CAPE MAY — Board members of the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Cape May are predicting a good summer season for the city’s business sector despite high gasoline prices and a downturn in the national economy.
At a press conference Monday, called to announce chamber dues would be cut in half to encourage more membership, Chamber President Robert Steenrod said signs were positive for a healthy summer season.
“I think the gas prices will help us,” he said. “We still target a 300-mile radius, an eight-hour ride, one gas tank away.”
Steenrod, who owns pet-friendly rental homes with his wife Linda, a city councilwoman, said he has seen more visitors from upstate New York and Connecticut.
Laurie Johnson, chamber first vice president, said she had a good Easter week at her business Oma’s Doll Shop.
Peter McCabe, chamber third vice president and a real estate broker, said reservations are “good to up.” He noted reservations from Pittsburgh and Ohio.
Steenrod said his whole house rental property had only three weeks unreserved for the summer.
“We are seeing a trend of people making more last minute decisions,” he said.
McCabe said, “Everyone wants to be on the beach rather than three blocks away” from the water.
Steenrod said room tax collected by the city last year went from just over $1 million to $1.1 million.
“That was a good indication that we had a very good year,” he said.
Steenrod said 2007 was his best year in business.
A large influx of Canadian visitors helped last year’s tourist season, said Steenrod. The chamber participated in a travel show in Montreal earlier this year. Cape May was represented at a total of 27 travel shows since last fall.
The chamber along with the city’s Tourism Commission and Washington Street Mall merchants are buying ads in publications including New Jersey Monthly and AAA magazine to invite visitors to the refurbished mall, said Steenrod.
While the weather may be rainy in Philadelphia or North Jersey, it may be a sunny day in Cape May. To inform potential visitors of good weather at the shore, a live Web camera image from atop the La Mer Hotel on Beach Avenue has been placed on the chamber’s Web site.
In 2001, the chamber doubled its yearly dues from $200 to $400 causing a drop in membership from 310 to 240. That move was reversed by a vote of the chamber March 11, returning dues to the $200 level.
Steenrod said the chamber historically was an accommodations-based organization but has changed to include more retail stores and service businesses. He said members felt $400 yearly dues was “too steep.”
The $200 is a flat fee for membership in the chamber. Additional services are available from the chamber at extra cost from an “a la carte menu” that includes pages on the organization’s Web site, ads in the Cape May Guidebook, Web reservations services and reservation hotline service from a kiosk in the city’s Welcome Center. The chamber is assuming operation of the Welcome Center on April 1.
Steenrod said the chamber handled over 10,000 requests for information on Cape May last year from via its phones and the Welcome Center.
Last year, the chamber printed 100,000 guidebooks, which ran out by September. In 2008, the chamber is printing 125,000 guidebooks.
Lowering the yearly dues puts the chamber at risk of a $54,000 shortfall if membership does not increase. Steenrod said the chamber was hoping for at least 30 new members.
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