The fourth of July Holiday has come and gone. And, that means Alabama is into the second half of the lucrative summer tourism season. The Gulf Shores and Orange Beach area points to new rental units to judge how much the visitor economy is growing. The local tourism bureau says the area has added roughly a thousand more rental units in the past eighteen months. Kay Maghan is with Gulf Shores and Orange Beach tourism. She says beach safety is also a priority with a local cell phone APP with surf updates.
“You will receive a text message every morning with that morning's beach conditions. If those conditions change throughout the day, you will receive additional text messages, and you can always opt out when you leave town,” said Maghan.,
APR student intern Mallory Cook focused on beach safety before the Memorial Day holiday and the possible impact of federal budget cuts. For the lifeguards that keep watch for the safety of beach goers along the Alabama Gulf coast, that means more than using binoculars and carrying a life preserver. These first responders depend on NOAA beach forecasts and the Trump White House is making cuts. How far and how deep the reductions will be for NOAA is unclear. But Bruckner Chase, who produces safety videos for the Agency says the beach forecasts save lives…
“If you've got a short staffed weather forecasting office, getting quicker information, getting the data analyzed and then translated to the meteorologist that you might be watching on TV at the Weather Channel or the local broadcasting channel in Alabama, that there is going to be potentially a slowdown in information getting out there,” Chase said.
As for the growth of the Alabama tourism industry along the coast, officials with Gulf Shores and Orange Beach report growth based on the number rental properties. The area reportedly saw a thousand new units over the last eighteen months. Kay Maghan, with Gulf Shores and Orange Beach tourism, says the numbers indicate growth in the local visitor industry…
“We're running just right, even with where we have been for the last two years, which logically, if we know inventory is up, that indicates we're actually up because there's more places to stay, and we're still hovering at that same level.” 4:36
The Alabama Tourism Department says the state earned almost twenty four billion dollars from visitors in 2024. That’s statewide as well as the beaches. An estimated twenty nine million visitors came to the state to visit its beaches and attractions.
