blue on top and blue water on the bottom, people are a little hesitant to take that time traveling.”
Resorts, hotels and family-style restaurants have reported good business this summer, Fischer said. What`s missing are the one-day travelers.
”We`ve got 30 percent of the communities in our region doing business equal to or better than last year,” Fischer said. ”Seventy percent are down in revenues.”
Wisconsin`s Door County is experiencing the same pattern, according to retail clerks and others attuned to tourism.
”In June and July, the number of reservations were the same, but walk-ins are down,” said Shelly Lau of the Door County Chamber of Commerce in Sturgeon Bay. ”I`m sure the weather hasn`t helped any.”
No more crowds
Our recent experience reflected that trend in both regions, including rain all three weekends of our vacation. However, our cruise may hold a silver-lining lesson. Crowd-averse people who generally avoid Door County, the Michigan shore or other popular Midwest vacation spots may want to visit yet this summer, given the slower trend so far.
After finishing our sail to Sturgeon Bay in the rain on a Sunday, Monday dawned predictably sunny and warm. We rented a car and drove throughout the Door County peninsula, encountering sparser crowds than we`ve seen in the past.
We didn`t even have to wait to get ice cream at Wilson`s in Ephraim, a sure sign of unusual times.
One shopkeeper in Fish Creek said she had heard plenty of complaints from motel and restaurant owners, although there have been plenty of shoppers. Anne Lampert, who runs membership services for the Door County chamber, said there are no statistics on tourism for this year but plenty of anecdotal evidence.
Some businesses report booming sales, others complain of no customers, she said. What she`s been unable to do is find any pattern to the season. Sales tax receipts for the summer haven`t been tallied yet, so there`s no accurate measure of sales.
The change from previous vacations was even more apparent in Michigan, where tables at the best restaurants are traditionally hard to come by and slips at municipal marinas often impossible to find.
We sailed from Sturgeon Bay to Frankfurt, Mich., on a Wednesday. Even though it was a weekday, we were concerned about getting space at the municipal marina because the Chicago to Mackinac race had just ended and boats would be headed south. But even though we arrived at 7:30 p.m., there was plenty of space available at the harbor, and no wait at the best restaurant in town.
”The weather`s been terrible,” said Frankfurt harbormaster Scott Parsons. ”Business has been fairly decent. July was busy, but it`s starting to slow down now.”
Economic slowdown
Parsons said boating in general seems to be slower this summer. ”The economy`s down, and a lot of people are selling their boats,” he said. ”We have four or five boats for sale here in the marina, and we`re seeing quite a few visiting boats show up with `for sale` signs. We usually have a waiting list (for permanent slips), but this year we don`t.”
Our next stop was Arcadia, a picturesque but rural harbor with no shops or restaurants to attract overnight visitors. Our hope was that the Mackinac boats would pass us by, and we were largely correct.
The only crowds we encountered during our vacation were in Manistee. Getting a slip at the municipal marina was no problem, even on a Friday, but there was an hour wait for the fish fry at the 440 Restaurant, and a line to get a table for Saturday breakfast at the local bakery.
But on Saturday night, tables were easy to come by at all local restaurants.
One waitress said the one-day crowd was attributable to a combination of the Mackinac racers and entrants in a cross-state bicycle race hitting Manistee at the same time. However, it`s also obvious that local fish fries are extremely popular in Manistee, because restaurants and clubs featuring them generally had huge crowds.
Boat slips were readily available even at South Haven`s municipal marina, which traditionaly fills up around midday and is close to impossible to get into by the weekend.
And the most popular restaurants, such as the Crosswinds in Whitehall;
the Sandpiper and Point West in Holland; Billie`s Boat House in Saugatuck; and Three Pelicans and Channel One in South Haven were busy, but never full.
More than inconvenience
Perhaps the biggest shock was stopping in the bar at Coral Gables in Saugatuck for an after-dinner drink, only to find we were one of only two occupied tables. The waitress said the entire summer has been slow because rainy weekends kept boaters away.
Tourists lament the bad weather as an inconvenience, but to resort communities it can spell disaster.
Western Michigan, which includes 35 counties from Mackinac Island to Indiana, last year took in $2.9 billion in tourism dollars, Fischer said. When the impact of dollars changing hands more than once is taken into account, that figure is $5.3 billion, he said.
That money came from about 18.2 million ”person trips,” or one trip by one person, he added. This year so far has been ”slower and fewer nights. We are not seeing the one-day drive-in people to communities on weekends that it rains. ”
But he hastened to say a bad summer isn`t the entire tourism story.
”We`re seeing a changing marketplace,” Fischer said. ”The DINKS (dual income-no kids) and empty-nesters now have a greater potential to travel off- season, when rates are lower and it`s less crowded and the weather can still be as pleasant as summer.”
Off-season travel is becoming big business in western Michigan regardless of summer weather, he said, because so many people are looking for bargains.
And the dropoff of business at expensive gourmet restaurants is probably as much attributable to the diet-consciousness of baby-boomers as to summer rain, Fischer added.
Families are more likely to be staying in hotels and resorts than on boats in marinas. Michigan and Door County report business as usual on those fronts.
”In the last three weekends, there has been very little space open for Friday, Saturday or Sunday nights,” said Lau of the Door County Chamber of Commerce.
More hotel rooms
Holland, Mich., has doubled the number of hotel rooms in the past two years, said Kristi Van Howe, director of the town`s Convention and Visitors`
Bureau. ”Recently we`ve been spending a lot of time helping visitors find vacancies on the weekends.”
Nevertheless, the Holland tourism bureau`s revenues, which come from room taxes, show signs of a slow summer, she said. ”Of the first seven months of this year, we were up a little bit for four months and down a bit for three. Everybody says it`s the weather, but I have no statistics to prove that.”
Door County has been affected by more than just the weather, said Lampert of the Chamber of Commerce. Fear of tick-borne Lyme disease, negative publicity about spearfishing by Wisconsin Indians, and promotion of other vacation spots in the state may have sent tourists elsewhere, she said.
