‘Off-season’ attractions keep visitors coming

SURF AND TURF: This is an image from the 2014 Bowen's Wharf Seafood Festival in Newport, showing the tent that sheltered three restaurants serving shellfish, chowder and other seafood dishes. A portion of Newport Harbor and a cruise ship are also visible. / COURTESY TRIXIE B. WADSON/BOWEN'S WHARF CO.
SURF AND TURF: This is an image from the 2014 Bowen's Wharf Seafood Festival in Newport, showing the tent that sheltered three restaurants serving shellfish, chowder and other seafood dishes. A portion of Newport Harbor and a cruise ship are also visible. / COURTESY TRIXIE B. WADSON/BOWEN'S WHARF CO.

Summer

is over but that doesn’t mean the end of the tourism season in Rhode Island.

The target through Thanksgiving is an older, more international group of visitors. The extension of the tourism economy into November is the result of several years of effort to promote the “off-season” and schedule events that appeal to visitors, according to Evan Smith, president and CEO of Discover Newport.

“For lodging, dining and attractions, September and October are as big as July and August,” he said.

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The tourist season in Rhode Island is now divided into three time periods, he said, including summer through Labor Day, Labor Day until Thanksgiving and the holidays.

The summer months attract weekend travelers and vacationers, and destinations include the beaches and the marine-related activities.

Rhode Island tourism councils reported experiencing a robust summer this year, in part because the weather was sunny and warm and gasoline prices were lower than previous summers.

A comparison of occupancy rates, average daily room rates and revenue-per-available room indicates the Warwick, Providence, Newport and Greater Rhode Island markets all were up this year.

In Newport, for example, the occupancy rate through July was 63.2 percent, up from 56.2 percent in 2014 and 2013. The average daily room rental rate was $203.80, up 5.7 percent from the previous year. The average revenue per available room was $128.78, up nearly 19 percent.

Rhode Island had an average occupancy rate of 66.6 percent through July, up from 60.9 percent in 2014. The average daily room rate was $131.56, up from $125.10 the prior year.

All are indications the lodging market is doing “exceptionally well,” according to Smith Travel Research, which compiled the data.

As soon as schools reopen and the weather cools, that market changes from beaches to tourism that captures the natural beauty and features of the region, according to Myrna George, president and CEO of the South County Tourism Council.

The council has partnered with the Audubon Society to promote birding along the coast. Also, the council tries to promote the region’s environment, through nature walks and hikes.

Eateries in towns represented by the council have restaurant weeks scheduled through the fall, including Narragansett from Oct. 23-Nov. 1, and Westerly, from Nov. 1 through Nov. 8.

“We’ve made a concerted effort to kick out that shoulder season,” George said, of the months following Labor Day.

In Newport, immediately after the Labor Day weekend, the composition of visitors begins to shift, according to Smith. Different segments of the tourism economy kick into gear in September.

Business travel and conferences pick up, Smith said, including group meetings. Several of the Newport hotels that have conference rooms have bookings through the fall.

Cruises are another segment. Beginning in September, cruise ships carrying visitors on fall foliage tours start arriving off Newport. Smaller coastal cruise boats, which can hold up to 50 cabins, dock at Fort Adams State Park. Larger vessels, which can have 1,500-3,500 travelers, anchor in Narragansett Bay, and the visitors arrive by shuttles.

The Ocean State is not the final destination, but a stop on cruise-ship tours that typically begin in New York and then continue on to Newport, Provincetown, Mass., Portland, Maine, and Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Last year, Newport had 62 vessel stops in the fall season, including 27 of the larger ships.

Motor-coach tours, meanwhile, also stop more frequently in the fall, often filled with “leaf-peepers” on their way to foliage destinations in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York. The tours include seven-, 10- and 14-day itineraries, and Newport has become a popular stop. The motor-coach tours arrive periodically through the summer, perhaps three or four a day, Smith said. In the fall, the city gets as many as 50 a day.

Specific events in the fall are scheduled to attract tourists, and many serve to extend the season.

The 25th annual Bowen’s Wharf Seafood Festival that was held this year on Oct. 17 is one of the largest single events held in Newport.

Newport Restaurant Week, which will run from Nov. 6-15, was originally designed to help create interest in visits in the month of November, traditionally a gap month before the holiday-oriented tourism begins.

Finally, international travelers come to Newport throughout the year, but their numbers rise beginning in September. Seventy percent of international visitors come between Labor Day and Thanksgiving, Smith said.

Their origins are, in order of volume, England, Germany, France and Italy. Fall is promoted overseas as the best time to visit New England, and Rhode Island is often used as a gateway to the region.

“The book on New England is, go there in the fall,” Smith said. n

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