Less than ideal weather and traffic has slowed the summer
tourism season on Cape Cod so far. The Cape drew less than 400,000 visitors
in the first quarter of the 2004 season, a slight drop-off from the same time
last year.
Arthur Ratsy, vice president of tourism for the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, said weather is certainly a factor for tourism in Cape Cod, however, not always a substantial one.
“Weather does always present a problem. It has an effect, but not a dramatic effect. People tend to make last-minute reservations and look at the weather forecast to make their plans from there,” said Ratsy.
Ratsy said that despite a rocky start in May and June, Cape Cod got off to a good start in July.
“If the traffic is any indication of how busy we are, it’s been jam-packed. There are still an awful lot of people down here and we’re very busy,” said Ratsy.
Ratsy added that the traffic has been a cause for concern but that will change with the construction of a new Sagamore rotary “flyover” that will provide a direct connection from Route 3 to the Sagamore Bridge and replace the existing rotary, a known cause for traffic jams. The project is expected to take two years to complete.
According to Jeff Talmadge, owner of All Seasons Vacation Rentals and weneedavacation.com, the rental business is also being affected by the last-minute planning that has become Cape Cod’s new trend.
“I think it’s been a bit softer, but it’s been picking up lately. The spring
was very slow but there’s been quite a surge in the June-July time frame for
last-minute decision-makers and we are hopeful that at the end of that it will
be about the same as last year,” he said. “The rhythm has definitely changed
to one of more last-minute planning. In prior years, vacationers tended to plan
quite a bit in advance and now they’re taking their sweet time.”
LeeMarie Kennedy is an intern at PBN.
