Post-Sandy Tourism and the Shore's Perception Problem

It’s an enduring image of Hurricane Sandy’s destruction of the Jersey Shore and its coastal communities.

The Jet Star roller coaster, rising out of its saltwater foundation, is a representation of the sheer force of nature, one seen in publications around the world in the immediate aftermath of the storm.

Every day the ride has spent in the Atlantic Ocean since is a reality of just how long recovery can actually take. Eventually it will be removed, and likely soon, but what it represents, like every tattered boardwalk, every crushed house, and flooded business, is likely to linger much longer.

And it's what the Jersey Shore, and the people trying to maintain its tourism appeal, are fighting against.

As New Jersey’s beach towns ready themselves for the upcoming summer tourism season, they’re finding themselves facing a perception problem. Even as beaches are combed, boardwalks replaced, and businesses reopened, the Shore is still very much tied to images of destruction. As difficult as recovery was and still is for many resort communities, it’s convincing the outside world that progress is happening that could prove most difficult.

Bob Hilton, executive director of the Jersey Shore Convention and Visitors Bureau, has been on a recovery tour of sorts, traveling to conventions and shows in cities all along the east coast where the state tends to draw tourists from. As much as he’s tried to promote the shore, Hilton has found himself tasked rather with dispelling myths and misconceptions about the state of the shore.

“Their vision is that the Jersey Shore, the beaches and the communities, are all wiped out,” he said of public reaction during a recent Beltway tourism convention stop. “I came down with my tablet, I showed them very specifically the boardwalk in Belmar being rebuilt, how Spring Lake’s was done. I showed them Martell’s, in and out. I tell them this is our reality and they’re absolutely amazed. They can’t believe it.”

The confusion, to some degree, is understandable. Recovery is well on its way as evidenced by daily updates of boardwalk reconstruction and business reopenings, but it’s not there yet. Much of it depends on the town and how much damage was suffered during Sandy, of course, but for Hilton, there’s no indication that visitors should expect anything less than at least a halfway decent facsimile of a pre-Sandy Jersey shore.

Convincing them of such has become a top priority.

In New Jersey, tourism is a $38 billion a year industry. Much of that money is generated along the shore, in beach towns big and small from Monmouth all the way down to Cape May County. Each year New Jersey spends about $3 million on advertising, much if it finding its way to high population areas centers beyond the state’s borders like New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia.

This year, that total is getting bumped up to $25 million, Gov. Chris Christie recently announced, all of it coming from a Hurricane Sandy relief package approved by Congress in January. The direction of the funding is not yet known, but it’s likely that the advertising to relay to a larger audience what local officials and business leaders have been saying for several months: the Jersey Shore is open.

“Always will there be those images we first saw and still see of houses in the bay and cars and boats being pulled out of the water,” Jeanne DiPaola, director of the Ocean County Tourism Advisory Council, said. “It’s important to get those positive images out as well. If we get those out there, we can change the message.

“There are good, positive stories out there and we’re focusing on them. The hard part is just getting the message out, but we’re fighting”

Professionals involved in the tourism industry understand the totality of Sandy’s devastation, and understand that some residents lost everything and are still struggling to recovery.

“My goal is not to minimize the damage to the homes, but to emphasizes that every downtown is open. We owe it to them to scream that they’re open,” Hilton said.

It’s especially important in areas like Ocean County, which suffered arguably the most damage during Sandy. The business community needs to rebuild so it can continue feeding the area economic engine, DiPaola said.

In Ocean County alone, tourism is $3 billion a year business, she said. For every dollar spent during a vacation, whether that’s on food, rides, hotels, or any number of resort commodities, it’s recirculated through the local economy six or seven time, she said. That means more jobs, more business growth, and yes, even lower taxes for Ocean County residents.          

Encouraging visitors to return and spend their money in New Jersey calls for an advertising campaign that touts the shore’s comeback, DiPaola believes. State funded and non-funded Destination Marketing Organizations throughout the state have all been working on developing their own recovery campaigns, though it’s difficult to know if they’re reaching the right audience.

The further you travel from New Jersey, the greater the misconceptions are about the shore’s condition.

Even Shore communities that were largely spared by Sandy have been impacted by a dire image of New Jersey’s shore. Things get worse when the misconceptions go international.

Earlier this year, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno was invited by Cape May County’s tourism outfit to travel to Canada for a tourism conference. The trip is an annual one for southern beach town representatives, but like those stateside conventions and conferences attended by Hilton, the message was different this time around.

Of the approximately 430,000 Canadians who travel to New Jersey each year, roughly 70 percent make Cape May their final destination. This year, they weren’t even sure if there was a Cape May to return to.

“What we were seeing was the further away the more we were painted as one location. Those images (of devastation), they thought it was all of us,” Cape May County’s Director of Tourism Diane Weiland said. “Our mission was to let them know that not only were Cape May and Atlantic County largely unaffected but that Monmouth and Ocean County (resort towns) are reopening every day.

“Look at poor Atlantic City. It was already in bad shape but they made it seem like it was washed away.” 

As knowledge about the real condition of New Jersey’s beaches has continued to spread Weiland said, anecdotally, some Cape May County towns have seen an uptick in hotel and motel reservations when compared to last year. She acknowledged that some of them might be regular visitors to more northern shore locations, but the important thing is that they’re at least coming back to New Jersey rather than leaving for another destination.

In New Jersey, there’s not much competition between shore towns vying for the same visitors, she said, but beach communities outside of New Jersey, many of them untouched by Sandy, have tried to poach tourists. Advertising campaigns from out of state competitors have been aggressive, more aggressive than she can remember. One Delaware beach town ran radio spots in the aftermath of Sandy telling tourists to come to the right shore, instead, she felt it implied, of New Jersey.

“We know that our competition – southern beaches – are definitely getting a leg up and marketing to our visitors. Their message is don’t take a chance on visiting the wrong beach this year,” she said. “Our whole thing is stay in New Jersey.”

The first step is getting the word out.