Eastern Massachusetts Shoulder Season

October draws near. It is time to put away summery things... or is it?

Eastern Massachusetts in general and Cape Cod in particular have what they call a Shoulder Season. This refers to a time of year that, while past peak tourism season, still generates economic activity.

When summer ends (I was a schoolteacher for a while, and still consider summer to be over when school starts... a flawed method in that September has summer weather, but good for discussions involving tourism), we lose a huge chunk of tourism. You can't bang out a week on the Cape or rent a Rexhame beach house if the kid is supposed to be in school in Framingham or Albany.

That takes a lot of dollars off of the table (tourism is the third largest industry in Massachusetts, and employs 1 in 10 of our workers), but not all of them. Locals will tell you that tourists still come by through Columbus Day.

I work at a hotel, and after Labor Day, the Whiteheads come. Old people are seasoned vacationers, and they pounce on September. Light traffic, discounted shopping, attentive restaurant staff, cheaper hotels, good sleeping weather, not having some 5th grader hit you with a Frisbee when you try to enjoy a beach... there's a lot to like. A tourist in September gets the desolation of winter Cape Cod, but it's still 78 degrees for much of the day.

Columbus Day is a good cutoff point, as the weather hasn't become cold enough to curtail certain activities. A lot of businesses close up shop after Columbus Day, a lot of boats are taken out of the water and a lot of summer getaway homes are boarded up by then, as October is the start of Nor'easter season.

However, we still have some drawing power left after Columbus Day. Columbus Day is when our foliage starts to turn, and it is when our cranberry bog farming and harvest festivals go down. You also can't laugh off an October beach day. These things bring us day trippers, and day trippers spend money locally.

While our foliage pales when compared to New Hampshire (we have too much Pine, and we are prone to October windstorms), we are the Last Chance for people who, in mid October, realize that they wanted to take a foliage drive but Vermont is past peak.

We even get Thanksgiving tourism, but that tends to be more isolated to the Plymouth area.

Our resident elderly population will draw family traffic here through Christmas. The hotel I work at gets a lot of holiday business from people who are visiting Grandma but either "My wife and I don't fit on the bed I had as a high school kid" or "The kids are a little too rowdy for Grandpa to get his mid morning nap."

Hotel activity is a good economic indicator for summer vs winter. According to the Cape Cod Commission, your average hotel has 77% occupancy at a rate of $288.50 in August, 69% at $179 in September, 57% at $145 in October, 38% at $128 in November before bottoming out at 26% at $109 in January. Other local businesses follow a similar trend.

Cape Cod doubles in population in the summer. Inland towns aren't as tourist-driven as the Cape is, but every dollar counts. A town like Plympton might get a Summer People bump in the summer, but it is not as profound. Plympton probably has a bigger bump from harvest festivals and fall foliage daytripping.

All that ends when the snow falls. Once January hits, someone walking on a Truro beach has to really want it.