‘Reshape’ Should Be on Minds Throughout County

Reshape is a word that Cape May County had better learn quickly if there is to be a viable business future here.
At one time, there was a long-held belief among merchants, restaurateurs, hoteliers and others that tourists would flock to the peninsula we call home regardless of economic and world conditions. It was a well-taken position. From the first Lenni Lenape tribal members who set foot on barrier islands to seek food and maybe some fun, “the shore” has been a big draw for millions.
Now, it is time to reshape some of those ideas.
Dan Glaze, of the Cape May County Party and Charter Boat Assn., the group that takes fares to sea for fishing trips, told the membership of the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce on Sept. 18 that, due to the price of fuel and a dismal fishing season, six of those venerable vessels have been placed on the block for sale.
Gone are those days of yore when trainloads of city residents took the “Fishermen’s Specials” to shore points for a day on the water, to cast a line, and to take some fresh catch home.
Economics got in the way. Diesel fuel, which drives the propellers on the boats, at about $5 a gallon, seriously sliced into profits.
The soft economy made many would-be anglers think twice about either booking a charter or showing up on the dock at about 7:30 a.m. to head out for a day or half day of angling off shore.
As a result, as Glaze said at previous chamber luncheons, some party boats were heading to sea with as few as 10 fares, barely enough, if at all, to pay for fuel.
That’s no way to make money, even if fishing is what you love to do.
It means a wide scale reshaping of how we all view the tourist industry.
Motels, once as plentiful on the resort islands as colorful beach umbrellas on the beach, are different.
Yes, they provide the rudimentary four walls and nice accommodations, but today’s visitors expect more than a place to sleep. They want deals, extras, free stuff, recommendations and added-value notions.
That is where motel owners will have to reshape business models and thinking.
We have received some letters to the editor telling of abysmal service, shoddy rooms and, in general, an attitude at the front desk that definitely needs reshaping.
Prices charged for most of those rooms is on par or greater than in some competing resort areas, given the onerous property tax burden owners face, it may be a necessity, but that, too, is something that needs to be reshaped.
Attitudes of many fellow residents need reshaping. There is a love-hate sentiment about tourists. Many people, even those whose paychecks are directly related to those visitors, hold a disdain for them. Secretly, they dislike the notion of having to work, and take it out on those who come to the county to spend an increasingly short time here.
By contrast, in the tourist “capital” of the world, Orlando, Fla., those who encounter visitors seem to realize they are there to have fun, or they put on a good front that they are genuinely concerned for our happiness.
If it is an act, it is a terrific one, since they make us feel wanted which, in turn, makes us want to return to what some call “The Happiest Place on Earth.”
Usually, a seminar is held in Cape May County to brief seasonal workers on the need to make tourists feel wanted and appreciated. Maybe the ones who need that seminar most never take it, or maybe they ought to take a week at a place where tourists are regarded as very important people.
Some municipal reshaping would also help in the tourism area.
Beach tags, lucrative though they may be to defray costs associated with maintaining the strand, are an impediment to visiting families, especially when money is tight and the family is large. They have already forked over big bucks to stay here, and then they are hit when they head for the place that lured them here: The beach.
Do ski resorts impose a separate “mountain tag” to allow access to the slopes that attracted them?
Parking meters, despised by this writer as well as by visitors, are a grievance. No, they’re not that costly, but they leave a bad taste in the visitor’s mouth, like sucking on a penny.
Meters are even worse when vacationers are given a parking ticket. Cape May, to some business people’s credit, has reshaped some thinking about meters, and has empowered a squad of “parking meter angels” to drop in a buck to thwart a ticket, with a note left that such and such a business paid for one additional hour of parking…free.
This may be an excellent time to gather together business owners, seasonal employees and others who work with visitors, and collectively reshape how “we” will serve the people who find Cape May County the vacation paradise that is painted in vivid private brochures and county advertising programs.
Perhaps one way to reshape some thinking is to begin with the premise: They don’t HAVE to come here. With the click of a computer mouse, tourists can book rooms anywhere there is a welcome mat rolled out. If you think it cannot happen here, ask those captains whose boats have for sale signs on them.
Chances are they are reshaping their lives and businesses are thinking up new ways to survive.