CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Business is booming at our county RV parks. There is such a demand that Nueces County Coastal Parks Director Scott Cross said you can't get a reservation at both Padre Balli on Padre Island and I.B. Magee Beach in Port Aransas until next year!
"Right now we’re so booked we don’t have any openings until March of next year, that’s how well business is going right now," Cross said.
Money that will help to fund next year’s operating expenses.
”We typically run about 67 percent, I generate that much to offset the operating budget and get 33 percent from general fund I think we are going to be above that number for this year, business has been very good," he said.
Cross also told 3NEWS that the huge jump in those reservations at the RV parks is helping him to offset some of the lost revenue from Bob Hall Pier being closed down after Hurricane Hanna.
”We’re losing at least $235k a year that we were netting that we bring home,” he said.
Thanks to a $7.5 million BP oil spill grant, construction on both of the county’s RV parks will begin by next February to double the size of each one.
3NEWS spoke with tourist Margie Broomall from Bandera at I.B. Magee Beach. She said that she'd been bringing her kids here for years and now has her grandchildren in tow. Margie was excited to hear about the expansion plans.
"Wow, that would be amazing because it’s always full now it seems like," she said. "It wasn’t full before the hurricane so yeah it’s really good. I like the way they set it up.”
The expansion will help to ensure that more tourists will continue to be able to rely on these facilities for their vacations here and will help to offset all that money we have been losing each year since 2020 because of Bob Hall Pier being closed.