OCEAN CITY, Md. – With an unusually cold winter season that saw plenty of snow, how did tourism in Ocean City fare?

Officials said they saw a mixed performance when it comes to hotel occupancy and tourism. They also said they are hoping the coming spring months contribute to a resurgence in people visiting the town.

“From a qualitative standpoint, I think it was a really cold winter, that’s not a surprise to anybody,” said Amy Thompson, Executive Director of the Ocean City Chamber of Commerce, “but I think that actually impacted people’s willingness to go and do as well, so it’s not completely apples to apples.”

Thompson said short term rentals remained consistent from year to year, with December having a higher occupancy.

Results were a little different when it came to hotels.

“We did see mixed performance, so some decline in November, December for hotels versus the previous year, October was pretty consistent, but pricing was a little bit higher, so while fewer people were booking hotels, those who were willing to stay paid a little bit more per night,” said Thompson.

Executive Director of the Ocean City Hotel Motel Restaurant Association Susan Jones said occupancy in January was slightly higher than this time last year.

“The January occupancy was 0.7% up from last year, while other beaches around us, Myrtle Beach, Virginia Beach, Delaware beaches even, their numbers seemed to be a little bit lower than ours,” said Jones.

Jones attributes the uptick to sports tourism that came to the Ocean City Convention Center during the month.

She said visitors can expect a few new changes coming to the town in the spring.

“We are going to have a couple new restaurants coming on board this spring and the hotels have taken this opportunity in the winter to really do refreshes, so we have a number of hotels, the last time I looked it was about five, that were doing complete renovations, top to bottom in their hotels,” said Jones.

Thompson adds the town is doing a full-court press to attract new visitors.

“They’re using data, they’re making data driven decisions to target the consumers that we want to come spend time in Ocean City.”

With St. Patty’s Day coming up this weekend, Thompson said you may see a resurgence of people flocking to Ocean City.