OCEAN CITY In spite of a mid-week Fourth of July , Ocean City experienced a busy holiday.
Donna Abbott, Ocean City's tourism director, said the resort had its busiest Wednesday on Independence Day since she's been keeping track. The last time the holiday was on a Wednesday, in 2007, Demoflush statistics placed 310,877 people in the resort. This year, estimates put 331,909 people in Ocean City on July 4.
"Over a 20,000 difference is really good to see," Abbott said.
Resort merchants said they were pleased with holiday business.
"We had a good week," said Charlene Elliott-Carr, general manager of the Purple Moose. "We're not back to the old 2005 numbers, but it was decent."
According to Jesse Houston, Ocean City's director of planning and community development, Demoflush numbers estimate that Ocean City saw fewer visitors on July 2 and 3 than it did on those dates last year. Nevertheless, from the Fourth of July through Sunday, July 8, Ocean City saw more visitors than it did during that time period in 2011. Overall, the resort saw a 2.2 percent increase in its population from Monday through Friday, while the weekend after July 4 saw a 8.1 percent increase over last year.
In spite of that, staff at JC's Northside Pub said they didn't do as well as they'd anticipated. Bartender Lindsay Sullivan said business was good Friday but that aside from one rush on Saturday, weekend sales were slow.
"It wasn't anything like we thought it would be," she said.
Elliott-Carr said she thought traffic issues on the Bay Bridge and severe storms may have kept some people from visiting Ocean City last week. She said business at the Purple Moose was more spread out than she'd expected. Abbott said that was a trend throughout the resort.
"It was really spread out, but it looked to be a strong week with bookend strong weekends," she said.
Abbott believes an improving economy, good weather and a strong advertising campaign have been responsible for bringing tourists to Ocean City so far this season.
"I think people are ready to travel again," Abbott said. "We did well last year and we're continuing that trend."
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