By Donald Wittkowski
"America's Greatest Family Resort" has added the title of "Best Beach in America" to its tourist-friendly resume.
Ocean City topped Huntington Beach, Calif., for bragging rights as the "Best Beach in America" in a national online poll conducted by Coastal Living Magazine. The town that also prides itself as "America's Greatest Family Resort" was announced as the winner Monday.
Coastal Living said it will feature Ocean City's "stunning shoreline" in its June issue as well as in a special online package.
Click here to see the completed bracket!
"Congratulations to Ocean City, our 2016 Best Beach in America," Coastal Living Editor Steele Marcoux said in a statement. "It doesn't get more all-American than a two-and-a-half-mile-long Boardwalk and eight miles of pale sand. This iconic summer destination has a real family vibe and a fun-loving spirit."
Ocean City Mayor Jay Gillian said the voters not only recognized the town's beautiful beaches, but also its reputation for offering residents and visitors "much more than that."
"It's a tradition and a part of life for generations of residents and guests," Gillian said. "Days on the beach and Boardwalk nights in Ocean City are the fabric of many fond memories for people across the country. We all feel blessed to live in such a wonderful place and proud that so many visitors share our passion."
Shawnda McGinnis, marketing director for the Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce, said the contest should elevate the town's profile in the tourism industry nationwide and help it to attract more visitors.
"We all love Ocean City. Now that we've been chosen as Best Beach in America, it does help in promoting Ocean City," McGinnis said.
As a first step, the city plans to reach out to residents and visitors through social media and email "to spread the word as much as we can" about the contest, McGinnis noted.
This was the first ever "Best Beach in America" contest by Coastal Living. The magazine pitted 30 coastal states in head-to-head competition during successive rounds of an NCAA-style March Madness bracket format. Ocean City and Huntington Beach made it to the championship round, with Ocean City ultimately grabbing the crown with more than 100,000 votes.
"We're thrilled to have so many people who voted for us," McGinnis said.
McGinnis, though, explained that Coastal Living told her that it delayed announcing the contest winner after detecting "unusual voting patterns." She did not know the nature of those voting patterns.
"They reviewed the vote and Ocean City came out as the winner," McGinnis said.
Coastal Living issued a statement in early April that confirmed it was looking into the voting. Elizabeth Marsh, a spokeswoman for the magazine, released another statement Monday that expressed confidence in the vote totals.
"We worked closely with our polling provider to verify the winner and stand behind the final result," Marsh said.
Several readers of OCNJDAILY.com alerted the website that Huntington Beach appeared to be getting an unusually high number of votes from France, Germany and the Ukraine, while the overwhelming amount of votes for Ocean City came from within the United States. The abnormally high number of overseas votes suggested Huntington Beach may have benefited from automated or "bot" votes that are set to continually register votes in online polls.
