Mark Sonder was staring down a challenging summer.
His business operating boat tours on North Carolina’s Crystal Coast saw a drop in customers from last year, seemingly fulfilling predictions that US travel demand would plummet during the summer months amid economic uncertainty and a decline in visitors from Canada and Europe.
But Sonder says wealthier Americans have thrown him a lifeline. His H20 Captain charter company has been kept afloat by an abnormally large proportion of higher-priced bookings this summer, even as he’s hosted fewer customers in total. “That puts me on par with last year financially — not on the amount of excursions but on the income,” he says.