Memorial Day tourists ‘could be devastating’ to Central Coast beach towns, officials say
A charter company in the Central Valley is selling $30 tickets to bus people to Pismo Beach and Morro Bay to enjoy sunny beaches this Memorial Day weekend, despite a statewide stay-at-home order and coast officials actively discouraging tourism right now.
“This is what we’re up against,” Morro Bay City Manager Scott Collins told The Tribune.
After a resident brought the charter-bus plans to his attention, Collins reached out to the business and asked them not to come. As of Friday, a charter bus company was actively advertising tickets on Facebook.
Usually, Morro Bay welcomes the influx of tourists that can double the town’s population on sunny holiday weekends — local businesses and government depend on those dollars.
But right now, an influx of visitors to the town of 10,000 people puts the health of residents at risk, and could potentially harm local businesses even more in the long run.
“It’s a very unique position to be where you’re a tourist community and you’re saying don’t come,” Collins said.
A roadblock on SLO County’s path to reopening
If local case numbers soar, SLO County may have to move backward in the reopening process, thus prolonging closures for certain local businesses and that, Collins said, “could be devastating.”
The county of San Luis Obispo has fared relatively well in the COVID-19 pandemic so far. With relatively low case numbers and massive efforts to prepare for and respond to outbreaks, the county was given the go-ahead by the state to open restaurant dining rooms and retail shops — another attraction for surrounding communities that remain closed.
Increased tourism equals increased risk of outbreaks.
Morro Bay has had a total of six confirmed cases since mid-March, with the most recent case more than five weeks ago, according to county Public Health data. In that same time period, Pismo Beach has had a total of nine cases with the last positive COVID-19 test over a week ago.
Those towns are popular destinations for visitors from the Bay Area, Los Angeles and the Central Valley, all of which have significantly higher numbers of cases — in the thousands.
“That is the reason we are asking our tourists to give us this opportunity to move forward without potentially bringing us disease,” Public Health Officer Penny Borenstein said at a press conference Wednesday. “I’m not saying our friends and families are all carrying disease, but they are at higher risk.”
City and county government officials tried to discourage tourism
The county paid for social media ads asking neighboring residents to vacation at home, and ordered hotels to only allow 50% occupancy, which will be enforced with spot checks and potential citations for egregious violations.
But local governments are limited in what they can do to prevent tourists, both legally and socially. Neither Morro Bay nor Pismo Beach has the staff capacity to issue citations to all visitors, and that in itself raises constitutional concerns about checking identification.
“We are not under martial law,” Collins said, “But the order makes it clear travel should only be essential. Still, people are making up their own minds.”
“We are not in position to check IDs at the border. We’re just not that kind of people,” he added.
So, instead, officials are bracing for the influx and managing crowds.
Increased police presence and more public works staff will be on the streets, trying to maintain social distancing requirements and picking up garbage.
“We’re in the place to manage as best we can,” Collins said. “We can’t stop people from coming and we will have to manage people coming.”
Pismo Beach is in the same situation, according to city spokesperson Jorge Garcia.
“We are anticipating that there will be folks. It’s something we know that it is going to happen. We had to figure out, how do we manage?” Garcia told The Tribune.
He said officers will patrol the beach area and downtown, “to make sure everyone that is here is safe and rules are being followed,” and the city will increase staff assigned to manage garbage in town and on the beach, which has been a problem in recent weekends.
The city hasn’t issued citations to visitors so far, but that could change.
“If folks are blatantly disregarding orders, then yes, we will issue a citation. That’s not what we want,” Garcia said. “We want compliance.”
This story was originally published May 22, 2020 at 3:01 PM.
