HYANNIS – The summer tourism season is underway as visitors flocked to Cape Cod over Memorial Day Weekend and officials are hoping for another successful season.
Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce CEO Wendy Northcross is optimistic that 2017 will bring solid business to the region’s tourism industry based on reported bookings, website traffic, the regional economy and international trends.
“In some cases it’s very, very strong and in some cases it’s pretty god,” said Northcross.
Northcross said new data indicates Boston as the target demographic for potential visitors.
“That Boston economy is just on fire,” Northcross said. “The unemployment is so, so low.”
Northcross said there are a lot of people that will have disposable income.
“Work means stress and stress is very good for the vacation industry,” she said. “So I think you are going to see a lot of stressed out Bostonians, people from the metro-Boston area, people from New York and as school gets out people come from further and further away.”
Northcross believes the region will also see many visitors from overseas this summer as many inbound international visitors will be flying into Boston’s Logan International Airport.
“I think you are going to see very strong visitation from the U.K., Germany and China,” Northcross said.
Many areas in the country struggle to secure the international traveler out of New York and Los Angeles.
“We don’t have that problem,” she said. “We enjoy a good robust international visitor base.”
Northcross said predicting the season is getting more and more difficult as travelers are continuing to be more spontaneous.
“You used to be able to tell by February how the season was going to roll out,” she said. “People would have all their arrangements done by February whether it was a home rental or a hotel and now it’s the weekend and there’s people that will wake up this morning and decide today and they will jump online and book a room.”
Northcross said it has become a last minute world for the domestic traveler.
By BRIAN MERCHANT, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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