It's Official: Record Breaking Tourism Season on Baldwin Beaches

All is quiet on Alabama beaches. A well deserved rest after a busy summer season.

"For the most part we're at record levels or near record levels. July itself was a phenomenal month it was at record levels," says Herb Malone with Gulf Shores and Orange Beach Tourism.

The end of the season numbers show occupancy rates at beach hotels second only to 2007 and condo numbers at a five year high.

The figures that stand out for tourism officials is summer retail sales. Even with a sluggish economy retail sales in Gulf Shores, Orange Beach and Fort Morgan broke records at 235 million dollars according to numbers provided by Gulf Shores and Orange Beach Tourism.

"That's really what this business is. You got to have a lot of money coming through the door. That's a lot of dollars coming into the cash registers," says Malone.

In 2010 the beaches looked a lot like they do now, vacant. Nobody was coming to the beach because of the oil spill. In 2011 a remarkable recovery but will that growth continue?

"We'll grow next year most likely from the 2011 numbers upward but we would have grown from the 2010 numbers had it not been for the spill. It still leaves some holes."

Almost anything would have been an improvement over last summers numbers but a record breaking season is a good start to recovering economically from the biggest oil spill disaster in U.S. history.