By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Although it may not be as scintillating as “Monday Night Football” or as dramatic as an episode of “Yellowstone,” Sea Isle City’s tourism website has its own bit of must-see entertainment for viewers.
People who go to visitsicnj.com seem to be fascinated with the live images of Sea Isle’s beachfront that can be watched on a webcam.
During a board meeting Thursday of Sea Isle’s Tourism Commission, it was revealed that the beach cam attracts the longest amount of average viewership on the website and is No. 2 in page visits overall.
“One of the interesting things that we’re digging deeper into, people spend 4 minutes and 41 seconds on average on the webcam, the highest page that anyone views. Now, it’s No. 2 in pages visited. But I thought that it was pretty interesting that they sit there for 4 minutes and just look at the ocean,” said Mickey Coskey, the Tourism Commission’s marketing consultant.
James Bennett, the commission’s chairman, guessed that the heavy viewership is from surfers checking out the waves from home before they head to the beach.
Katherine Custer, Sea Isle’s public information officer, said tourists are watching the webcam simply to stay connected to the place where they love spending their vacations.
“I think people are just very in tune with Sea Isle City. This is their happy place. They love to be connected,” Custer said.
The webcam livestreams images of the beach and ocean in front of the Sea Isle City Beach Patrol headquarters at 44th Street. The webcam is also available on the Beach Patrol’s website at sicbp.com.
Chris Oney, Sea Isle’s tourism representative, said he received a call from a web viewer last week when the beach cam temporarily went offline. He believes the caller was watching the rough surf churned up by Tropical Storm Ophelia at that time.
“Apparently, the beach cam went down. Someone called me within five minutes to let me know. So they must sit and watch it. It was like, ‘Hey, I wanted to let you know.’ It came back on about a minute later,” Oney said.
The tourism website offers an array of information about Sea Isle’s special events, attractions, recreation, beach tags, parking, public restrooms and more. It was redesigned last March to be more user-friendly.
For 2023, most of the web traffic comes from people who live in New Jersey, followed by Pennsylvania residents and then New Yorkers.
Women 35 years and older are the primary demographic group using the website, Coskey said.
The top 5 sections that people search for on the website are as follows: 2023 calendar of events, beach cam, weekly events, beach tags and jitneys.
However, Coskey noted that there is another category that attracts the second-heaviest viewership. She asked the Tourism Commission members to guess the category.
Some said parking, while other guessed jitneys.
Oney got it right by guessing it is the information about public restrooms.
The board meeting erupted in laughter when Bennett joked, “And what does our average age mean, looking at restrooms?”
