Newport Life magazine
Strolling downtown Newport any weekend last summer, you’d never know a global pandemic was wreaking financial havoc on the city. Streets were crowded with cars, pedestrians shuffled along sidewalks and wharves, while restaurants and retail shops were bustling.
But busy-ness doesn’t beget business. While the sheer number of visitors to our City by the Sea looked high, the numbers paled in comparison to years past. And tourists didn’t spend enough to bail out the community’s retail, restaurant and event sectors from the three-month quarantine hole and its roller coaster aftermath. While some businesses, including Griswold’s Tavern, faced such hardship that they closed permanently, others like the Fifth Element and Samuel Durfee House Inn remain cautiously optimistic. Some, like Groovy Gator and Conanicut Marine, expanded operations. Meanwhile, the events industry is on thin ice as winter’s quiet season brings no surefire solution.