It’s been a year and a half to Super storm Sandy and the affected areas are still rebuilding. On the Jersey Shore, which is also reconstructing, the Memorial Day weekend thrills the peak tourism season.
Business owners rushed to reopen in last summers and they succeeded. But homeowners wriggled to repair and rent their properties.
In July, Long Beach Township Mayor Joe Mancini said, “He thought the weekly rental market in his area of the shore was down about 30 percent. Many tourists were confused about the level of damage at each area along the shore. You know, every time they showed that roller coaster in the water off of Seaside, they thought that was the entire Jersey coast, but it’s not.”
News was not that bad, the majority of countries affected by the Sandy, saw modest gains in the amount tourists spent last year and the main credit goes to the recovery effects, said by the professor of hospitality and tourism management at Richard Stockton College in Atlantic County, Mr. Brian Tyrrell.
Tyrrell said, “We actually saw some increase last year, particularly early in the year. He further continued, “We’re fully expecting that it’s going to be a real banner year this year for the Jersey Shore, I think that there’s a lot of communities are really ready and well prepared to see visitors coming back.”
Realtor Matt Schlosser local entrepreneur says, “Things are looking up after Sandy cut his business in half last summer, mainly because so many people hadn’t finished fixing their houses yet. I don’t think we’ll be on track for 2012 numbers. The demand is there, but if we have 20 percent less homes, we can’t do those types of numbers”.
The real estate agent with Prudential Zack Shore Properties, Ms. Elaine Atlee says, “Rentals on Long Beach Island last summer started slow, but eventually picked up.” So she is very much expectant about this season.
Atlee says, “Overall, driving around, it really doesn’t look like there was a storm anymore. Everything looks good, in order.” She continued, “There’s a handful that will be ready for next summer, so the inventory will increase again next year.”
The houses are now newer, bigger and more expensive, which helps the house owners to make up some of the lost revenue and every week, more homes are available to rent as people finish repair work.
Some people are renting out their homes for the first time, because of the storm including Atlee. When construction on her new house is done, renters will move in before she does. She’s already fully booked for August.
