We officially said goodbye to summer and hello to fall this week.


Although the summer season is the busiest season for tourism, the fall season isn't showing any signs of slowing down.


The clear skies and warm weather made for a profitable summer.


As John Oliver, the President and CEO of Visit Erie explained, "Our main draw is our outdoor attraction in the summer, the peninsula, obviously with the beach, Waldameer, the outdoor park and a number of outdoor activities including all the ethnic festival we hold, so good weather is always key to a good season."


Not only did local attractions see full crowds through the summer, but so did local hotels. "Hotels saw a bit of a bump in occupancy along with an increase in the average daily rate and we are hearing from our attractions that they had one of their best years ever", explained Oliver.


High gas prices around holiday weekends led people to stick a bit closer to home and opt for a staycation instead of gassing up and hitting the road for hundreds of miles. "Rather than driving to the Jersey Shore, the Outer Banks, people decided that why not come to Erie and we can give them the water activities that they were looking for", said Oliver. 


Although things may be cooling down for outdoors activities in the summer months, they are heating up for indoor conventions, expos and competitions like inside the Bayfront Convention Center.


"Fall is always proved to be a very strong season for us as we are striving to become a four season destination, we are finding that looking for a hotel room in September or October open a weekend is very difficult", said Oliver.


Oliver said that events like hockey tournaments, basketball tournaments and even ice fishing will be taking the place of heritage festivals and picnics in the coming weeks and months.


Some of those upcoming fall events coming to the area include the Peek n Peak Fall Festival, the first Otters game of the season, the Beach Glass Expo at the Bayfront Convention Center and Zoo Boo.