Virginia Beach's tourism had 'off season' this year

VIRGINIA BEACH

Last summer, an assortment of glass dolphin and heart-shaped figurines sold out at the Ocean Style shop on Atlantic Avenue.

Bhargavi Raval, co-owner of the T-shirt and souvenir store between 9th and 10th streets, said she sold at least half her stock of sunglasses in 2007. And customers emptied much of the store’s supply of printed T-shirts, priced at $8.99 a year ago.

This summer, nothing’s moving, Raval said. She has sold no more than 17 of the glass figurines, compared with more than 100 last year. Just a single rack of sunglasses is gone. One wall at Ocean Style remains covered with T-shirts, which Raval marked down to $5.99.

“Every day, maybe 15 shirts I’m selling,” Raval said of last summer. “This year, maybe one, maybe two.”

Several of her fellow Oceanfront retailers echoed Raval’s assessment of the summer season. Noticing both a decline in tourist traffic and a reluctance among travelers to spend this year, most said their sales have dipped 5 to 20 percent from 2007.

Raval estimated that her store has lost at least 50 percent of its sales from last year. Daily sales dropped to $400 or $500 from $1,200 or $1,500 in the prior season.

“It’s an off season this year,” agreed Ezra Bendayan, who has owned Pacific Beachwear at 1820 Atlantic Ave. for 11 years. He said his sales have fallen 5 to 10 percent from last summer, because of a slowdown in tourist traffic.

Dustin Courtright, owner of Sunglass Shack at 19th Street and Atlantic Avenue, said he and many of the merchants near him have seen about a 20 percent decrease in sales. “There’s definitely not as many people this year.”

Not every retailer has seen a loss. Sales for Sunsations – with eight stores in Virginia Beach, three in North Carolina and others on the East Coast – remain about the same as a year ago, said Bob Paulsen, the retailer’s general manager.

“The difference, I think, is you’ve had a lot more of your local people shop the Oceanfront, instead of going away,” Paulsen said. “That really has been the salvation for us.”

Kohr Bros. frozen custard calculated an increase in sales this year from last summer, said Bonnie Burr, district manager for its three Oceanfront locations. Crowds stayed out later at night, she noticed, and the store’s past-midnight hours allowed it to grab those shoppers.

“They’ve been buying,” Burr said. “They’re eating. They might not be spending on clothes and stuff.”

That’s the picture that many retailers painted of this summer. Even in tough economic times, families want to take some kind of vacation. They usually shop with the dollars left after they pay for hotels and meals. This year, with significant increases in food and gasoline costs, they ended up with less available for optional purchases such as souvenirs.

“Not only do we have less people coming, but they’re spending less as well,” said Steven Page, owner of the Del Sol clothing and accessories shop at 19th Street and Atlantic Avenue. “The souvenirs and types of things that I sell are just falling under the radar a bit because they don’t have that discretionary income.”

The T-shirts, sweatshirts and silk shirts that usually drive Del Sol’s sales fell off this summer, while less-expensive items such as nail polish and jewelry moved faster than in the past, Page said. The average total purchase slipped to $22 from $26 last year, he said.

At the Island Breeze gift and clothing store at 3028 Atlantic Ave., customers who come back every year and splurge on whatever they like – including the store’s pricier Tommy Bahama clothing and trendy handbags – might have bought only a pair of $10 sunglasses this summer, said Galit Ozeri, the shop’s buyer. Visitors who made multiple trips to Virginia Beach from Richmond, Washington and West Virginia in previous summers came only once this year, she said.

“This is the last week of the season, and look what happened,” Ozeri said last week, gesturing around her empty showroom.

Merchants have faced pressure this year on the cost side as well, with wholesale prices on their merchandise increasing mostly because of fuel and transportation costs. This has squeezed margins for items such as beach chairs, towels, boogie boards and similar equipment. Those products are highly competitive on the Oceanfront and already carry smaller margins than clothing, jewelry and souvenirs, said Raval of Ocean Style.

Retailers can’t raise prices easily on the beach items to balance out their losses from the other products – they’ll lose those sales to competition. Such products are loss leaders for Pacific Beachwear, said Bendayan.

“You’ve got to give them incentives to come in,” Bendayan said of customers. “And hopefully they’ll buy something else.”

Carolyn Shapiro, (757) 446-2270, carolyn.shapiro@pilotonline.com