OCEAN CITY, Md. - A new tourism report, showing a significant drop in May visitation to Ocean City compared to last year, is due to a change in the way data is collected.
According to the report, an estimated 588,000 people visited the resort town in May 2025, down sharply from the 830,000 recorded in May 2024. That’s a 41 percent decrease year over year.
However, Jessica Waters with Ocean City Tourism explains that a new data collection system is in place for this year. The numbe of visitors in the May 2024 report was not as specific as the numbe of visitors in the May 2025 report. In 2024, the report included everyone coming in and out of town in the number of visitors. The 2025 report visitors more specifically, not including residents and workers. Also, the number of visitors is how many people have visited in that month, not year-to-date.
Local business owner Sam DeLauter, who runs Sunrise Diner in Ocean City, says he’s had a solid season, but others haven’t been so lucky. “I know a few hotel owners that say that it’s down. And a few other restaurants that just say it’s not the same,” DeLauter said.
John Magathan, co-owner of Bluvista Vacation Rentals, said the trend aligns with what he’s seeing in the short-term rental market. “It was showing that the numbers were at least 12 percent off, over last year,” Magathan said. “So that’s kind of in line with those numbers.”
But Ocean City’s Tourism and Business Development Director Tom Perlozzo is skeptical of the report’s accuracy. He noted the data comes from a third-party vendor and may not tell the full story.
“We don’t think that report is 100 percent accurate,” Perlozzo said. “We do feel like that May was a great season, great event. We had a great third concert, the Boardwalk Rock filled the town up.”
Perlozzo added that despite the reported drop in visitation, the town’s occupancy revenue actually ticked up compared to last May.
Perlozzo added that despite the reported drop in visitation, the town’s occupancy revenue actually ticked up compared to last May. “We’re working on the reasons why they might report a fluctuation,” he said. “There’s a lot of questions out here. We don’t have the specific answers yet.”
Pete Arbonaise, who visits Ocean City annually with his family, said they haven’t noticed much of a change in the summer atmosphere. “Maybe through the day, the crowd has, you know, kind of blended down a little bit,” he said. “But it seems at night, though, there’s still a lot of things going on.”