It’s make-or-break time on Block Island

Along the main road on Block Island, John Cullen plans to order the same amount of inventory at his Water Street T-shirt and toy stores as in the past. Down Water Street, Julie Fuller, the general manager of the 45-room National Hotel, plans to hire the same amount of staff. And on the opposite end of town, Frank DiBiase, the owner of the Spring House Hotel, said reservations are above last year’s levels and he expects them to climb.
Despite a stubborn economy and persistently high unemployment, business owners on this island 13 miles from mainland Rhode Island are putting on brave faces as they ramp up for the summer tourism season. Since the vast majority of visitors arrive in the summer, it is a time that either makes or breaks the island’s shops, hotels, bars and restaurants, almost all which close the rest of the year.
For the second time in two years business owners will enter a season with a troubled economy looming in the background.
“We’re cautiously optimistic,” said Cullen, who is also president of the Block Island Tourism Council. “We have to hope things are going to turn around.”
But what worries Cullen and his fellow business owners more is the weather. In a place that promotes fun in the sun, boating and lazy walks through protected lands, rain can decimate a season. Last year 19 days of rain in June alone and two hurricane warnings in August conspired to keep visitors off the ferries and airplanes headed to the island.
So business owners this year hope for a drier summer. And they’re hoping that people with less money to spend will stay closer to home and opt for a trip to Block Island.
Mark Brodeur, director of tourism at the R.I. Economic Development Corporation, said he sees vacationers doing just that. Traffic to the Block Island portion of the EDC’s tourism Web site has been robust from local Web surfers, particularly from people in western Massachusetts and those within a few hours drive of Rhode Island. “I do think if weather is going to be great it certainly will be a good playground for our drive market,” he said.
At Beach Real Estate, broker Mary Stover said people looking to rent homes were telling her that they chose Block Island because they cast off as too expensive the usual trips to Hawaii, the Caribbean, Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket. That’s helped keep reservations on par with the last two summers, Stover said, though price remains a strong consideration.
Owners of rental homes appear less willing this year to lower prices as they did last year in the face of the economic slump, said Stover and Edith Blane, a broker at Offshore Property Limited. Blane said the number of rentals at Offshore was down compared with last year, but suspected price – set by the homeowners – as the culprit.
“We have tried everything,” she said. “People this year were reluctant to lower their prices. Last year they lowered them … this year a lot of them wanted to put them up a little.”
The stakes to fill the rental houses are high for real estate agents, who often receive a commission on sales. And the renters fill the island’s restaurants, shops and bars.
To attract them, Cullen said the Tourism Council is being aggressive in supporting events that encourage visitors to make the ferry ride or plane trip. The council agreed to help pay for the second annual Taste of Block Island scheduled for the weekend after Memorial Day. The week offers participants special deals at restaurants and certain activities. The council also threw its support behind the annual Motoring Event that brings classic cars to the island in September. And, working with the local newspaper, the council recently finished work on a tourism magazine that it will distribute on the mainland by the thousands.
“You need to work harder in this economy to get the word out that we’re here,” Cullen said. The word appears to be spreading. Tourism Council Executive Director Jessica Willi said about a half dozen reporters have called looking for information to write articles in newspapers or magazines, which is good news for island businesses looking for free publicity. At Ballard’s Inn, President Steve Filippi said reservations at the beachfront hotel were up 40 percent over last summer. And so far management has booked 25 events for the summer. Last year at this time that number stood at 13, Filippi said.
“Anything can happen but I’m much more confident this year than last year,” said Filippi, whose inn opens May 19 with an event for University of Rhode Island students.
At the National Hotel, Fuller said reservations for weekends are streaming in and the Fourth of July weekend is already booked. Still, to grease the wheels, the hotel kept rates level with last summer’s prices and added more mid-priced items to its restaurant’s menu.
Fuller, a 27-year veteran of the hotel, said the hotel itself is also shopping around. She has asked vendors for better prices and talked her payroll service into reversing its upward march of fees. But Fuller and Filippi said vendors are not as ready to agree to price breaks as they were last year. And commodity prices play an oversized role because everything must arrive via boat or plane.
But it is not just business owners crossing their fingers for a good season. The town government relies heavily on ferry fees and meals, beverage and hotel taxes to keep afloat. For the fiscal year that ends June 30, the town hopes to receive $435,000 from those taxes alone, said Kim Gaffett, the island’s first warden and chief elected official. And in an $11 million budget – including support for the island’s sole school – $435,000 coupled with the ferry fees and revenue from town moorings and the like means a lot.
“We definitely hope for the best,” Gaffett said. •