Summer tourist season on Long Island hits midpoint — and it's looking good

So far so good.

That’s the response from operators of beaches, restaurants, museums, wineries and other Long Island attractions when asked about the financial performance of this summer’s tourism season at midpoint compared with the same time last year.

"I’m hearing very positive remarks," said Kristen Reynolds, CEO and president of Discover Long Island, the region’s largest tourism promotion agency. "Last year was what a lot of people considered a soft summer, especially on the East End."

The weeks between Memorial Day and Labor Day are crucial to the Island’s tourism industry, which accounted for $6.62 billion in visitor spending and 100,000 jobs in 2022, based on the most recent report from the research firm Tourism Economics in Wayne, Pennsylvania.

"Summer is critical because it’s what Long Island represents to tourists: our beaches, our parks and our outdoor theaters and events," Reynolds said, adding more than 50% of the industry’s revenue is produced in the late-May-to-early-September period.

"Summer’s also critical because that’s when the rates are the highest for our hotels due to high demand. Overnight visitors, particularly international visitors, are the most valuable to us. For every $100 they spend on a hotel room, they spend approximately $221 at restaurants, stores and attractions in the local community," she said.

Hotel rooms across Long Island were about as full this year during the week that included July Fourth as they were last year.

The average occupancy rate from June 29 to July 6 was about 80% in Nassau County and nearly 75% in Suffolk County, which was little changed from the same Saturday-to-Saturday stretch last year, according to data provided to Newsday by CoStar in Washington.

The South Shore, including Jones Beach and Robert Moses State Parks, attracts the most tourists: more than 4 in 10, based on data collected from cellphone users and credit-card holders who live at least 50 miles from Long Island. The data was gathered by the software company Zartico Inc. in Salt Lake City.

The North Shore and South Fork each account for about 20% of the visitors followed by the Gold Coast mansions, 11%, North Fork, 4%, and Fire Island, 2%, based on the Zartico data provided by Discover Long Island.

Here’s how businesses in some of the Island’s tourism hubs are faring in summer 2024 compared with last year.

— James T. Madore

Long Beach 

Long Beach is swimming with visitors. 

More than 38,900 people bought day passes from the beginning of beach season in late May through the end of June, according to city data. That’s more than double the volume of day passes sold (without resident discounts) at this point last year, and more than the roughly 37,900 admissions at this point in 2019, before the pandemic began, data shows.

The season is off to a strong start thanks to early heat waves — a welcome change from last summer, when smoke from Canada wildfires and bouts of rain deterred visitors, said Brian Braddish, who owns Riptides 11561, an eatery on the boardwalk.

"You need a good forecast," Braddish said. "That's what it's all about." 

New dining options, coffee shops and bars have bolstered foot traffic and seem to be enhancing Long Beach’s appeal over neighboring shorelines, business owners said.

Two blocks from the boardwalk, Long Beach Hotel opened an in-house restaurant and bar early this summer, manager Benji Kadosh said. The hotel has consistently been fully booked — even during the business week — and can’t always accommodate all of airlines’ last-minute requests for rooms, he noted.

"We’re almost sold out every night," Kadosh said. "We used to not be filled up during the week."

Tipsy Scoop, an alcohol-spiked ice cream company, has been operating a pop-up location at the Allegria Hotel since its lease expired on the west end, founder Melissa Tavvs said. Business is brisker, said Tavvs, who lives on the barrier island. 

"Once July 1 hits . . . it’s nonstop through the end of summer," she said.

Not all businesses are seeing a wave of customers. Demand for chartered boat rides has been down this summer and in 2023 after spiking at least 30% during the pandemic, said Paul Mistretta, owner of Long Beach Charter Cruises. About half his clients live in the metro area, and half are travelers from outside the metro area, he said.

"Since people can now travel more, it has been less [busy]," Mistretta said, adding that "I have some competition now."

