As summer approaches, Ocean City, Maryland is beginning to welcome tourists again.
Mayor Rick Meehan announced during a special city council meeting Thursday that he would lift lodging restrictions set in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, which bar local hotels, motels, and rental properties from renting to non-essential guests.
The change is set to go into effect on Thursday at 5 p.m., and businesses are already getting tons of phone calls.
Tom Tawney, the manager at the 92-room Sea Bay Hotel, says occupancy for this weekend has increased from 10 percent to 40 percent since the Meehan made the announcement. “The phone’s ringing off the hook,” he says.
The Park Place Hotel has also received “a dozen” calls since yesterday, and it has has delayed opening until May 22,to get ready for the influx of visitors. “There are a number of people who are looking to come down [to Ocean City] right away,” according to owner Jackie Ball.
She says the hotel received a similar wave of calls earlier this month, when Meehan announced that Ocean City would begin opening up its beaches and boardwalk, which had been closed for more than a month.
“A lot of times people don’t understand exactly what restriction is being lifted,” says Ball. “So, just hearing that anything is reopening sounds to them like Ocean City is reopening.”
Other beach towns in the mid-Atlantic region have also begun reopening. Delaware Governor John Carney said Thursday that beaches in the state, including popular resort towns like Rehoboth Beach and Dewey Beach, can reopen on May 22 with “strict” social distancing guidelines, and Dare County in North Carolina’s Outer Banks will begin welcoming visitors again on May 16.
Some other towns, however, are taking their time. Patrick “Irish” Mahoney, the mayor of Chesapeake Beach on Maryland’s Western Shore, told DCist this month that he plans to keep public amenities closed, including the town’s popular water park, indefinitely. “While I was ahead of the pack in taking measures [to close down],” he said, “now I’m going to be at the rear of the pack in opening up.”
Back in Ocean City, a woman working at the front desk at The Edge hotel said they, too, had seen an increase in booking inquiries since the announcement Thursday and that she was “too busy” to give any more information.
The lodging restriction at Ocean City was previously set to expire on May 22, but after Governor Larry Hogan announced plans to lift Maryland’s stay-at-home order for the majority of the state this week, Meehan rolled the rule back earlier. He said in a statement Thursday that residents and visitors should continue following health and safety guidance, including practicing social distancing.
“Each and every one of us has an obligation to exercise personal responsibility to protect our families, our friends, our co-workers, and neighbors, so as a community we keep Ocean City moving forward,” he said.
