Jul 1, 2009 5:50 pm US/Eastern
Soggy Summer Puts Damper On Cape Cod Business
CAPE COD (WBZ) ―
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Beaches on Cape Cod are empty these rainy days.
WBZ
While this soggy June has been a wash-out for much of Cape Cod's tourist trade and many of its vacationers, some indoor businesses have flourished.
Ron Sanders visited a few and found that, in addition to an actual sighting of the sun Wednesday, there is hope on the horizon.
As rain came once again to Cape Cod, what few people were there at Kalmus beach left their vacation behind with mediocre memories.
"The weather? Not as great as we expected, but yesterday was beautiful. The whale watching was beautiful. We didn't have too bad a time."
And if the beach did not provide too good a time, the indoor wave pool at the Cape Codder Resort took its place for some vacationers.
"Fortunately, the rainy days were some of our busier days," said owner William Catania.
There may have been more gulls than human sun bathers at the ocean's edge, but tourists on the cape flocked to places such as Main Street in Hyannis, where a fair number of out-of-state plates were evident as souvenir and gift shops such as Mrs. Mitchell's were putting something in cash drawers.
"I don't like the sun that much but I do enjoy it a little bit but not the total lack of it around here," said Tom Faldera, a high school math teacher from Cleveland, as he finished buying a raincoat for his wife. Behind the register, Lynn Mitchell, the store's owner said, "We're actually ahead of last (June) so, no complaints from us."
The same is not true for other Cape businesses, which are off 5 percent to 20 percent, according to the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, because of the rainy June.
One watering hole is offering "Rainy Day Specials" presumably to drown one's sorrows. So the tourist trade there brightened up with a glimpse of sun at mid day and an improved forecast for the July 4th weekend.
"But they're going to need more than that. They're going to need a strong July, a strong August and a very good September," said Chamber C.E.O. Wendy Northcross.
She added, good weather this weekend could send enough day trippers across the canal to help tourism there start to recover from the soft June.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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