With the Hangout Music Festival and Memorial Day weekend in its rear view mirror, Pleasure Island is driving full speed into summer with bright eyes and optimism to spare.

Suffering from the consequences of a depressed economy and huge oil spill in the past three years, local businesses and lodging destinations in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach saw a significant decrease in revenue.

However, early signs from the past two weekends indicate a tourism revival in the island towns hit hard by a recession beginning in 2008 and then the largest oil spill in U.S. history in the Gulf on April 20, 2010.

Tacky Jack’s in Orange Beach and Fort Morgan enjoyed healthy sales as well during the past few weekends.

“Both weekends were terrific weekends for our restaurants,” CFO Ken Kichler said. “The Hangout Festival is great for the area. It basically added a week to the season, so we were thrilled with it.”

Tacky Jack’s restaurant on the causeway in Spanish Fort had steady business and the other two restaurants on the island did exceedingly well, Kichler said.

“Memorial Day was tremendous,” Kichler said. “We’re looking forward to a great summer.”

Jim Hutto from Big O’s Seafood Grill expressed optimism for the rest of the season, citing increased sales during the music festival. Memorial Day weekend was steady, “which is good,” Hutto said. 

 “Our numbers were much better than last year,” Hutto said. “Now what remains is to see whether people come back for the rest of the summer. Hopefully, there’s enough word of mouth that they will.”

Based on an informal survey by Gulf Shores and Orange Beach tourism, several accommodation companies reported increases 50 percent or more in occupancy rates during the Hangout Music Festival, in comparison to similar dates in 2009 and 2010. Several came close to or reached 100 percent occupancy.

Meyer Vacation Rentals almost doubled its occupancy rate from the same weekend in previous years to 97 percent, selling out rooms much earlier. Kaiser realty also reported an increase of 50 percent and close to full occupancy for the Hangout Music Festival weekend.

Staff from Brett-Robinson Vacations, the Island Hotel, Mandoki Hospitality and Young’s Suncoast Vacation Rentals described similar trends.

The same companies also reported healthy numbers for Memorial Day weekend, most with sales and occupancy rates exceeding figures from previous years.