Virginia Beach and the Outer Banks prepare to open for the tourist season

With the weather warming and tourist season just around the corner, Virginia Beach and the Outer Banks are gearing up for vacationers. Both areas took a hit from the pandemic last year, but as more people get vaccinated and families can finally shake off that cabin fever, business owners are looking forward to a rebound.

Last March, Virginia Beach hoteliers felt the sudden impact of the coronavirus pandemic when multiple sellout weekend events were abruptly canceled. They braced for what shaped up to be the most devastating tourist season on record with losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Now, one year later, resort area hoteliers are on a hiring blitz, unrolling the welcome mats and fluffing pillows.

“We’re cautiously optimistic,” said John Zirkle, president of the Virginia Beach Hotel Association. “It’s going to be a make or break summer for a lot of hotels.”

Typically, summer revenue carries hotels through the slow winter months, but some owners had to draw from their reserves to stay afloat, Zirkle said.

“There are a lot of hotels hanging on by a thread,” he said.

In North Carolina, you better book an Outer Banks beach house quick or it will be too late for this season.

Midgett Realty on Hatteras Island reports that 100 percent of their peak summer season rentals are reserved. All but a few of the 500 homes offered by Brindley Beach Vacations and Sales in Corolla have been claimed.

The spring and fall seasons are also filling fast.

“Oh yeah. It’s across the board,” said Doug Brindley, owner of Brindley Beach Vacations. “Everybody’s doing well.”

Last summer and fall, COVID-19 spread quickly, but some of the largest crowds came to the wide-open beaches of the North Carolina barrier islands. It was a great place for “coastal distancing” as some called it.

Expectations are that will happen again in 2021.

“It’s going to be another very, very busy year,” said Beth Midgett, reservations manager for Midgett Realty. “A pet friendly, oceanfront house is a rare bird right now.”

Virginia Beach also rallied last summer behind its biggest selling point: the beach.

“We had the right product at the right time,” said Lauren Townsend, spokesperson for the Virginia Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The city pulled together a plan to safely reopen the resort area beach just in time for Memorial Day weekend and spent $2 million on a marketing campaign touting fresh air vacationing and measures being taken to provide clean, safe visits.

By June, hotel room reservations were on the upswing, a trend that continued through the summer months. Still, hotel revenue was down about 30% last year, Zirkle said.

If Virginia’s coronavirus-related restrictions on gatherings are lifted, it will give a major boost to hotel revenue this season. Hotels that rely on catering parties in large ballrooms are feeling the pinch of Gov. Northam’s mandated 10-person limit.

“You’ve got a room that can hold 300 people, but you can only have 10 people in it,” Zirkle said. “If we can start hosting weddings and events again, that will really allow things to get better and better.”

He’s worried wedding parties will drive past Virginia Beach and head to South Carolina, where restrictions are loosening.

After a slow year and a slew of layoffs, hoteliers are now scrambling to restaff. Zirkle manages the Doubletree Hotel next to the convention center. He had to say goodbye to 100 employees at the start of the pandemic when room reservations plummeted.

“It was the most heartbreaking time I’ve dealt with in my career,” he said.

The pandemic delivered the same blow last year to Outer Banks’ beach towns. Dare and Currituck counties closed the road to the Outer Banks from mid-March to mid-May last year as virus cases rapidly spread. When the area reopened, crowds poured in.

Some business had the best year ever and some had the worst, said Lee Nettles, executive director of the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau. He hopes this year everybody can thrive.

“It was the strangest year I’ve ever seen,” he said.

While beach rental houses thrived, motels, attractions, restaurants and bars closed for much of the year.

Revenues were down at the Outer Banks Fishing Pier and at Fish Heads Bar and Grill, located at the pier, said owner Garry Oliver.

Oliver closed his bar and stopped hiring live bands in the restaurant.

“I followed the rules,” he said.

Virus cases are falling as more get vaccinated. He plans on business returning to normal this season.

“By Memorial Day or July 4th, we’ll be able to go wide open,” he said.

Brindley Beach Vacations’ rental revenues were near zero during the first five months of 2020. Once the beaches reopened to visitors, single-family home rentals were the safest way to go on vacation and remain distanced from crowds. Families could swim and fish at the beach and eat meals at the house. Several schooled their children at the beach house while on extended vacation.

This year, rental bookings are $950,000 above last year at this time, said Brindley.

And it wasn’t just beaches that drew people to the coast. In Virginia Beach, First Landing State Park — the state’s most visited state park — became an even more popular destination for residents and visitors seeking an outdoor experience. First Landing had a 14.7% increase in visitors compared to 2019.

Jockey’s Ridge State Park in Nags Head reported a record 1.9 million visitors in 2020, the most of any state park in North Carolina. The Cape Hatteras National Seashore saw the most visitors last year since 2003.

A record number attended the park and visited the Wright Brothers National Memorial for the month of January, a sign that crowds will be large again this year, said Dave Hallac, superintendent of the National Parks of Eastern North Carolina.

Reservations for the park’s four campsites are filling rapidly, he said. He expects to hire the normal contingent of about 100 seasonal workers. But visitors can reserve campsites and get beach driving permits online now, allowing more staff to work outside, he said.

“That frees up their time to have more boots on the ground,” Hallac said.

More workers will be cleaning bathrooms, emptying trash cans, maintaining signs and overseeing shorebird and turtle nests, he said.

In Virginia Beach, the new sports center has been steadily hosting track events, boosting hotels and other resort area businesses. Restaurants will be able to continue to offer expanded outdoor dining options under a city law that was passed last May. And starting April 1, a new team of uniformed “ambassadors” will be tasked with keeping Atlantic Avenue clean and providing information to tourists.

“These ambassadors will add a nice layer of service and sense of welcome to the Oceanfront area,” Townsend said.

Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com

Jeff Hampton, 757-446-2090, jeff.hampton@pilotonline.com