By occupancy tax stats, occupancy in the Long Beach Island Region was down 3% to 7% in 2020’s summer, but rebounded countywide in June 2021 by as much as 32% over pre-pandemic 2019, as outlined in preliminary results of a Stockton University study for the Southern Ocean County Chamber of Commerce. Yet caution affected what visitors and residents did while here.

“The response for the survey is an important tool to see how the pandemic shaped spending and length of stays,” said Lori Pepenella,…