Tourist towns balance fear, survival in make-or-break summer

As the coronavirus raced across America, this quaint seaside town did what would normally be unthinkable for a tourist destination.

Spooked by a deluge of visitors, the tiny Oregon community shooed people from its expansive beaches and shut down hundreds of hotels and vacation rentals overnight. Signs went up announcing that the vacation getaway 80 miles (129 kilometers) from Portland known for towering coastal rock formations was closed to tourists — no exceptions.

“It was unprecedented,” said Patrick Nofield, whose hospitality company Escape Lodging owns four hotels in Cannon Beach and abruptly laid off more than 400 employees in March. “We really went into survival mode.”

This Thursday, May 28, 2020, photo shows people visiting a beach in front of Haystock Rock during the coronavirus outbreak in Cannon Beach, Ore. With summer looming, Cannon Beach and thousands of other small, tourist-dependent towns nationwide are struggling to balance fears of contagion with their economic survival in what could be a make-or-break summer. (AP PhotoGillian Flaccus)

Now, with summer looming and coronavirus restrictions lifting, the choices facing Cannon Beach are emblematic of those confronting thousands of other small, tourist-dependent towns nationwide that are struggling to balance their residents' fears of contagion with economic survival. It's a make-or-break summer in these vacation spots — and the future is still terrifyingly unclear.

“How do you regulate people inundating your town on a day-to-day basis?” Nofield said. “One of the great things about Oregon is our beaches are free to all. We don’t want to take way people’s rights, but how do we manage it and still stay safe? That’s the thing.”

Answering that question is especially critical for small, rural towns like Cannon Beach, which are too far from major cities to benefit from their economies and remote enough that they worry about medical care should infections spike again. Far-flung communities that are gateways to national parks or fly fishing or hiking destinations have similar concerns, said Carl Winston, director of the Payne School of Hospitality and Tourism at San Diego State University.

In this Thursday, May 28, 2020, photo, tourists Tuan Nguyen and his wife, Sarah Nguyen, walk with their children, twins Lukas and Lauren, 7, and Alyssa, 4, as they walk through downtown in Cannon Beach, Ore. The Nguyens were visiting from the Portland, Ore., suburbs but elected to stay in their RV instead of a hotel to feel safer from the coronavirus. (AP PhotoGillian Flaccus)

“How do you diversify if you are Cannon Beach and all the others? There's not a lot of possibility there,” said Winston, who has watched his students' summer internships in resort towns dry up. “The question is, how much is survivable for them?"

Clatsop County, which is home to Cannon Beach and other small coastal towns, has just 45 confirmed cases of the coronavirus so far. But Portland — Oregon’s largest city — is less than two hours away and saw its hospitals overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients during the pandemic's peak. Hundreds of tourists also come to Cannon Beach from Seattle, where the virus first took hold in the U.S.

The nation has reported more than 106,000 coronavirus deaths, nearly a third of the worldwide total of over 378,000, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.

In this Thursday, May 28, 2020, photo, a sign announcing the closure of Gepetto's Toy Shop due to the coronavirus is displayed in Cannon Beach, Ore. With summer looming, Cannon Beach and thousands of other small, tourist-dependent towns nationwide are struggling to balance fears of contagion with their economic survival in what could be a make-or-break summer. (AP PhotoGillian Flaccus)

The annual influx of visitors is a concern for this tight-knit community, best known for the iconic coastal formation Haystack Rock and where a large percentage of its 1,700 year-round residents are older and more susceptible to COVID-19. That was one of the factors influencing the decision to shut down the town so abruptly after huge crowds swarmed its beaches on a warm March weekend, said Jim Paino, executive director of the Cannon Beach Chamber of Commerce.

The City Council held an emergency meeting and took immediate action, making headlines across the region a day before Gov. Kate Brown issued her own statewide stay-at-home order on March 23.

“The big fear is the people who don’t respect the safety measures. That was probably the biggest fear in our community at the moment — and it is still," Paino said. But "the businesses are what drive our economy, and if we lose too many, we’re going to lose the character of Cannon Beach and the reason everybody loves coming here.”

In this Thursday, May 28, 2020, photo, Susan Truax, owner of Bruce's Candy Kitchen, wears a protective plastic face shield while putting candy into a bag in Cannon Beach, Ore. With summer looming, Cannon Beach and thousands of other small, tourist-dependent towns nationwide are struggling to balance fears of contagion with their economic survival in what could be a make-or-break summer. (AP PhotoGillian Flaccus)

For two months, the town was a ghost of itself, a tableau of desolate streets and shuttered businesses. The closure forced at least four businesses to shut their doors for good, and hundreds of workers — almost all locals — were laid off. Cannon Beach relies on a hotel lodging tax for nearly three-quarters of its general fund and stands to lose hundreds of thousands to the pandemic.

The town reopened on May 15 and its hotels took bookings 10 days later, and on a recent warm, sunny day, Cannon Beach appeared to be coming back to life.

