Occupancy and meals up in March; Tourism Board updating strategic goals

From SamWalkerOBXNews.com

While occupancy and meals income in Dare County was up in March, the total numbers for the year so far continue to reflect a long-predicted reset of visitation to the Outer Banks.

In a report issued to the Dare County Tourism Board ahead of their May 16 meeting at the reopened Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras village, retails sales figures were lower for a second straight month.

A total of $23,855,777 was collected at Dare County accommodations in March, an increase of 4.12% from the year prior ($22,911,263).

It was the second highest gross occupancy collection all-time for the month of March, trailing only 2021 ($28,050,784).

Occupancy collections remain down by 24.36% for the year so far ($54,700,924) compared to 2023 ($72,315,596).

Occupancy classes seeing increases from February were Cottages (+22.78%), Other Rental Properties (10.84%), Property Management Agencies (+7.08%), Online Travel Companies (+5.96%), while declines were reported in Bed & Breakfast (-46.9%), Campground (-15.23%), Motel/Hotel (-7.01%), Timeshare (-2.6%).

For the year to date, Bed and Breakfast (+9.76%), Cottage (+9.63%), Other Rental Properties (+7.91%) are up, while Property Management Agencies (-27.02%), Timeshare (-22.53%), Campground (-18.35%), Motel/Hotel (-6%), and Online Travel Companies (-0.1%) are down.

The Bed and Breakfast percentages are considered to be skewed due to a massive amount of income from previous months being reported in February.

Occupancy on Hatteras Island was down 33.71% for the month and 74.58% year-to-date, the northern beaches were up 17.3% for the month and 7.3% for the year, while Roanoke Island/mainland was off 6.82% for the month while down 5.44% compared to March 2023.

Meals revenue bumped up slightly in March to $19,422,840 to set a new record for the month by 1.95% from last year’s previous high mark ($19,052,221).

For the year-to-date, prepared meal sales in Dare County totaled $43,532,135, down 6.08% through the first three months of 2023 ($46,349,241) which was the best first quarter all-time.

And when compared to the same period in 2019, meal sales have risen by 60.4%.

Hatteras Island was up 8.44% for the month but is now down 1.8% for the year, the northern beaches were up 1.65% for the month while off 6.54% year-to-date, and Roanoke Island/mainland declined 2.24% for the month and 5.53% for the year.

Retail sales in Dare County for February totaled $5,519,719, a second straight month of decline over the previous year ($5,720,632) with a decline of 3.51%.

A five-year streak came to an end of a new record high being set for the month of February.

Overall retail sales in 2023 set an new all-time high of $116,639,257, continuing the streak of growth to four years in a row.

• Click to view the full report

In other news from the May 17 meeting, Visitors Bureau Executive Director Lee Nettles said the board is progressing on updating the three-year strategic goals.

“(The) last time this was done was in the fall of 2020,” Nettles said, adding that the Outer Banks was in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanied explosion in visitation.

“We were in the midst of relaunching a website redesign…we had just launched an event grant program…these three year strategic goals were really a big deal, and we spent quite a bit of time on it,” Nettles said.

He said that the current discussions on the updated strategic plan includes the use of artificial intelligence, the proposed Event Center and boardwalk at The Soundside in Nags Head, and promoting the Outer Banks for out-of-peak months visitation.

Nettles said a complete rundown on the three-year goals is available on the visitors bureau website.