Myrtle Beach tourism wavers in a summer with shooting, fall with Irma

This spring, business looked promising in Myrtle Beach.

Sales were surging at places like The Gay Dolphin Gift Cove, which has occupied the space at 916 N. Ocean Blvd. since the middle of last century. Owner Buz Plyler said that in the spring, revenue was tracking more than 20 percent above last year.

“That is an astoundingly high amount for a 70-year-old business in any location,” Plyler said.

Several other businesses on Ocean Boulevard and some hotels also reported a strong spring to The Sun News. Many hoped for an even stronger summer. But that rising tide was stemmed, for some, by a single event in Myrtle Beach: the June 18 shooting on Ocean Boulevard that was instantaneously seen across the country via Facebook Live, as a visitor captured the violence in real time on Myrtle Beach’s main tourist thoroughfare.

Millions of people have since watched the video, and an analysis of the hospitality industry indicates that event could have had a severe impact on the industry that runs the Grand Strand’s economy.

A survey of the local hotel industry, released Friday by Coastal Carolina University’s Brittain Center for Resort Tourism, showed that average hotel occupancy plunged 4.2 percent, and revenue per available room dropped 1.5 percent this summer. The analysis covered the Saturday before Memorial Day to the Sunday before Labor Day and compared that period with the same span in 2016.

Multiple businesses in Myrtle Beach said the shooting was a watershed moment that packed a wallop during the busiest — and most crucial — time in the tourism season. Hospitality Tax collections also show a 1.3 percent dip across all of Horry County and a 3 percent dip in Myrtle Beach in July, the first full month after the shooting.

Stephen Greene, of the Myrtle Beach Area Hospitality Association, said it’s difficult to measure exactly what impact the violence had on the local economy.

“There were isolated areas that probably had a greater impact” from the shootings, Greene said.

Jimmy Waldorf, the owner of Fun Plaza Arcade at 902 N. Ocean Blvd., said the summer had been a spotty one, but he was still doing better than in 2016 — “Even with all the dag-gum negativity and the bullcrap that’s been reported.”

But the shootings, he said, had the biggest impact for the central part of Myrtle Beach.

“That particular incident put a damper on everything down here,” he said.

‘Riding the big wave’

Immediately after the June shooting, Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce president Brad Dean said the event was certain to have some negative impact on the tourism economy.

The hotel survey shows an inflection point around the time when six people were shot, allegedly by Derias J’Shaun Little, the North Carolina native who has been charged with multiple counts of attempted murder.

In the six weeks before the shooting, hotel occupancy was mostly flat, less than half a percent lower than the year before.

In the six weeks immediately after, hotel occupancy dipped 3.7 percent from the same period in 2016.

“Is [the shooting] the only thing that was different before versus after that event?” asked Taylor Damonte, who conducts the study. “I’m sure that’s not true, but it was one of the things.”

After the shooting, Myrtle Beach put into place a slew of safety measures, including temporary metal barricades along much of central Ocean Boulevard. City officials said that the barricades would help to separate pedestrians and vehicular traffic and stop the conditions that led to a confrontation.

But hoteliers and businesses said the move was almost akin to leaving up crime scene tape — it left a visual reminder that something happened, and led visitors to ask questions for weeks. They remained in place until late July.

David Perkins, owner of the 55-room Gazebo Inn at 1607 S. Ocean Blvd., said earlier this summer that his business was sharply affected by the measure. On Thursday, he said that the hotel never rebounded, and is now facing a 20 percent dip in revenue, year to date.

Chris Walker, owner of Mad Myrtle’s Ice Creamery at 918 N. Ocean Blvd., was not behind the barricades but said the shop had a poor showing in late June and July, the first time in the past five years he didn’t see growth for two months in a row.

“Until the shooting we were riding the big wave,” he said. “I kind of thought we were on pace for an incredible, blowout summer.”

At the Hampton Inn & Suites Oceanfront, General Manager Tom Moore said business was down 2 percent in July.

“Two percent’s a lot when you look at how much revenue you bring in in the month of July. That’s our bread and butter,” he said.

Managers of two major downtown attractions said their business might have been affected by fallout and discussion from the shooting, or they might have been affected by spotty weather in July.