— Sarina Trangle 

Montauk

A stretch of sunny weekends in June helped encourage last-minute travelers to Montauk in the early weeks of the summer, and available rooms were hard to find for July Fourth, said Mariah Miltier, president of the Montauk Chamber of Commerce.

That bodes well for the restaurants, hotels and attractions that make the bulk of their money during the summer even as Montauk works to build up its "shoulder seasons" in the fall and spring.

"It’s absolutely crucial those months are strong for us," Miltier said of the summer.

Spur-of-the-moment travelers will find rooms over the weekend can cost $450 to $1,000 a night, according to online booking sites. Lower rates can be found for midweek jaunts.

Miltier said Montauk continued to see a range of tourists from bachelorette parties chartering the Mon Tiki catamarans to families camping at Hither Hills State Park.

For Viking Fleet, a six-boat operation that offers fishing trips, sunset cruises, whale watching and ferries, business has been building back up since COVID, said Jill Winkleman, the fleet’s marketing manager. Viking Fleet has doubled the number of weekly whale watching trips it runs this summer to four.

"We’re anticipating more day trippers this year because of what the cost of staying out in Montauk has become," she said. “ . . . It’s a different crowd. A younger crowd. You’re definitely not seeing the amount of families you used to see."

David Benavidez, executive chef at Gosman’s Seafood Restaurant, said he’d noticed the same trend of younger crowds and fewer families, resulting in less daytime business. Benavidez, who is in his second summer season at Gosman’s and sixth working in Montauk, says business has been slower this summer at the restaurant, where steamed lobsters, fish and chips and shrimp baskets are among the most popular orders.

"Last year, we never had two consecutive days where we weren’t busy. If one day was slow, the next day was busy," said Benavidez. "This year, we have had a couple of consecutive slow days."

When business is slow, it also makes it difficult to be prepared for a deluge of customers, he said, which is critical to hit financial goals before the restaurant closes for the season on Sept. 29. 

"Making sure that we’re ready for those surges and we turn up the intensity has kind of been a challenge. When you’re slow, you’re a little bit lax," he said. "There could be 1,000 people around the corner at any time."

— Jonathan LaMantia

North Fork 

The owners of wineries, farm stands, restaurants and other tourist attractions on the North Fork are counting on sunny skies and moderate temperatures to continue this summer so they can make up for sales lost in the spring when rain and cold temperatures kept visitors away.

So far, the area’s wineries, a key attraction, reported revenue increases compared with the same period in 2023.

"We’re up from last year because we decided to do some different things early in the season, including have bigger bands to try to draw more of a crowd," said Pindar Damianos, co-owner and general manager of Pindar Vineyards.

The Peconic-based winery offers free weekend concerts until the end of November featuring bands that pay tribute to the music of the Rolling Stones, John Fogerty, Janis Joplin, ZZ Top and others. Damianos said about 3,000 people attended a concert over Father’s Day weekend.

He and Kareem Massoud, winemaker at Paumanok Vineyards in Aquebogue and Palmer Vineyards in Riverhead, said summertime was crucial to their retail sales — but so were weekends in the fall.

"The weekends get even busier in September and October than they do in the summer," said Massoud, adding that his sales were up compared with last year, but profit was about the same because of rising costs. "All is not lost if we don’t have a strong summer season because the fall is a very important season as well."

The winery executives said at least three quarters of their retail customers are from the metropolitan area.

Summer sales help to sustain the area’s tourism-related businesses in the winter, according to Judy McCleery, president of the North Fork Chamber of Commerce and owner of Vivid Visions Photo-Graphics in Southold.

"Everyone is hoping to rebound after the crummy spring when the rain and cold discouraged people from coming to the North Fork," she said, adding companies that cater to tourists receive more than 50% of their sales from Memorial Day through September. "If the weather stays good that helps."

— James T. Madore

North Shore/Gold Coast mansions

Tourists who like to get down to business have made the North Shore — which is coextensive with the Gold Coast and its estates built by some of the most notable captains of industry — a popular summertime destination.

