Cool Days Crimp Summer Tourism in New England

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Cool days, rain, the Olympics and truncated school vacations all conspired this summer to sap the tourism and recreation trade around New England.

Just ask Luke Brunelle, owner of Brunelle’s Marina in South Hadley, who sputtered through a 10% to 20% drop in business this summer, compared to last year. The slowdown came just as his Connecticut River marina was bouncing back from the early 1990s doldrums.

“If there’s no hot weather, if there’s a forecast for rain or overcast weather, people just don’t come out,” he said. “I’m talking to people who have used their boats three or four times--people who usually use their boats 15 or 20 times.”

The temperature never reached 90 in June, July or August around much of New England, including Worcester, Mass.; Portland, Maine; and Concord, N.H.

In Concord, that last happened in 1915, according to the National Weather Service. The highest temperature in Portland for the entire three-month tourist season was 86, on July 18.

Blame the cool days on a southern jog in the jet stream, a band of high-velocity winds rushing eastward. It sucked cooler Canadian air south.

“It’s just a typical wintertime pattern . . . we’ve had since last summer. We’ve had a tough time shaking it,” said Mike Dion, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Taunton.

Windsor Locks, Conn., meanwhile, slogged through 7 inches of rain in July--3.8 inches above normal for the month. Many other places around the region were 2 and 3 inches above the average.

When dry weather did return, it did so with a vengeance in some areas. In Concord, the .06 inches of rain in August was 3.3 inches below normal--the driest August since records were first collected 125 years ago.

At Ocean Beach Park in New London, Conn., the rain, fog and cold kept people away in droves from the water slides and rides for most of the season, said operations coordinator Dina Smolenski. A stronger August failed to make up for the losses, with overall summer business down about 20%.

“You’re dealing with a short season and there’s just X amount of time to do this. It was a short summer and people were not in the summer mood to begin with,” said Smolenski.

Making things worse, some schools ended later than usual to offset snow days, and others reopened before Labor Day, she said.

“There were just plain too many lousy days this summer,” said John Burton, co-owner of the Spirit of Newport charter boat in Newport, R.I.

Andrew Caswell, who runs the para-sailing operations at Adventure Water Sports in Newport, added, “You’ll get the boat all loaded up and the fog will roll in. . . . We’ve been blessed with rotten weather all around.”

Hurricane Edouard, though it stayed off the coast, washed out the big Labor Day weekend, which is normally worth several thousand dollars to Adventure Water Sports, according to Caswell.

In western Massachusetts, the wet July cut into tourist lodging and dining mainly on weekdays, according to William Wilson Jr., director of the Berkshire Visitors Bureau.

In both Massachusetts and New Hampshire, tourism officials said the overall summer trade kept up roughly with last year’s. But it would have been better still with help from the weather, according to Mary Jane McKenna, director of the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism.

“When the temperature in New York City doesn’t go above 90 . . . then the New Yorkers who we are very dependent on are not as apt to jump in the car. They’re comfortable,” she said. “So I’m sure we’ve had a drop-off from that.”

In the New Hampshire lakes region, the wet July actually seemed to help certain businesses, sending shoppers indoors to outlet stores and retail shops, officials said. On that state’s seacoast, Hampton Chamber of Commerce President Glen French said beach businesses finished the summer within 3% of last year’s profits, despite the fickle weather.

In Maine, summer tourism suffered from both the damp July and the Olympics, according to John Johnson of the Maine Office of Tourism. “July killed us. We were going along gangbusters for May and June and looking forward to a great season,” he said.

Frustrated by July rains, some water lovers flouted the cool August days and took a dunk anyway. Ken Cormier, owner of Splashtown amusement park in Saco, Maine, said August business was “incredibly terrific.”