THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 1, 1995 TAG: 9508010270
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines
Bill Margaritis likes to show off his photo with Telly Savalas and his menu autographed by Eddie Murphy.
``Famous people have been here,'' he said proudly.
This season, though, the owner of the Puritan Restaurant on the Beach's resort strip has not had a steady flow of people - famous or otherwise - through his doors.
Tourists' spending habits this summer have shown an unusual dichotomy. Resort hotels are full, with occupancy rates hitting an all-time high in June. Yet restaurants and shops in the heart of the resort strip have seen a marked drop in customers.
Margaritis laments the lack of patrons. A quick glance around his restaurant verifies his complaint. Only a few couples are dining there.
As a result, his revenues are down about 30 percent from last year. He's dropped his prices 15 percent on some meals.
``I've owned this place for 16 years,'' said the Greek restaurateur, whose establishment is at the corner of 17th Street and Atlantic Avenue. ``And this is the first year I've had a tough one. It's very slow this year.''
Other merchants and restaurateurs located at the Beach's resort strip - the area generally defined as south of Laskin Road - say they're suffering this season.
``It's a soft season,'' said Rick Hall, president of the Resort Retailers Association. ``I don't know what to attribute it to. I talk to my distributors and they say it's the trend on the whole East Coast. They're not getting a whole lot of reorders out of Ocean City (Md.) and Myrtle Beach (S.C.). It's not just us.''
Visitors seem to be spending their money in a scattershot manner, leaving some business owners elated and others baffled. Theories abound about the slow season at the Oceanfront: Are souvenir shops that sell lewd T-shirts driving families away? Are there not enough activities to keep families from heading inland? Or are visitors just being more selective about how they spend their money?
A few stores and eateries have seen business boom in the past couple of weeks of hot weather.
Tom Brown, president of 17th Street Surf Shop, a locally based chain of water sports products and clothing, has watched sales at his 10 stores hit a double-digit increase in gross sales.
``July with this hot weather has been fantastic,'' he said.
Employees at Uncle Harry's Cones & Cream on Pacific Avenue have seen steady crowds visit their north beach store as well.
But several food vendors and retailers on the strip say crowds aren't packing the beach the way they used to. Families with young children have few activities to keep the children occupied, they say. The cancellation of fireworks at the Oceanfront on the Fourth of July and the lack of a loaded line-up of events or entertainment make it difficult to keep tourists busy.
``Every year it's getting less and less,'' said Chuck Cordina, owner of Patsy's Italian Ice, about the beach crowds frequenting the strip. Cordina said he has cut back on help to one full-time and one part-time employee. His sales are down 50 percent from the same period last year.
Merchants and restaurant owners may be having a tough time, but citywide figures on hotel and motel occupancy rival last year, said James B. Ricketts, director of the Virginia Beach Department of Convention and Visitors Development.
``In terms of visitors, June was a record month for us in terms of occupancy. The visitors are here,'' he said.
In June, 77 percent of the hotel rooms on the Oceanfront were filled and 73 percent of the rooms throughout the city were filled. Both figures rank as the highest reported occupancy since 1986, when the Beach started tracking occupancy, Ricketts said.
The first two weeks of July also rival last year's occupancy levels. July's first week showed 86 percent of the hotels in the city were occupied, tying last year. The second week of July 1995 hit 86 percent hotel occupancy, compared with 84 percent occupancy in 1994.
``What Myrtle Beach is saying is the people are there, but in terms of spending, they're not spending the money. Or there's an increase in number of businesses so the dollar is spread out,'' Ricketts said.
The saturation of T-shirt and souvenir shops on the strip could bear out those theories.
Shlomi Simhon, manager of T Shirt Paradise, said his boss owns a few clothing stores, which have shown flat sales.
``They're not doing badly but they're not doing great,'' he said. ``They're doing decent.''
``They're pretty much running into each other,'' said 17th Street Surf Shop's Brown. ``You pretty much need some exclusivity. The stores that represent themselves as having their own merchandise - it gives you a reason to exist.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
A family strolls past Pasha, a Virginia Beach store on the corner of
21st Street and Atlantic Avenue that sells T-Shirts. Below: Bill
Margaritis says business at his Puritan Restaurant is the worst it
has been in the 16 years he has owned the eatery.
KEYWORDS: TOURISM VIRGINIA BEACH by CNB