CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — It’s the unofficial start to Summer, Memorial Day weekend, and many are visiting the Island in Corpus Christi. Some businesses said this weekend would help increase their revenue.
One of those businesses is Scuttlebutt’s; the restaurant management saying things like Saturday’s Happy Hour and the usual locals are helping to increase their sales. They said they typically make around $16,000 a weekend, but this weekend they’re expecting to make around $22,000. They said holiday visitors also help increase their sales.
“A lot of people are coming from San Antonio, up North, Houston, just coming into the SPID, enjoying the waters. Definitely come into Scuttlebutts because you know what…Scuttlebutts is very famous on the Island so we get a lot of reviews especially from like Google, from like Trip Advisor, so I’m glad to see a lot of new faces here down for the weekend,” said Brandon Rodriguez, the general manager of Scuttlebutt’s.
They said they are also expecting to see busy weekends for other holidays like Father’s Day and Fourth of July.
Visitors like Tori Falleroni, who is visiting from Lubbock, Texas, said this year there seems to be more visitors than last year and she attributes that to the pandemic.
“We weren’t able to sit in a lot of the restaurants that we normally have gone to and we didn’t mind the mask mandate rule but just being able to go shopping and out and about and not have to worry about that made us a lot more excited about coming down this year,” Falleroni said.
The Slip, a bar on the Island, said some factors like police presence influences the number of people they get at the bar. They said they’ve seen people get pulled over in their parking lot, which curbs business. They said other factors like weather also influence the number of people coming in and said Saturday morning when it rained, they didn’t see many people.
“Today we had a little bit of rain. I think it kept some people indoors during the earlier part of the day but I think tonight we’re going to get a pop. Last night was really busy in here,” Charlene Midgett, a bartender at the Slip said.
Other places on the Island like Padre Islander and Island Sports are also seeing a boom in revenue because of the holiday weekend. They said Memorial Day kicks off the Summer and it usually gets busier after a lull they see once Spring Break has finished. They said they get visitors from different states.
“We just see our business increases. The island comes alive. We look forward to this weekend because summer is here, the tourists are here and so far it’s been a great weekend,” Jackie Siler, the manager of the store said.
