SALEM — Many of Salem’s small businesses face an uncertain future in the wake of 2020’s COVID-19 Halloween.
Normally its busiest time of year, the city saw a dramatic reduction in tourism this October, leading some to wonder what the economic landscape looks like for the community’s hundreds of local attractions.
“October is our peak season, and the COVID regulations definitely had a negative impact on the end of the month,” said Kate Fox, Executive Director at Destination Salem. “We estimate more than a half million people come to Salem every October, and I think it was certainly well less than half that this year.”
In August, the city made a motion to cancel its usual Halloween and haunted happenings events as officials braced early on for a second wave of coronavirus cases.
Then, on Oct. 21, Mayor Kim Driscoll announced the implementation of heavier safety restrictions meant to curb the community’s still-steady stream of visitors, including an increase in city-wide no-parking areas, mandatory business closures after 8 p.m., and the shutdown of Salem’s MBTA train stops.
“We were just really concerned about getting overwhelmed,” Driscoll said, noting that the restrictions received mixed reactions from business owners. “All the reduced occupancies at the attractions and museums and restaurants and shops were leading to long lines and we … just couldn’t accommodate the large crowds that were still coming despite everything being canceled.
“It wasn’t a great experience if you were a visitor, and it certainly wasn’t the safest environment.”
However, despite tight restrictions and extreme consumer uncertainty, Fox said a number of businesses have managed to thrive.
“I think it’s been as good as it could be this year. I’ve heard some great feedback from businesses, restaurants and retail especially, that have had a really strong year,” she said.
In what may have been simply a stroke of good luck, she said some of Salem’s businesses sought to expand earlier this year, leading to more success stories as owners were still able to accommodate a higher number of customers than in the past.
For other industries like museums and tourist spots, however, the pandemic’s impact has been largely a mixed bag, with reduced-capacity visitor mandates resulting in a somewhat skewed financial picture.
“They’re doing well, but they’re doing well at a 40 percent occupancy requirement, so the year is still a financial challenge,” Fox said. “It’s a mix. Some businesses are up and some are way down. It depends on the business.”
To help curb impending economic troubles, Salem’s government has stepped in to offer aid.
Dominick Pangallo, Chief of Staff for Driscoll, reported the city provided roughly $219,000 in direct grants to small businesses through its Salem Together Assistance & Recovery Toolkit (START) program, and it’s also offering access to free technical assistance through the Enterprise Center at Salem State University.
In addition, Pangallo said the city has assisted dozens of restaurants with the setup of their outdoor dining areas — including the provision of outdoor heaters — and distributed 300 free Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits to Salem businesses, which included 60,000 masks, 30,000 pairs of gloves, 1,200 face shields, and 20,100 ounces of hand sanitizer.
A website launched by the city, salemforbusiness.com, is also meant to act as a one-stop resource for small business owners.
“It was still a good month for many businesses, but it wasn’t an ordinary October and they had to work really hard to comply with all of these new regulations,” Driscoll said. “If you’re a small business owner, suddenly now you’re a health agent, a custodian, a scheduler. You’re taking on all these additional tasks.”
Although officials won’t have an idea of the pandemic’s full economic impact until the end of the fiscal year in July, Driscoll said this year’s first-quarter numbers — which are typically a high point for the Witch City — do have her bracing for more challenges to come.
In particular, she noted Salem still saw a 55 percent reduction in hotel excise fees and a 35 percent reduction in meals taxes between July and September.
“There are less people here, there are less people staying here, and that has an impact,” Driscoll said. “Ordinarily for Salem, those numbers are about a million dollars a year, so if we continue with those trends, there’s going to be a significant downturn.”
However, “health is the biggest concern,” she said, adding that she urges Salem residents to focus on shopping and eating locally in the coming months.
“We need to get people healthy and get this virus under control for us to have the strongest economy we can. That’s just the reality,” she said. “This year is really about our communities versus this virus, and that means we all need to do things a little bit differently.
“Our goal is to get everybody to the spring, and if we come together as a community, I’m hopeful we can do that.”