American flags hung on almost every street corner, families flew kites on the beach, people lingered over lunch at local brewpub and a line formed at a hamburger shop. Popular businesses like Bruce's Candy Kitchen were bustling again, with customers watching through a glass window as the owner's son-in-law pulled saltwater taffy on a giant wheel. Tourists filled the sidewalks, sometimes making social distancing difficult.

In this Thursday, May 28, 2020, photo, Yuri Vidal, co-owner of Crepe Neptune, wearing a face mask due to the coronavirus as he holds a customer's order at the take-out window of the creperie in Cannon Beach, Ore. With summer looming, Cannon Beach and thousands of other small, tourist-dependent towns nationwide are struggling to balance fears of contagion with their economic survival in what could be a make-or-break summer. (AP PhotoGillian Flaccus)

Yuri Vidal is celebrating his restaurant Crepe Neptune's ninth summer season, and he needed to reopen to survive. But he said he’s also afraid of bringing the coronavirus home to his family.

“Right now, we’re just gonna work as hard as we can,” Vidal said. “I have a feeling that’s what everybody’s going to be doing to catch up from missing spring break — and the unknown is that it all could shut down again.”

But tourists do not always equal customers, another hard lesson Cannon Beach is learning.

In this Thursday, May 28, 2020, photo Gwen Partlow and her sons, Cameron, 5, and Casey, 2, fly a kite on the beach during the coronavirus outbreak in Cannon Beach, Ore. With summer looming, Cannon Beach and thousands of other small, tourist-dependent towns nationwide are struggling to balance fears of contagion with their economic survival in what could be a make-or-break summer. (AP PhotoGillian Flaccus)

Gwen Partlow drove from Portland for a few hours of respite and kite-flying with her sister, parents and two sons, ages 5 and 2. The family packed their own picnic and headed straight for the sand, making sure to stay 6 feet (2 meters) from others.

The only money they would spend would be on ice cream, she said.

“I heard they started opening, but we didn’t come with the intention of going to any businesses," Partlow said. “We’re hoping to just stay outside.”

In this Thursday, May 28, 2020, photo, Patrick Nofield, whose company, Escape Lodging, owns and operates four hotels in Cannon Beach, Ore., stands in front of the flagship property, The Ocean Lodge, while wearing a face mask due to the novel coronavirus. With summer looming, Cannon Beach and thousands of other small, tourist-dependent towns nationwide are struggling to balance fears of contagion with their economic survival in what could be a make-or-break summer. (AP PhotoGillian Flaccus)

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In this Thursday, May 28, 2020, photo, Patrick Nofield, whose company, Escape Lodging, owns and operates four hotels in Cannon Beach, Ore., airs out a guest room at his the flagship property, The Ocean Lodge, due to the coronavirus. With summer looming, Cannon Beach and thousands of other small, tourist-dependent towns nationwide are struggling to balance fears of contagion with their economic survival in what could be a make-or-break summer. (AP PhotoGillian Flaccus)

In this Thursday, May 28, 2020, photo, hotel employee Daniel Mathre, right, helps a guest from behind protective plastic at The Ocean Lodge in Cannon Beach, Ore. The Ocean Lodge welcomed guests back starting last week after an extended shut-down of all hotels and vacation rentals in the small beach town to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. With summer looming, Cannon Beach and thousands of other small, tourist-dependent towns nationwide are struggling to balance fears of contagion with their economic survival in what could be a make-or-break summer. (AP PhotoGillian Flaccus)

In this Thursday, May 28, 2020, photo, Aroldo Ramos, an employee at The Ocean Lodge, wipes down furniture in the hotel lobby with disinfectant in Cannon Beach, Ore. The Ocean Lodge welcomed guests back starting last week after an extended shut-down of all hotels and vacation rentals in the small beach town to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. With summer looming, Cannon Beach and thousands of other small, tourist-dependent towns nationwide are struggling to balance fears of contagion with their economic survival in what could be a make-or-break summer. (AP PhotoGillian Flaccus)

In this Thursday, May 28, 2020, photo tourists shop at Bruce's Candy Kitchen amid social distancing restrictions during the coronavirus outbreak in Cannon Beach, Ore. With summer looming, Cannon Beach and thousands of other small, tourist-dependent towns nationwide are struggling to balance fears of contagion with their economic survival in what could be a make-or-break summer. (AP PhotoGillian Flaccus)

In this Thursday, May 28, 2020, photo, Brandon and Sasha Johnson, and their son Thomas, of Vancouver, Wash., left, through a plastic protective shield check out at Bruce's Candy Kitchen during the coronavirus outbreak in Cannon Beach, Ore. With summer looming, Cannon Beach and thousands of other small, tourist-dependent towns nationwide are struggling to balance fears of contagion with their economic survival in what could be a make-or-break summer. (AP PhotoGillian Flaccus)