Like leaves in autumn, some areas of Newport’s tourism industry are reporting colorful changes, while others have seen their sales fall dramatically. Robert Rosenberg, president and chief executive officer of the Newport County Convention and Visitors Bureau, said there was a brief decline in business after the events of Sept. 11, but most of the industry is back on track, and in some areas doing even better than before.
“It really depends on who you talk to,” he said. “On weekends it has been pretty difficult for most people to find hotels, and the cruise ships are still bringing in a lot of visitors, but there have been cancellations too.”
Seifert Systems Invests in Energy Efficiency to Strengthen Operations
For manufacturers, energy is more than just another operating expense. It plays a critical role…
Learn More
Stephan Nicolas, general manager of Newport’s Cliffside Inn, said the fall success of his bed and breakfast is the result in part to a nation’s reluctance to fly since the events of Sept. 11.
“Amazingly enough the fall was really excellent,” he said. “We experienced the same thing I imagine everyone in the country experienced, which was a short period of cancellations, but it was followed by an immense number of re-bookings. People who are no longer willing to fly are coming to stay at driving locations.”
“They come to quiet little resort towns where the chance of something horrible happening is pretty slim,” he said. “Newport is just in a position to do really well.”
Restaurant-owner Jim Beaulieu said his restaurants, the Wharf Pub & Restaurant and the more upscale Le Bistro, are seeing more regional customers these days too.
“If anything, we’re seeing a strong resurgence of New Englanders,” he said. “We’re not seeing the Pacific Rim customers we saw in the summer. We’re not seeing American Express checks signed in Chinese and Japanese because of a drop off in air travel.”
Rosenberg also cited what he called the “drive market” as a reason for more autumn interest in Newport, and is directing marketing efforts to people within driving distance of the area.
“It’s geared to the New York Metro area, Connecticut, Boston and New England in general, because that’s where the greatest potential for visitors is,” he said.
“We still hear that there is still somewhat of a reluctance for groups to meet in big cities,” he said of convention business, “and they’re aggressively looking at Newport.”
One group to report new reluctance is the Preservation Society of Newport County, whose lifeblood is the success of the Newport Mansions.
Trudy Coxe, the group’s chief executive officer, said the society was celebrating its best month ever because of expanded marketing efforts, right before the Sept. 11 attacks, when “the bottom fell out and everything went south.”
“We were raising champagne glasses to how well we did,” she said, referring to the fact that for the month of August the mansions ranked No. 1 for attendance in a list of 46 New England Museums, which included Mystic Seaport, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Sturbridge Village and Plimouth Plantation. Ranking in front of the Boston Museum of Science by about 6,000 tickets and increasing its membership from 3,800 to 10,000 over the summer, the Preservation Society sold 170,000 tickets in August. In contrast, Coxe said the group lost $400,000 in September.
“We keep daily attendance counts and we’re about 12 percent down,” she said. “We went into September feeling very pleased with ourselves and optimistic because September and October are our big months. People are looking to see the leaves change and do a sweep of Newport to New Hampshire and Vermont.”
Coxe said fall is also usually successful for the mansions because they are often used to host wedding parties. Because of the terrorists’ attack on New York City and Washington, D.C., plans were rearranged and refunds were given when they might not normally be.
“One wedding was canceled when a father wrote a letter saying how his daughter who worked in one of the World Trade Center towers saw here fiancé’s tower go down,” she said. “It was a very devastating month, even in Newport, far away from New York City, far away from the Pentagon and Pennsylvania.”
Coxe said the Preservation Society has planned a holiday-season program to make up for what it lost in the past few months.
“Three of our most impressive buildings are decorated to the nines, and we will really work hard to get people to come here and enjoy a good, old-fashioned Christmas scene,” she said.
Rosenberg said the entire community is making an effort for the winter. Summer is obviously the best season for Newport, he said, but with events such as the Newport Boat Show in September and leaf peepers coming in the mid-autumn, winter is the only real “off-season.”
“In what is called the off season probably 90 percent of our infrastructure is open,” he said. “And creation of Winter Package Programs has helped us prepare for winter significantly.”
