Alabama gulf coast beaches witnesses’ tourism surge with worker shortage

Monday, June 7, 2021

The Gulf Coast beaches of Alabama are currently witnessing a huge rise in tourist numbers that for some businesses could prove to be their busiest June they’ve ever experienced.

Tourism officials are witnessing more traffic with the extra hotel and condo bookings along with longer table wait at restaurants, bigger lines at the grocery stores as businesses struggle heavily with shortage of workers as the economy comes out from the shackles of the pandemic.

Alabama tourism officials introduced a summer marketing campaign around the slogan “Worth the Wait.”

To quote Kay Maghan, a spokeswoman for Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism, told al.com, “With staffing shortages happening nationwide, especially in the tourism industry, we want to help guests understand what to expect or anticipate in our destination.”

At the end of May during the Memorial Day weekend, Gulf Shores and Orange Beach reported vacation rental occupancy of almost 85% — eclipsing previous high marks in 2019 and 2020, when huge number of visitors came soon after Alabama beaches reopened during the pandemic.

Also, tourism officials observed that Interstate 10 and other important routes to the beaches experienced huge pressure of traffic than normal during the holiday weekend that marks an unofficial kick-start of the summer season.

“The entire state tourism industry experienced a great launch during the holiday weekend,” said Lee Sentell, director of the Alabama Tourism Department.

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