Labor Day marks final big summer tourist season holiday at Baldwin Beaches

UPDATE 1:00 PM

Labor Day is a busy beach day, and to have a good day on the shore, a lot of people decided to come to the beach pretty early. As the sun rose on Gulf Shores Monday morning, Laura Siracusa was already here in her chair, she came for a good day but not all day.

“Well, I don’t like to come to the beach on Labor Day. However, I got here at 6:00, and that’s the time to come. And then you’re here until about 1030 or 11 town to go back out and start the Labor Day party,” said Siracusa who was visiting from Foley. Nearby, Chad Burton from Louisiana is getting some rest, he says his group started driving well before dawn Monday morning just to spend one day at the beach because they don’t have a lot of time off.

“So pretty much the only day we all had off. The sand, the warm water and the lack of people. Honestly, I mean, there’s a lot of people, but it’s not crowded,” said Burton.

ORIGINAL STORY: GULF SHORES, Ala. (WKRG) — The Gulf Coast’s 2024 regular tourism season comes to a close today. Coastal locations are expecting big crowds for the last big summer holiday.

It’s the official end of the unofficial summer season. It’s the first summer with no toll leading to Alabama beaches and we’ll have to see if that affects overall travel.

Earlier this summer the president of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach Tourism said Alabama made up more than a third of state profit earned from tourism-related expenses .

Last year 6.5 million people visited Baldwin County beaches, spending a total of $6.7 billion.
Labor day is one of the busiest beach travel days with thousands expected to pack Highway 59 and the Baldwin Beach Express to either get out of town or get one more day in the sun as football season and other aspects of school and work life consume the remainder of the year.

Crowds will drop after today but there are a couple more hurrahs for 2024–big events include Orange Beach’s annual Freedom Fest and Gulf Shores long running Shrimp Festival.

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