LI small businesses, downtowns ready for the busy summer season

Before you blink, summer will be upon us.

For small businesses, especially in walkable, touristy communities, summer is high season, which means more foot traffic, extending hours to accommodate nighttime browsers and diners, and a potential boon to their bottom line.

Around the island, chambers of commerce and other organizations are gearing up for the season, and coming up with yet more creative ways to bring people to their locales.

LIBN spoke to a few heads of chambers and tourism organizations to see what they’ve got planned for the longer, warmer days ahead.

 

Utilizing social media and apps

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Discover Long Island, which works with 800 partners throughout the Island, primarily in the hospitality business, has changed from a general marketing organization to attract people to the region, to one that’s focused on storytelling via in-depth social media penetration and extensive digital content, notes Kristen Reynolds, the organization’s CEO.

“We became essentially content creators at Discover Long island,” said Reynolds. “Right now, we have 11 different social media channels with a collective audience of over 10 million from all over the globe.”

That social media portfolio includes a YouTube Discover Long Island NY channel, multiple Tik Tok channels, Instagram and Facebook sites, as well as a weekly podcast called “Long Island Tea,” which resembles a talk show format.

“It’s where we ‘spill the tea’ on living your best Long Island life,” said Reynolds. “We talk about celebri-tea, chari-tea and anxie-tea. Every episode, we have a taste of Long Island.”

Discover Long Island encourages summer visitors to venture out during the week, a time when it’s less crowded and the hotels, eateries and shops could use more business.

“We talk about how to take public transportation,” Reynolds said, adding, “all of our downtowns are really walkable, and people don’t realize that.”

They also dive into lesser-known destinations, such as Bay Shore and Babylon, which boast many great restaurants and explore waterfront communities like Northport, which has a new hotel and Del Vino Vineyards, as an alternative to the East End.

The organization recently launched a free Discover Long Island app that uses mobile geolocations to find attractions, restaurants and other amenities wherever you are on the island.

“It’s pretty much like having a concierge in your pocket,” Reynolds said.

More events, more fun

Summer is a boatload of fun in Riverhead, notes Liz O’Shaughnessy, executive director of the village’s chamber of commerce.

East End Arts kicks off the season with its Mosaic Street Painting Festival, a family fun day with live entertainment and plenty of chalk to transform the streets into works of art, on Sunday, May 26 of the Memorial Day Weekend.

This year, Friday evening’s Alive on 25, featuring live music, food, vendors and games, is paired down from four nights to two, but adds fireworks on July 5 and a laser light show on August 9.

“Even though we’re moving Alive on 25 to two nights, we’re also adding a lot more events downtown, so it’s really exciting,” O’Shaughnessy said.

On August 3, the chamber runs it annual Cardboard Boat Race, whereby participants build their own colorful boats to race in along the Peconic River.

“People get very creative,” O’Shaughnessy said. “We pack the riverfront with spectators, and it’s really a fun day.”

In partnership with the Anti-Bias Task Force, the chamber will run “Food Unites,” a weeklong celebration of cultural diversity in August where restaurants will devise special menus celebrating different ethnic foods, which will be matched with culturally appropriate entertainment.

This summer, Riverhead Townscape, which is responsible for the beautification of the village’s streetscape, will introduce Thursday night concerts in the new town square.

 

Smaller, leveraged events in RVC



Leading Rockville Centre Chamber of Commerce since January, President Ed Asip notes that the chamber is coordinating various new initiatives with other village entities, which included a new restaurant association with its several dozen eateries and a collaboration with Molloy University.

In the first week of June, there are several events, including Restaurant Week and Art Walk RVC, which is run by The Art Studio and Lost Dog Art & Frame, where businesses throughout the village display art.

“Our goal is to make the first week of June a real Rockville Centre-business focused week,” Asip said. “We’re hoping to replicate this week every year to be a chamber coordinated, multi-event summer kickoff kind of thing.”

The Molloy “Communiversity” program aims to bring greater numbers of the 4,000-plus student body, their visiting parents and college conference attendees into the village, with programs such as a restaurant crawl during Restaurant Week.

The chamber restarts the Music on the Green series on June 23, followed by a few more shows throughout the season.

“We have some unique challenges, because some of the roads are state roads,” Asip said. “We can’t close them like other towns can. And we have neighborhoods that are spread out.”

To circumvent these obstacles, Asip is trying to put together more localized, multi-coordinated events, including smaller street fairs and block parties, which will bring attendees into those particular areas.

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