Salem witnesses record visitors on Halloween

Wednesday, November 2, 2022

Halloween in Salem is indeed “a big deal”!

This year, however, Halloween proved to be a bigger deal for the Massachusetts city of 45,000. October witnessed crowds in record numbers. Salem has flourished on its image as ‘Witch City’ for the better part of the last half century, and October tourists are extremely important for the city’s local economy. Even with a Monday-night Hallow’s Eve this year, a characteristically slow weeknight fetched hordes of visitors.

Tourism statistics for the full month of October, including those for Halloween, won’t be accessible until a few days into November. Still, as per Destination Salem Executive Director Kate Fox, through the 28th, which is just before Halloween weekend, visitor numbers surged 7% from 2021, and 19% from the pre-Covid times.

Even in 2020, when majority of the world’s activity came to a grinding halt during initial months of the pandemic, visitors still dropped in Salem, in spite of the appeals from Mayor Kim Driscoll and ad campaigns asking tourists to stay at home for the sake of public health.

Greg Coles, a dance instructor and musician in Salem said that the city tried to plead visitors not to visit to restrain the spread of the pandemic. In spite of that, there was traffic. That traffic has only increased since then.

Although there are Salem residents irritated by the rush of tourists every year, a great deal of locals greeted the diverse Halloween crowd over the holiday weekend.

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