"The Gold Coast mansions are a critical draw from a destination driver standpoint," said Discover Long Island CEO and president, Kristen Reynolds. "The history and intrigue of the Gatsby era remains popular, and with the 100th anniversary of The Great Gatsby [book publication] we are already seeing strong demand for information and access to the mansions." The North Shore has great beaches and other attractions but, "the North Shore mansions provide visitors more to explore…." she said.

Starting in the early 1890s, more than 500 of these mansions were erected on what became known as the Gold Coast. Those now open for public tours include Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park in Oyster Bay, The Vanderbilt Museum and Planetarium in Centerport, Sands Point Preserve in Sands Point, Oheka Castle in Huntington, and Old Westbury Gardens in Old Westbury. All together these sites are visited by more than 700,000 visitors yearly.

Two examples of the great outdoors visitors can experience at these properties can be found at the Planting Fields and Vanderbilt estates.

The Vanderbilt property, which has about 150,000 visitors a year and overlooks Northport Bay, includes the house (named Eagle’s Nest) that in 1910 William Kissam Vanderbilt II commissioned the Warren & Wetmore architecture firm to build as a summer house. 

"The Vanderbilt and its rolling landscape and gardens are at their most beautiful during the summer," said Elizabeth Wayland-Morgan, executive director of the Vanderbilt Museum. "Visitors can walk the hiking trail, fly kites, and explore our first outdoor sculpture exhibition — the striking animals created out of scrap steel by Brooklyn artist Wendy Klemperer."

Planting Fields, with about 250,000 visitors annually, was the estate of the Coe family. William Rogers Coe was vice president and treasurer of the Virginian Railway and was instrumental developing Planting Fields as a public arboretum.

— Lisa Irizarry

Fire Island

Business owners along Fire Island’s 32-mile stretch of protected beachfront say without the summer tourism season, there is no business community.

"Fire Island, unlike other places in the country relies totally on tourism," said Chris Mercogliano, co-president of the Ocean Beach Chamber of Commerce. "There are no other monies or means of supporting yourself here as a main street business other than tourism."

Each year, more than 2.2 million visitors are estimated to visit the Fire Island seashore or one of its 17 surrounding communities, according to the National Park Service.

Visitors to the region spent more than $19.6 million in the communities surrounding the park in 2022, according to a report released last year by the park service.

Mercogliano, who owned and operated CJ’s Restaurant & Bar and the Palms Hotel Fire Island with his wife Laura before selling the businesses, said the region was heavily reliant on day trippers — primarily from New York City — taking a ferry in and spending at local bars and eateries.

While the region was initially impacted by pandemic lockdowns in early 2020, business quickly bounced back that year as thousands left New York City to enjoy the outdoors, said Harvey Levine, longtime owner of the Blue Waters Hotel in Ocean Beach.

The biggest factor behind whether this season will be a lucrative one for local businesses is the weather, Levine said.

"Fire Island is a tourist destination because of the beach," Levine said. "Summertime, spring, and early fall. That’s it. During the winter there is nothing going on."

Scott Hirsch, co-president of the Ocean Beach Chamber of Commerce and owner of Island Mermaid, a restaurant on the Great South Bay, said factors such as the summer rental market had an impact on tourist visits to Fire Island.

"During COVID, pricing on rentals sort of peaked," Hirsch said. "They stayed very high, at least in Fire Island."

This year, Hirsch said, he’s noticed an increase in the number of rental properties with vacancies, something he attributes to elevated consumer prices.

"You’re seeing supply outstrip demand, whereas during COVID, demand was outstripping supply," Hirsch said. That, combined with visitors having more choices for international summer travel this year, post-pandemic, has led to a decrease in daytime visitors.

"Businesses seem to be doing OK," Hirsch said. "But it seems to me that the daytime traffic seems to be down 15% to 20% this year."

— Victor Ocasio