SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The warm stretch is in full swing after some quote-unquote false fall to kick off the month, and the warm conditions continuing into fall months could cause the summer tourism season to last longer.
“We saw an extension of our summer season, both early on, so in that April, May months, when we started having nicer days, but well into the fall as well. So, September and October, even early parts of November, a couple of years there were still a lot of activity and a lot of people coming into town.”
Sarah Spoonholtz, membership director of the Southwest Michigan Regional Chamber says more mild conditions extending into the fall months contribute to the extension of the tourism season outside of the traditional Memorial Day to Labor Day time frame.
In 12 of the past 30 years, the last day that a high temperature of 90 degrees or above occurred in southwest Michigan happened in September.
It isn’t just the weekends that see the effect of mild conditions.
“We do have a lot of retired individuals who contact us, and they're planning trips from Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. We had one individual from, I believe she was from Valparaiso that brought an entire busload of women to come in to just go shopping and to explore and see what Saint Joe has to offer.”
While an extended tourism season can be nice for businesses, there is a hurdle that could keep some from operating on a summer schedule all year round.
“While, yes, we would love for all of them to be open, you know, Monday through Sunday, all day, every single day, right? They also have lost high school and college students who have been their staffing. So now a lot of the owners are also operators”
Spoonholtz says many businesses change schedules in the fall, so it’s always important to make sure they’ll be open before making any travel plans.
“Make sure that you're either checking social media or the business's website, because some of them do change Labor Day. Some of them will change in September. Some of them will change October or November, just kind of depends on the type of business and what their current hours have been.”