It's been a record breaking holiday weekend all along the Alabama Gulf Coast. Gulf Shores condos and hotels were holding at or near capacity as the last long weekend of summer '06 came and went.
Businesses enjoyed record levels of tourists and the revenue they bring. Retailers reported strong sales and restaurateurs saw some of the best days in their history.
Coming into the long labor day weekend, vacation rental operators were reporting reservation rates ranging from 80 to 100 percent.
Now's the time to start thinking about that fall vacation to the Gulf Coast. With the kids back at school the beaches will be less crowded and the shops and restaurants will be less full.
Some Baldwin County surfside businesses report record-breaking holiday crowds
GULF SHORES -- At Bahama Bob's Beach Side Cafe, every table, inside and out, was filled with lunchtime diners Monday. Cars spilled out from the packed parking lot onto Alabama 182, employees hustled to fill orders and even all the barstools were occupied.
"This is quiet compared to how the weekend's been," manager Teresa Giovannangeli said. "We've broken all types of records."
The midday scene at the Gulf-front eatery was a stark contrast to what was seen last year when Bahama Bob's had seen so few tourists that the owner could remember each out-of-towner that had visited that day and recalled for a reporter where each came from. At that time, the holiday weekend arrived fresh on the heels of Hurricane Katrina, curfews were still in effect, roads were blocked with sand drifts and fears of a gasoline shortage scared tourists away.
After two summers of storm-driven disruption to the tourism trade, officials said at the outset of this summer that it was their goal to bring business back to levels seen prior to 2004's Hurricane Ivan.
Based on his examination of monthly sales and lodgings tax numbers for the first part of the season and estimates of what August and September figures will be like, Alabama Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau president Herb Malone said that it appears tourism business returned to 90 percent of what it was before Ivan wrecked the beaches.
"I'm very satisfied that we've gotten within 10 percent," Malone said. "Overall that gives us an A-minus."
Malone said that this holiday weekend -- traditionally a strong closing to the summer season -- was particularly encouraging because Labor Day business had been slipping over the last several years due to increasingly early school start dates. But this past weekend, Malone said, seemed to buck that trend with hotels and condos at or near capacity, retailers reporting strong sales and restaurateurs claiming some of the best days in their history.
Before the weekend, some of the large local vacation rental firms reported reservation rates ranging from 80 to 100 percent.
On Monday, at the 119-room Holiday Inn Express in Orange Beach, front desk manager Peter Schenck said that although there was a high turnover rate for guests, no room spent a night unslept in.
"It's been full the entire weekend," Schenck said.