Beaches busier than expected in July

Tourism in the Myrtle Beach area is finishing up even stronger than expected for July, with average weekly occupancy at its highest levels since 2005, according to the Clay Brittain Jr. Center for Resort Tourism at Coastal Carolina University.

About 97 percent of the Strand's hotels, condo-hotels and campgrounds were full last weekend, and it's expected for this weekend's nights to have occupancy levels at or above 97 percent, said Taylor Damonte, the center's director.

``It's a little higher than what we expected a month ago when we were studying these weeks,'' he said. ``What we've seen during the most recent two weeks and what we're forecasting for the next week or two is a substantial turnaround from the performance of the industry in June.''

Another telling feature of this turnaround is that hotels are making more money from slashing their prices than in previous weeks, Damonte said.

The revenue per available unit was down 4 percent from what it was at the same time in 2008, but this is a big improvement from previous weeks, when it dipped as low as 10, 20 or 40 percent, he said.

``It's still too early to declare a bottom to the tourism cycle, but it is good to see this kind of performance,'' Damonte said. ``And it suggests that what we were beginning to see back at the end of the April may be reversal of the downward cycle.''

-- Monique Newton

Comments

[anthony]

You can't go by the busiest week of thhe year! Please report on august at the months end,thank you.