Businesses weigh in on the busiest weekends for customers.
When picking out a vacation spot, some might think of Athens, Greece, before Athens, Ohio.
Though lacking in ancient ruins, Athens, Ohio, has many peak weekends — such as Ohio University’s Homecoming — that bring visitors to town.
The Athens County Visitors Bureau works with OU and credits the college as a large reason visitors from out of town come to Athens County. Those visitors are a major source of revenue businesses in Athens, Paige Alost, executive director of the Athens County Visitors Bureau, said in an email.
“When it comes to tourism, Ohio University generates a tremendous amount of business for us,” Alost said in an email. “OU Family Weekends plus Bobcat Athletics definitely keeps our hotels, restaurants and shops full.”
In 2013, more than one million visitors were responsible for more than $139.1 million in economic benefits to Athens County, according to the Tourism Economic Impact Report from that year.
Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl said tourism not only brings in money to the city, but also new life and activity.
“Some weekends it’s very hard to find a room here,” Wiehl said. “It’s all for the good.”
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Gene Armes, the co-owner of The College Bookstore, said the busiest times for the store usually coincide with major weekends for the university.
“Homecoming is traditionally our busiest weekend of the Fall Semester,” Armes said. “We’re looking for big crowds this weekend.”
Lenny Meyer, the owner of Bagel Street Deli, said Homecoming Weekend is the busiest weekend of the year by far, but the restaurant makes considerable amounts of money “any time the university is doing a moms weekend, a dads weekend.”
“The festival weekends during the spring bring in a lot of business and football games are bringing in good business right now,” Meyer said. “So, I mean, move in weekend — the first weekend of the year — that’s huge and then the move out week is really big, too.”
Luar Romero, the general manager of Jackie O’s, added that Homecoming brings an increase in customers, so much so that the brewpub is changing its hours on Saturday.
“Brew Week, Parents Weekend, Dads and Moms weekend, those are a big influx of (business) and also move in day and move out day also bring a lot of people,” Romero said.
The university isn’t the only draw for tourists.
“The summertime is really peak leisure traveler time for Athens County,” Alost said in an email. “Events like Boogie on the Bricks and Ohio Brew Week play a huge role in attracting visitors to our community.”
Meyer added that Bagel Street Deli benefits from summertime events.
“Brew Week’s a very nice week for the summertime,” Meyer said. “Nelsonville music fest brings more people to town than normal. Yeah, I mean there’s actually quite a few (weekends) that can drive business other ways as well.”
No matter the reason people decide to come to Athens they start to love the community, Alost said.
“It's a special place, and of all the places I've been (in) the world, there's really no place quite like Athens,” she said in an email. “We often refer to Athens as the intersection of rural Appalachian wisdom and innovative academia. It's a strange combination, but it produces something really magical.”
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