Milford chronicle., 1955-07-29
Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank
Report On Those Busy
Vacation Dollars

vania, new bridges and improved
highways have made this Who'll,
mountain resort area more acces
sible TO visitors from both New
York and northern New Jersey
And to various vacation spots il
the Blue Ridge Mountains near tbs
Maryland border. the Pennsylva
mia Turnpike offers quick trans
portation from the east and west.
M0tels are Increasing in
Popularity Everywhere
From every major resort ares
in this Federal Reserve District
comes word that many more mo-
tells have been built this year
Some of them are much larger and
offer far better accommodations
than those built earlier. Current
reports indicate that occupancy in
these establishments has been ex-
ceediag expectations and that their
up-to-date appointments are Gre
ating stiff competition for less
modernized rooming houses and
even some of the older hotels.
To be sure, motels cater primar-
lily to shorter-staying guests in all
the resort areas. But the week
ends at both seashore and noun
tains have become an increasingly
important part of vacation busi-
ness. Most resort people will tell
you the "week-enders" are good
spenders; only few say they
simply add to. the crowds. This
year, Memorial Day weekend at
the shore was an early-season rec
ord breaker and in some parts of
the Poconos accommodations of
every sort were filled to capacity.
The July Fourth holiday period
seems to have given repeat per-
formance - only on a somewhat
grander scale. In the period be-
tween these holidays many vaca-
ton spots reported the largest
crowds and some of the heaviest
spending ever seen at that time of
the year.
Retail Sales are
Climbing Seas0nalIy
Merchants in the shore resorts,
where retail volume is such an i'm
portant part of the summers busi-
ness, appear well satisfied with the
rate of improvement that has TAX
en- place in recent weeks. In many
instances, sales ran somewhat be-
hind last years level until mid
June. The weather was cool,
there were rainy week-ends, so
summer merchandise moved slow
ly. But in the past several weeks,
dollar volume has picked up
sharply In nearly all lines. In some
of the more popular vacation spots,
retailers say business in the past
two weeks has exceeded last years
level by as much as 10 per cent.
Restaurants also report a marked
improvement through the week,
with their establishments oper4
ating at capacity over week-ends.
Amusements and other boardwalk
concessions are said to be we'll pa
tronized, and expressions of opin-
ion all seem to point to one of the
best vacation seasons in recent
years.
Parking Problems and the Weather
Are the Only Question Marks
What to do with the automobiles
that bring yacatiOners to the New
Jersey beaches seems to be the
number-one problem this year. Ev-
cry resort from Cape May to Toms
River is making concerted efforts
to ease the situation that has grown
with the new super highways and
so many more people owning auto
mobiles. Parking space becomes
really critical over week-ends and
there is growing concern over the
possibility that any agravation of
this situation may discourage
significant number of visitors who
come more or less regularly in
these periods throughout the sea-
son.
When businessmen or bankers in
any of our resort areas venture
forecast for the current season
they always do so with on reser-
vation-that is. the weather. This
season our first two holiday week
ends left nothing to be desired, SO
lot of earlieS records went by the
board. In fact, there have been
some fine week-ends and longer
stretches of good vacation wea-
ther since the middle of June. A
somewhat better than seasonal
volume of early vacation business
has been the result. Hotel mana
gers, restaurant owners, and retail
merchants are never too concerned
about the first three weeks of July
because SO many plants close down
for vacation in that period. But
thereafter comes the question
mark. August is often a tricky
month at the seashore because of
"northeasters" and in the noun
tains it can be much too cool as
we'll.