Tourism Council Update – December 2025
Tourism Council November Update: Attracting Visitors with Holiday Happenings and More
The holiday season is a special time for everyone, and this is particularly true for the tourism community, with events and activities that make Greater Cape Ann a more popular destination for visitors. This was the focus of the November 21 meeting of the Greater Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce Tourism Council, which gathered to discuss plans for the 2025 holidays, to look back at late fall highlights, and a look ahead to some exciting happenings in 2026.
A busy fall season, like the even busier summer months, provides us with an opportunity to impress upon visitors all that Greater Cape Ann offers throughout the year, and this was certainly true in 2026. As reported in past months, a successful summer tourism season was followed by a fall that saw a growing number of visitors. The popularity of this fall’s events like Rockport’s Harvest Fest (October 18) and the Essex Clamfest (October 25) – as well as the presence of fans of Halloween in nearby Salem – helped to draw visitors to our communities. The Tourism Council agreed that the availability of commuter rail and CATA service around Cape Ann and from nearby cities and towns provided a boost to our visitor-based economy.
Related questions raised at our November meeting centered on how we can gather and analyze data on visitors to the region – information that could help us drive more tourism. We will have an opportunity to advance this discussion in a tourism “year in review” being planned for early 2026 by Discover Gloucester.
The year ahead was another topic of discussion, as Council members shared updates on the Battle of Gloucester reenactment planned for June 20-21 at Stage Fort Park. This is the same weekend and location of this year’s extraordinarily successful Battle of Bunker Hill reenactment – in 2026, we’ll be part of the 250th anniversary activities across Massachusetts and the U.S. We’ll be discussing this further in future Tourism Council meetings.
Council members also looked ahead in the shorter term to the upcoming holiday celebrations planned across Greater Cape Ann. Some of the activities we discussed: Chamber holiday parties in Rockport (December 3), Manchester-by-the-Sea (December 4), Essex (December 9), and Ipswich (December 11), as well as the Greater Cape Ann party at Chamber headquarters in Gloucester on December 18. All are invited.
We also reviewed community holiday activities like Shopping Night in Rockport and Manchester-by-the-Sea (both on December 5); Ladies’ Day (December 4) and Men’s Day (December 11) in Gloucester; Rockport’s Tree Lighting (December 6); the Lobster Trap Tree Lighting (December 13) and the Middle Street Walk in Gloucester (December 13); and the Lobster Trap Menorah Lighting in Gloucester (December 18); and the Rockport Christmas Pageant (December 20). Check the Chamber website for details on these and other holiday activities.
In addition, many Tourism Council members – from Hammond Castle & Museum to Second Glance to the Beauport Hotel – talked about their own plans for the holidays.
With these celebrations and activities centered around 2026 holidays and major events like the Battle of Gloucester 2026 events, we hope to continue to extend the tourism season throughout the year.
All of this focus on tourism was reflected in a final topic at our November meeting, around our growing influence in local government. Tourism was part of Gloucester mayoral and City Council forums in this fall’s elections, and members were encouraged to join others in Gloucester’s business community and share their views in the upcoming City Council tax classification discussions – an opportunity for us to reinforce the detrimental impact a rate increase could have on our businesses, our tenants and our future.
Topics like these will be on the agenda for our next meeting, on December 19. Anyone who is involved in or has an interest in Greater Cape Ann’s visitor-based economy is invited to join us for this and upcoming monthly meetings. We gather on the third Friday of each month at the Greater Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce offices — and via Zoom. If you’d like to be part of these meetings, please reach out to me or contact the Chamber staff.
Happy Holidays!
Tony Sapienza
Co-owner, Blue Shutters Beachside Inn
Chair, Tourism Council
tsapienza@gmail.com
Learn more about the Greater Cape Ann Chamber’s Tourism Council
