Stricter limits on beach driving caused a sandstorm of controversy on the Outer Banks this summer, but they didn't steer away tourists.
According to the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, year-over-year gross receipts from motels, rental houses and other lodging and gross receipts from meals were up three of the four major tourism months.
August was especially strong, thanks in part to the Labor Day weekend. Gross receipts for lodging rose 13.7 percent over last year, and gross receipts for meals were up 2.8 percent.
From Jan. 1 to Aug. 31, the bureau reported, occupancy receipts were 3.9 percent higher than last year and meals receipts were up roughly one-half percent - modest but remarkable gains in a year of high gas prices, wildfire smoke and steady economic decline.
At the end of April, the National Park Service, environmental groups, off-road vehicle alliances and officials from Dare and Hyde counties signed an agreement in federal court that sharply curtailed ORV access to areas of Cape Hatteras National Seashore where vulnerable bird species and sea turtles were nesting.
The beach closures temporarily shut off pedestrian and vehicle access to several popular fishing spots, and business owners reliant on recreational fishing reported big drops in sales. State figures for the summer are incomplete, but overall, taxable sales were up in June for both Dare and Hyde.
As park officials, islanders, conservationists and others work on long-term ORV rules, they should delve further into the effect on those businesses. But they also should acknowledge tourism wasn't as hard hit as critics had feared.
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Darryl Lease?
Darryl did you write this editorial too? Why not put your name on it?
What you fail to understand is that the figures are based upon
gross receipts, not actual numbers of people. We should delve further into the effect on those business's owned by the "Legal residents of the Villages of Hatteras Island" who by law, are guaranteed the right to "Earn a living by fishing within the boundaries of CHNSRA." We should ask the question why is flora and fauna rights prevailing over human rights specifically when Congress has mandated otherwise per the Enabling Legislation? The concept for creation of CHNSRA dates as early as July 21, 1933. Frank Stick, who envisioned during the midst of a depression when economic times were deplorable, “A Coastal Park for North Carolina and the Nation to stimulate the local economy, for the satisfaction of the esthetic and recreational need of the people," and that the “economic benefits of tourism would be enormous, and employment would be given to thousands”.
Outer Banks Visitor Info
You may want to check the Outer Banks Sentinel to actually get the correct breakdown on the occupancy information and then you might see that it is not as rosy as it has been painted. Also you might also want to talk to the folks in Hatteras and see what they have to say on the subject.
Outer Banks tourism overcomes bad news
Are you telling me that tourism didn't suffer at all because a tiny fraction of seashore wasn't accessible? Wow, what a surprise! What'll we hear next from Dare County, that the economy of the Outer Banks will collapse if the Bonner Bridge is replaced with the environmentally - and fiscally - responsible "long bridge?" Oh wait, we're already hearing that.
So, along with the passing of another summer, goes the credibility of the Dare County commissioners, DOT and everyone who uses hyperbole and deception to get what they think is in their own best interest.
Government at it's best.