Eric McGee, owner of the company that operates the zip lines on the former Pavilion site, said business there was down as much as 20 percent, while smaller attractions he operated at Broadway at the Beach had not seen a downturn. Rachel Beckerman, a manager at the SkyWheel, said business for the iconic Ferris wheel was “on par” with last year.

“More of a cause for concern” than the shooting itself, Beckerman said, was “the misinformation our tourists and locals get about our area.”

But other areas of the Grand Strand reported they were less affected by the violence, which happened near 4th Avenue North and was quickly associated with Myrtle Beach’s historic entertainment district.

‘They would just rather be at North Myrtle Beach’

George DuRant, vice president of tourism development for the North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce, said some vacationers took to the North Strand rather than vacationing in Myrtle Beach this summer.

He said the city benefited from a longtime reputation as a safe place for families, but cautioned that violence knows no boundaries.

“This could happen anywhere,” DuRant said. “I weigh carefully our fortune of good tourism when an unfortunate incident of that nature could happen to us.”

He said older millennials and families came to town this year, though late releases for some schools and a damp July had some effect in the area.

“It was a great year, one of our best, but I’d stop short of saying it was a banner year due to some hiccups,” DuRant said.

Like other areas of the strand, he said June was a strong month for hoteliers, July tracked on a similar pace with last year, and August initially looked to bring many people to town — until fears over tropical weather scared away some visitors, stoked by Hurricane Harvey in the Gulf and then exacerbated by Hurricane Irma, which was at one point forecast as a near-hit.

Elliott Beach Rentals saw a 5 to 6 percent increase in visitors this past summer, something that Vice President of Operations Brandon Cox attributes to the marketing of North Myrtle Beach. At the Ocean Bay Club Condominiums along South Ocean Blvd., tourism remained close to the same as last year, with a busy June.

“They would just rather be at North Myrtle Beach,” Mary Henderson, building manager, said. “It’s more family-oriented.”

On the south end of the Grand Strand, businesses reported revenues on par with the year before or higher.

“It was a pretty good summer,” said Lisa Bennett, assistant property manager with Old Colony Realty in Surfside Beach. “It was a lot of people looking for last-minute deals.”

Bennett said that the rentals stayed at capacity for most of the summer.

Businesses near the Surfside Pier did take a hit around the Fourth of July, due to the pier being closed after it was damaged during Hurricane Matthew, according to Jeff Fedak, manager at Scotty’s Beach Bar, next to the pier. But the damage there and at the Springmaid Pier was a boon for the Garden City Pier, clerk Moe Deets said.

Brookgreen Gardens, located between Litchfield by the Sea and Murrells Inlet, saw success in a special event it held for the eclipse in August, selling out all 3,500 tickets.

Lauren Joseph, a spokeswoman for the attraction, said she could not release specific attendance numbers for the summer.

“We met our projected — our budget goals for revenue, and fall is looking great,” Joseph said.

Irma dampens outlook

September is an increasingly important month for hoteliers and merchants, as tourism groups work to bring more interest to the “shoulder seasons” — the periods of the spring and fall when the weather is still pleasant and the ocean is relatively warm.

But Hurricane Irma dealt a blow to that business this year. Early forecasts indicated the storm could hit the South Carolina coast as a Category 3, but the tropical system ultimately took a sharp western turn up the Gulf coast of Florida.

That early forecast scared away important segments of business for the autumn, which has attracted group sales for conferences and events like the annual Omar Shriner’s parade.

The parade was canceled this year. Moore said the Hampton Inn Oceanfront lost roughly $60,000 in bookings from the Shriner’s event alone.

“In the case of a storm that’s the thing to do, refund that money, and I hate that we [lost] that business,” he said.

Greene said the outlook for the month was dampened by the storm. “It seems every year that September or October is affected” by a weather event, he said.

Hurricane Matthew made landfall just south of the Grand Strand as a Category 1 on Oct. 8, and in October 2015, the confluence of multiple weather systems led to a historic flood across the state, including in Horry County.

Some people fleeing the storm this year did come to the Grand Strand to escape the worst affects as the south half of the coast was most affected by the storm. But for the most part, visitors need to be coaxed back after a major event — whether caused by weather or a high-profile crime.

“People want to be invited back,” Greene said.

This story was originally published September 17, 2017 at 2:23 PM with the headline "Myrtle Beach tourism wavers in a summer with shooting, fall with Irma."