CAROLINA BEACH, N.C. (WECT) – For many people, Labor Day means a day off of work, spending time with friends and family, and the last day to fashionably wear white.

But along the North Carolina coast, it also marks the last big weekend of tourist season.

In 2023, New Hanover County’s beach towns saw record-spending numbers. It was the first year tourists spent more than $1 billion at Wrightsville, Carolina, and Kure beaches.

It’s not clear if this summer will top last year when it comes to record spending, but businesses said it was yet again another successful summer. However, they say a lot of people seemed to be holding onto their wallets a tad tighter.

Nicholas Papaioanu is the kitchen manager at The Dive in Carolina Beach. He says it’s a restaurant that sees a lot of tourists in the summer months.

“It’s been very, very exciting, as usual, during the season. We have quite a large amount of people, especially tourists, coming down,” said Papaioanu.

Despite a successful summer in terms of business, Papaioanu says this summer felt slower than last.

“I think it’ll be around maybe 15% to 20% slower than last year based on sales volume, and that could be for a couple of reasons, one of which is, you know, inflation,” said Papaioanu. “Everyone’s kind of hurting right now.”

Bryan Sartin, the general manager at Pleasure Island Rentals, says the same.

“I did see a lot of people hold on to that wallet a little bit more this summer,” said Sartin.

Papaioanu says some of that could be in part due to the parking rates in Carolina Beach.

“People are paying big money to park here for the day, and that’s kind of a deterrent, in my opinion,” said Papaioanu.

For Pleasure Island Rentals, it didn’t seem to deter people too much though, according to Sartin.

“I did see the numbers here. I think we’ll have a better summer than we did last summer,” said Sartin. “We started off really strong June, with June being a month that was really nice, low wind. We had really great numbers. We saw the people out here and when the weather turned off kind of bad, some of those weeks, we did see a downfall a little bit. But overall, the overall summer was [better than] last year.”

But with Monday marking Labor Day, businesses like Pleasure Island rentals and The Dive will have to turn to locals for business.

“We were joking around this morning and calling it the tumbleweed Tuesday, because, like this morning you see everybody leaving, and then kind of the locals take back Carolina Beach,” said Sartin.

“Our locals are great. They’re basically our spine in here sometimes, and we love their support,” said Papaioanu.

Once June hits again next year, Pleasure Island Rentals and The Dive, along with many other businesses, will be ready for the rush again.

“Everyone loves the beach. No one’s going to stop coming to the beach,” said Papaioanu.

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