Yarmouth at a crossroads
Cape Business sat with Bob DuBois, executive director of the Yarmouth Chamber of Commerce, to discuss the town’s economy in 2007 and beyond. These are excerpts of that interview.
Yarmouth is and always will be a tourist destination. What does that mean in 2007 and beyond?
We must redefine tourism. We have to recognize the trends and learn how to respond to them. The businesses that will be most successful this year and beyond are those who can anticipate trends. Some businesses have been in a state of denial about where tourism is heading.
Tourism is different from a lot of businesses that can stand on their own. Restaurants and lodging facilities depend on the larger brand of Cape Cod. Your particular restaurant, attraction or lodging facility is not enough on its own. We have to rely on ways to work together to enhance and create the tourism product and experience.
What is hurting traditional tourism in Yarmouth and the Cape as a whole?
About 60 percent of the Cape’s tourists have traditionally come from Eastern Massachusetts, but that region and the state as a whole is losing a significant fraction of people who are leaving Massachusetts for warmer and cheaper locations. While some of those people are being replaced, newcomers have no connections with the Cape and may not even know much about us. In other words, our traditional core market is shrinking. Then, there is the growing competition for visitors – from cruises to Internet bargains.
How will Yarmouth adjust and thrive on the tourism front?
We think we can be somewhat of a vacationer’s bedroom for the entire Cape Cod experience. Stay in town and use us as your headquarters to enjoy the entire Cape. In all our branding, we emphasize that Yarmouth is Cape Cod within reach – from the Heritage Museum and Gardens in Sandwich to the National Seashore in the Outer Cape. We are the central location.
Beyond tourism, the second-home community in Yarmouth is getting bigger and bigger. How important is this population?
They represent one in three residences in town. If you can get half of our second-home owners to come down to Yarmouth for two additional weekends a year, you have increased business significantly. We must understand that we are down to only four solid weekends a year for the traditional tourist, so the more we can encourage our second-home owners to visit year-round, the better it will be.
Second-home owners have an investment in Yarmouth. They just need more incentives to pick up in February and March and drive an hour or two to get here.
What makes Yarmouth attractive to second-home owners?
Yarmouth includes the most affordable housing inventory on Cape Cod for second-home owners. We also provide wide-ranging and great proximity to the health-care system, an important issue for those heading toward retirement. Then, there is the number of restaurants and other amenities.
What is a new and surprising economic trend in town?
One that bears watching is the arrival of home supply companies that sell both to consumers and contractors. New England Supply is constructing a new location off Willow Street and JD Daddario has just opened a major facility on Route 28. They are joining the likes of Snow and Jones on White’s Path as well as Simon’s.
Restaurants face particularly challenging times. What’s your view of this sector for 2007 and beyond?
Restaurants have been struggling with increased costs – utilities, goods, labor – for a number of years. They can only deal with this by increasing their menu prices when they can.
Some restaurants are learning that it is more than about food; it is about the experience they provide the customer.
National chains are creating atmosphere that create experience. I don’t see enough of that on the Cape.
What can be done to enhance the image of Yarmouth as a tourist location?
We have to be far more conscious of what we are and where we are headed. The business community has to invest in its brand.
When our branding consultants conducted research, they learned that visitors do identify with some towns. When they returned home, they said they had vacationed in Chatham, Provincetown, Falmouth. But that identification was not as strong for those staying in Yarmouth. Those staying here said they had visited Cape Cod, but not a specific town.
That is when we realized we did not have a strong brand name, or the loyalty that goes with it. Now we are working to change that. We emphasize the Cape Cod experience that Yarmouth can provide.
We cannot move the National Seashore closer, nor necessarily create a Chatham Main Street. But we certainly can tell people we are very accessible to those areas and try to create our own village center. We can celebrate our beaches.
Does branding work when you talk about a town rather than a consumer product?
The branding research has led to improvements – from something as small as improving curb cuts along our roads and creating incentives for better landscaping, islands and scenic vistas.
All this requires building trust with different, influential members of the Yarmouth community. We have been working to explain the needs of the business community to find a happy medium with residents.
Residents are seeing that current restrictions on zoning and businesses, as well as the lack of reinvestment, is not working. They are increasingly willing to try something new.
An example of this is the commitment – coming from our branding research – to create a visible gateway to South Shore Drive, where we have higher-end lodging and beaches. Until now, it has been hard for visitors and residents to get a sense we are a seaside community right off Route 28.
We also intend to better leverage events we have in town. We don’t take sufficient advantage of the hundreds of events sponsored year-round by so many organizations.
One example is our March St. Patrick’s Day parade. We worked to encourage people to come from Boston and enjoy the Cape for the week before and not miss the parade in Boston.
We have to sell into the experience here rather than room rates and amenities. A lot of our lodging facilities are not competitive on amenities alone. We have to be realistic about this. Why market something we can’t compete with?
A good example of emphasizing the experience is Cape Cod Irish Village. The restaurant is modernized, but the motel itself is older style. Yet they are one of the busiest properties on Route 28. It’s all about the experience and the feeling you are staying in an Irish village. Guests actually bring gifts from Boston and Worcester. They have developed a relationship with the front desk staff. They don’t think about the size of the television. They are selling a great experience.
Published in The Villages of Yarmouth May/June 2007
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