It's Labor Day weekend, and the unofficial end of a summer that was atypical with all the rainfall.
On Cape Cod, where businesses rely on tourist dollars, the weather has not been ideal.
Friday got the holiday weekend off to a sunny start.
"Unfortunately, this year has been a little slow," said Sherwayne Sharpe, a cook at Fresh Ketch in the Hyannis section of Barnstable, Massachusetts. "It's been busier in prior years.”
But Paulo Paraguay says the rain hasn't been a bad thing for his business, Palio Pizzeria and Kandy Korner.
"In the travel industry, we don't consider this a lot of rain," he said. "It's all ocean mist. The good thing about that ocean mist is that being in the retail industry, it's good for shopping, so not necessarily every day is a beach day."
Paul Niedzwiecki, CEO of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, says he doesn't believe the rain has kept people away.
Local
"To the extent that we had 5.5 million visitors 2018 and 2019, we had 6.1 last year. We still expect to be around 6 million visitors this year," Niedzwiecki said.
Paraguay says this is the first year since the start of the pandemic that's he's been fully staffed.
"Finding help has always been a challenge due to work force and housing on the Cape, and this year, we did really well," he said. "We had a great team."
"We've brought on a housing coordinator, we're working on that," Niedzwiekci said. "We placed over 100 students in the last three months and we have increased the host network by 50 families. So we're working on that and we're going to get there."
And business owners say the unofficial end of summer shouldn't stop folks from visiting.
If you're heading to the Cape, Niedzwiecki says to make sure to make a reservation — especially during Labor Day weekend.
