Over 300,000 people visited the Annual National Shrimp Festival over the event's four-day period this year while the site maintained an occupancy rate similar to summertime levels.

Coastal Alabama Business Chamber President Greg Alexander presented a review of the festival at the Oct. 20 Gulf Shores City Council meeting. In his presentation, he reviewed data related to the festival.

“This year, we got it down to a science,” he said. “We’re able to actually calculate the number of folks that came through the three main gates that we had set up. 325,448 folks entered the Shrimp Festival over four days, and that is amazing to me.”

Occupancy rates of the area were around 76%, which is just a few points off from average summer occupancy, he said.

According to a Facebook post from festival organizers on Thursday, Oct. 9, the “push pin U.S. map” returned near The Hangout on the beach side.

Festivalgoers were invited to place a pin on their hometown, showing how far visitors traveled to attend the annual event. The first five cities pinned that morning were Conway, New Hampshire; Benton, Louisiana; Gainesville, Georgia; Pensacola, Florida; and St. Peters, Missouri.

Each year, the Shrimp Fest committee holds a focus on what to improve. This year, the emphasis was on a continued improvement on the “enforcement of the domestic shrimp policy.”

Alexander said this was “not an easy task,” and he specifically thanked inaugural volunteer Chief Shrimp Investigator Chandra Wright for ensuring vendors complied with state and festival seafood laws.

“It takes a village to plan, set up, execute and break down a festival of this size with an all-volunteer force,” he said. “Thank you to everyone, our citizens, our leaders and to the city for all you do to make this happen. We’re extremely grateful.”