VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — Hosting millions of tourists in a beach town takes work. It begins before the sun rises and continues long after it sets.
Even with staffing challenges this summer, Virginia Beach’s hospitality industry is determined to rebound from the coronavirus pandemic. Rolling out the welcome mat is the key to its success.
Under a dark sky, crews comb the beach, erasing yesterday’s trash to start a new day with a clean slate. The shoreline awakens, and lifeguards climb onto their stands.
It’s all hands on deck to fulfill the wants and needs of tourists. Hotel housekeepers strip the beds. Shop managers restock beach umbrellas and chairs.
Then, as another summer day winds down, restaurants and bars prep for the crowds. The city’s peacekeepers gear up for a busy evening in the 40-block resort area.
As night falls over the beach again, the clock resets.
Light shining from two tractors on the beach illuminates the sand north of the Virginia Beach Fishing Pier before daybreak. A city crew has been cleaning the beach along the water’s edge since 2 a.m.
Assistant Superintendent Mitch St. Clair, 37, a Public Works employee for 18 years, started out driving a tractor on the beach. Now he leads the cleaning crew.
“This time of year there’s no slowing down,” St. Clair said as the sun comes into view on the horizon.
The tractor drivers grind out about seven hours of work each morning, cleaning and smoothing the sand from 1st to 42nd Street.
“It takes every bit of it,” said St. Clair. “It’s a fast-paced job.”
The “surf rake” machine scoops trash into a bin. Another tractor follows, pulling a big blade to smooth the sand. Other workers remove the plastic bags that line the trash cans on the beach and toss them in the back of a dump truck.
It’s a delicate dance on the beach at the crack of dawn. The cleaning crew has a job to do, but try not to disturb people who want to watch the sunrise.
After the sun appears on the horizon, the gazers leave. The beach cleaners finish around 9 a.m. Families start to arrive with umbrellas and chairs. Children will soon spend the day splashing in the salty waves.
A white lifeguard pickup truck rolls onto the sand at 7:30 a.m. every day. It’s the first procession of the morning for the century-old organization in charge of keeping swimmers safe in the resort area. Supervisor Gary Felch drives down the beach while Mike McMahon, sitting in the bed of the truck, tosses out orange umbrellas at every lifeguard stand.
“We’ve been really busy,” said Felch. “The beaches are packed.”
If water conditions are dangerous, the guards fly red flags on the lifeguard stands and along the beach entrances at the North End. They have conducted more than 270 water rescues this summer and reunited hundreds of lost children with their families.
Back at the Virginia Beach Lifesaving Service headquarters on Virginia Beach Boulevard, several blocks from the Boardwalk, Capt. Tom Gill prepares for roll call. Young, tanned men and women in red swimsuits trickle into the courtyard, rubbing sleep from their eyes. Most are high school or college students.
Gill warns them about the rising temperature and advises them to stay hydrated.
“It’s summer; it’s hot,” Gill says. “You have to be prepared to deal with it.”
Each one receives a street assignment, a first aid kit and a red rescue buoy before hustling to the beach. At 9:30 a.m. sharp, they point to the water and blow their whistle to announce they’re on duty.
In the basement of the Doubletree Hotel next to the convention center, Diana Curtis and Shirley Hoggard pull heavy, wet linens from the washers and load and unload the dryers throughout the day. The scent of clean cotton lingers in this no-frills floor of the hotel.
The Doubletree has 292 rooms, and most have two beds, each with three sheets. Add to that bath towels, hand towels, washcloths and bathmats, and the laundry never ends.
The women fold every sheet. Standing opposite one another and each holding one end, they fold the flat white sheet longways in half. Then, they flip it 90 degrees and walk toward each other to until their ends meet. Curtis then folds it one time before placing it on the table in a tall, neat stack bound for the rooms above.
“We try to keep everything going throughout the day,” Curtis said.
A steady stream of guests has been staying in the resort area hotels this summer, with coronavirus restrictions lifted and vaccines widely available. Virginia Beach hotels are slowly rebounding from the pandemic with occupancy levels reaching 80% in June — 25% higher than last year. Conventions have returned, and the new sports center helps increase overnight visitation, according to the city.
Even though staffing issues are plaguing the tourism industry this season — some say that extended unemployment benefits are to blame — the work that goes into keeping a hotel running smoothly still has to be done. Checkout is generally at 11 a.m., and housekeeping staff starts turning over rooms as early as possible.
Fridays are the busiest days for deliveries at the retail shops, bars and restaurants in the resort area. It starts mid-morning and continues through the afternoon. Trucks pull up in the trolley lane on Atlantic Avenue to unload boxes of T-shirts, cases of beer and crates full of produce. Linen companies bring bags of clean towels. Workers from cleaning companies arrive with vacuums and mops.
At “I Love VA” on 20th Street, Manager Angelica Anikina restocks the boogie boards and umbrellas near the store’s entrance several times a day — they’ve been selling fast.
“This year, we did not expect it to be as crazy busy as it is,” she said.
The wait staff at Rudee’s Restaurant & Cabana Bar kicks it into high gear in the afternoon, preparing for the dinner crowd, stacking freshly washed glasses at the drink station and shucking oysters at the raw bar. On the outdoor waterfront deck next to a marina, the summer Olympics air on several TVs. A bartender pours two buckets of ice into a bin and counts small bills in the register.
After a deep cleaning of the Sandbar on 21st Street early in the day, bar manager Stanley Stephenson opens a large window that fronts Atlantic Avenue so passersby can see inside. Surfboards hang on the wall and the bar is stocked with glistening liquor bottles. He props open the front door and places two posts connected with a retractable belt next to the entrance.
Stephenson cranks reggae on the stereo, places a large bowl full of lemons on the bar and grabs a cutting board and a knife. He slices each lemon the same way so that the wedges can balance perfectly on the rim of a glass.
Later, when the sun goes down, a line of people will form outside between those posts, waiting to get in.
Nighttime brings new energy to the heart of Atlantic Avenue, known as “The Strip.” Street entertainers draw crowds with live music and magic tricks. Families in vacation mode splurge on ice cream and a round of mini-golf. Young men and women walk the sidewalks to see and be seen.
Around 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, two trailers with horses from Pungo pull up behind the police precinct on Virginia Beach Boulevard. The mounted patrol heads east toward the resort area, where it walks along Atlantic Avenue and the Boardwalk until after the bars close.
Several of the horses are Clydesdales, which are a gentle, relaxed breed, said Master Police Officer Joel Gough. On a recent evening, adults and children looked up and smiled when they heard the clippity-clop of the hooves on the pavement. They patted the animals as the officers stopped for a few minutes to greet people. Some onlookers pulled out their cell phones and posed for pictures in front of the horses.
“It’s good to have that nice positive interaction,” said Gough. “Nothing engages the community like these guys.”
The horses are also used for crime prevention and crowd control. The mounted patrol is fully staffed on holiday weekends and during demonstrations.
“We can clear all of Atlantic Avenue with 10 horses,” Gough said.
For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, The Virginian-Pilot.