Jersey Shore predicted to be strong: Economically recovered from COVID-19, LIGHT says – ROI-NJ.com

The Jersey Shore has recovered economically from the shutdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and is expecting a busy 2022 summer that was the message from the 14th annual Jersey Shorecast last week sponsored by the Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality and Tourism of the Stockton University School of Business.

The seminar, which was also streamed online, was held at the Stockton University AtlanticCity John F. Scarpa Academic Center.

LIGHT Faculty Director Jane Bokunewicz moderated a panel that included:

I think the summer of 2022 is going to be another robust and strong Shore season, Cooke said. It may not be as robust as last summer. I hope Im wrong, but there was so much pent-up savings and pent-up demand (last year). I wouldnt be surprised if we were close to what we were last summer.

At the start of the seminar, Bokunewicz presented some new data from visitnj.org thatshowed 2021 was a very good year economically for the Jersey Shore as visitors, spendingand the number of jobs in Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland, Monmouth and Ocean countiesrose dramatically from 2020.

Visitors to those counties reached 45.2 million, spending hit $20.8 billionand 122.9 million workers were directly employed (a 22.9% increase).

But, while those numbers are positive trends, they are all below 2019 numbers, before thepandemic.

Nevertheless, each member of the panel was very optimistic for the positive trends tocontinue in 2022.

We are really bullish on this summer season, Ziereis said.

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Jersey Shore predicted to be strong: Economically recovered from COVID-19, LIGHT says - ROI-NJ.com