Tourism Commission, Chamber of Commerce team up to get facts to play for resort’s future
OCEAN CITY – The Ocean City Tourism and Development Commission and the Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce have teamed up to commission a survey about the resort.
As Ocean City looks to the future and how to position itself as a thriving community and tourism destination, it is having a firm learn facts about the resort.
The commission, working with the chamber, contracted with EConsult Solutions Inc. for the study earlier this summer. It is for a long-term look at Ocean City’s future customers and their needs and preferences, according to city Public Information Office Doug Bergen. The study costs $95,000 and a recommendations report is expected before the end of the year.
Mayor Jay Gillian referenced the study at his Aug. 29 Town Hall meeting at the Ocean City Free Public Library. He said his interest is in finding out information – “not opinions and not what worked 10 years ago.”
Gillian said he followed the advice of Fourth Ward City Councilman Dave Winslow, who said the city needs actual data to drive decisions. Winslow chaired the Boardwalk Subcommittee that spent about half a year compiling data and other information to make recommendations about the zoning on the Boardwalk, including the former Wonderland Pier property, and what should go there. The subcommittee presented its findings in June. (See story online at ocnjsentinel.com.)
How many people are coming over the bridges into the city? How long are they staying? Is Ocean City’s government too big? Is spending too high? Does the resort have too many services? Those were the kind of questions, among many others, the mayor wants answered.
According to Tourism Commission Chairman Burton Wilkins, the impetus is to “get a better handle” on what people are looking for and what sort of changes are needed. He said it has probably been at least 15 years since the last survey of that sort was completed.
“This is kind of like the post-pandemic period where we’re looking at a recovery so we’re trying to get a better handle on some real facts and figures, not just anecdotes, but actual facts and figures of what people want,” Wilkins said.
The Tourism Commission chairman said the study results will be made available to other city entities such as City Council and to the public.
The survey is about “a broad scope of Ocean City for planning purposes, for the future,” said Michele Gillian, executive director of the chamber of commerce. “We’re looking at all different levels of how Ocean City functions.
“We want to know more about who’s coming to Ocean City, when they’re coming to Ocean City, how it affects all of our business districts as well as it affects the community, the surrounding neighborhoods, beach access, adjoining commercial areas, things like that,” Gillian said.
It will include the visitor experience as well as residential homeownership, including second-home owners and why they’re here, what they expect.
“We just want to have a good plan for the future. This is something we’ve done before, in 2007,” she said.
Some of the specifics will be real numbers on how many people cross the bridges onto the barrier island, how many visit the downtown, 34th Street business district, the boardwalk and small neighborhood businesses, Gillian added. It is also to find Ocean City’s position in the marketplace.
EConsult Solutions is going for accurate information – how many people were in town for Night in Venice, the length of people’s stays in town, short-term rentals, long-term rentals, the work force, municipal revenue, the tax levy projections, ratable base and school enrollment.
About 75 percent of Ocean City’s nearly 20,000 properties are owned by people who don’t live here. They’re used as vacation homes, summer homes or rentals.
“We want to make sure those numbers are correct,” Gillian said. “When we all make decisions – business decisions, work decisions – that we have the right numbers and know what’s going on.”
She added, “We need to stop ducking and get real data. I think this will be helpful to everyone. We’ll actually have numbers and a summary of the report, whether we like it or not.
“We’re looking at all that to really look into the future to make sure we have a good plan for Ocean City on how to move forward,” Gillian said.
She said the survey will tell the city where it’s at now and where it’s going to be in the next five to 10 years.
“We are going through the transition from the post-pandemic to a recovery period,” she said, “and we’d like to see the commercial district for the next five to 10 years. What are they? What should they be? What uses and businesses are there going to be?”
– By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff