 With the summer vacation season fresh over state and local tourism officials and companies that rely on the summer season for economic stability are piecing together their assessments of how one of the wettest summer’s on record may have effected business.
No one can argue the summer season was/is exceptionally wet. Corpus Christi and San Antonio broke previous weather records for the wettest summer on the books, and most of the remainder of the state experienced serious wet conditions at least through a good part of the summer season.
On the lower Texas coast a random check with a number of local attractions indicates the summer has been a little slower than usual. But a few reported while the number of tourists were down, average spending per each visitor may have increased a little. Like statewide, it largely depends on the nature of your business.
For example, Six Flags of Texas, who operates theme parks in Arlington and San Antonio, says a strong finish in August helped pull attendance figures to near normal and expected levels, and says while it’s Dallas-based water park, Hurricane Harbor, suffered in attendance numbers, the cooler weather prompted guests to stay longer at the Arlington amusement park. Tot for tat.
Sea World in San Antonio is reporting wet weather helped spread visitors more evenly through the week and that attendance was about even with last summer. The home of Shamu usually gets a crush of customers on Saturdays, translating into long lines. Instead, rain-weary visitors came whenever the sun made an appearance, and the park saw a rise in folks who spread their visit over two days, said Dan Decker, the park's general manager.
It may have been a different story for Schlitterbahn Water Parks in New Braunfels, Galveston, and South Padre Island. In New Braunfels, park officials are reporting a strong finish to the season, but numbers appear down in South Padre Island. The new Galveston facility is open year round and company officials say they hope the extended season will make up for slower rain days at other parks.
A spokeswoman for the San Antonio Convention and Visitor’s Bureau (San Antonio is the state’s most visited city) says a state mandate for public schools to start later meant an extra week or two of vacation business. But instead of helping them break summer attendance records, that extra time simply meant an opportunity to make up for lost business earlier in the summer.
And so the argument begins. While state economic numbers won’t be released until next year, already some are claiming the summer season was a bust, others indicated elevated numbers of visitors and revenue, and a few reporting the season was just about normal.
One segment of the ‘attractions’ industry is actually lauding the wet summer as a stroke of good luck. Particularly indoor attractions -- like museums.
San Antonio’s Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum, for example, is reporting a bumper year as rains drove tourists inside. The same is true at Galveston’s Moody Gardens. At Moody Gardens on Galveston Island, attendance spiked 20 percent over last year, thanks to the longer school vacation, rainy days and a popular dinosaur exhibit.
"If someone is coming to Galveston to go to the beach and then it rains, they come to Moody Gardens," Ms. Bassett said.
Increased attendance was also reported at nearby Johnson Space Center. NASA officials say large throngs of visitors over the Labor Day weekend will send numbers even higher. In honor of the Star Wars’ 30th anniversary, Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber was on exhibit, and “the crowds came.”
It may be too early to tell whether local summer attractions suffered from rainy weather. Fishing guides, charter boats, and wave runner rental operators on the coast certainly had to deal with fewer beach and water days this summer compared to last. But early reports indicate a bumper fishing season may have offset the rainy, slower days to some degree.
In spite of summer vacation season’s close, lTexasl merchants indicated they are hopeful a busy fall travel season will help to make up for lost ground. September can be a reasonably busy month for travel -- if the rain stops!
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