OCEAN CITY, N.J. - A cool, wet spring that coasted into a cool, wet early summer has made it a rough ride for Jack Glanzmann and his bike-rental concession.
Business at the Ocean City Bicycle Center, at Eighth and Atlantic Avenues, is off by more than two-thirds compared with this time last year. A sparkling June morning normally results in all 250 of Glanzmann's surreys, two-wheelers, and tandem bicycles being rented. This year, there hasn't been a single sellout.
Last month's seven-plus inches of rain at the Jersey Shore - more than anywhere else in the region - got the season off to a devastatingly slow start for amusements, retail, restaurants, lodging, and other sectors of the tourism industry.
"Even if every day is a sellout from now until the end of the summer, we'll never be able to make back what we lost," Glanzmann said. "It's just gone."
There's an adage in her business, said Diane Wieland, executive director of the Cape May County Tourism Department: "You never get back any day that you missed because of the weather. You can't double-book tomorrow."
Proprietors were lucky in the last few years, Wieland said. The springs and early summers were glorious, and they brought an infusion of cash that helped to insulate the Shore economy from the downward-spiraling economy. This year, she said, is a reality check.
Although the July Fourth holiday signals the start of their high season, Shore businesses have come to rely on June revenue as a hedge against bad weather later on.
Because June weather is iffy, Wieland said, the tourism agency has worked with Cape May County beach towns in recent years to offer activities not dependent on sun and sand, such as a national soccer tournament that drew at least 10,000 people to Wildwood last weekend.
"You can get visitors to come down and spend the weekend even if it's . . . not perfect weather," said Wieland, who refuses to use the "R word" anymore for fear it will lead to more precipitation.
AccuWeather says it will be partly sunny at the Shore today, with an afternoon thunderstorm in some locations, followed by showers tonight. Tomorrow and Sunday will be mostly sunny with no sign of precipitation either day. High temperatures are expected to be in the upper 70s to mid-80s all weekend with ocean temps around 68.
Even the remote possibility of rain is a turnoff to many day-trippers. Last month was like monsoon season. AccuWeather recorded 7.03 inches of rainfall in Atlantic City, well over the June average of 2.66 inches. In Philadelphia, 4.76 inches of rain fell during the period.
No one expects a banner summer, given the poor economy. But hope endures - provided the sun cooperates.
"Our numbers are off a little bit. . . . But I think, when the weather improves, they'll come out flat overall for the summer," said Sharon Gordon, a spokeswoman for the South Jersey Transportation Authority, which operates the Atlantic City Expressway.
Despite faltering casino attendance and rising gas prices, the agency expects 1.1 million cars to use the expressway this holiday weekend, about the same as last year.
Shore real estate agents say that rentals for late July and early August are on a par with previous seasons. But bookings at other times are softer. Some property owners have relaxed their minimum one-week rental requirement and will allow vacationers to stay four or five nights.
Others are willing to haggle with perspective tenants over rates, said Bill Godfrey, a manager at the Marr Agency in Ocean City.
"People are doing what they have to do to get their properties rented," he said.
Vacationers also are making adjustments. "Even in a bad economy and bad weather, people still want to come to the Shore and enjoy the simple pleasures that it offers," said Joe Butler Jr. at Purdy Real Estate in Avalon.
Many of his clients would rather downscale slightly than sit out the season, Butler said. Families that previously spent $5,000 to $25,000 for a week in a beachfront manse now are willing to stay a few houses farther from the surf.
"They're scaling back their expectations," Butler said.
So, it seems, are hotel and motel owners. In Cape May - a place some call the three-night-minimum capital of the world - even fussy bed-and-breakfasts have eased up.
"Our July and August bookings have been solid, so we haven't had to make concessions there. But on the nights when we have openings and people are calling last-minute, more often we've been allowing a single-night stay," said Archie Kirk, owner of the 10-room Bedford Inn on Stockton Avenue.
Dining establishments are engaged in creative marketing, some offering early-bird and drink specials for the first time, according to Megan Eberz, partner in a Philadelphia restaurant group with three Shore properties.
"With the weather and the economy, it's almost polite at this point to offer customers a reason to leave their deck or their Shore home and come over and have dinner at the restaurant," said Eberz, who operates the Plantation and Daddy O's on Long Beach Island and the Inlet in Somers Point.
From a proprietor's standpoint, the recession and the lousy weather have felt like a plague. It's "almost biblical," Eberz joked. She believes that many of her customers sat out last month at home in the Philadelphia suburbs.
"If it's raining and they're at their million-dollar-plus home on the Main Line, why would they leave to come down and sit in the rain in their million-dollar-plus home at the Shore?" she said. "They're the people I missed coming in for a steak and bottle of wine on a Friday night. They're the people who make a successful season."
Eberz said many owners dependent on tourism dollars have to "stand back and take a look at what they're doing and how they're doing it." They have to return to old-fashioned business principles, she said.
And they have to maintain their sense of humor.
In the Beach Haven Crest section of Long Beach Island, the owner of Joey's Pizza & Pasta - where a moat is created out front whenever it pours - recently made his feelings known on the shop's outdoor sign. "Endless Rain" read one side; "Beginning-less Summer" said the other.
"If the weather's not good in the preseason, nobody really has a reason for being here," said Tom Kowal.
"What else can you do other than hope the weather improves for the rest of the season?"
Contact staff writer Jacqueline L. Urgo at 609-823-9629 or jurgo@phillynews.com.
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