Salem council receives 2024 Haunted Happenings report as city weighs more tourist fees, safety steps

The Salem City Council’s Committee on Community and Economic Development, sitting as a Committee of the Whole, received and filed the city’s 2024 Haunted Happenings after staff and community partners presented a financial review, visitor data and public-safety and transportation outcomes from last October.

The report, presented April 30, showed record visitation for the city in 2024 but warned that direct city revenues from haunted-season activities are narrowing against growing public-safety and public-works expenses. Mayor (name not specified) said the city prefers that the visitor economy bear the cost of October operations rather than property taxpayers.

Why it matters: Salem’s haunted-season draws more than a million visitors a year and supports thousands of jobs, but managing crowds requires overtime pay for police and public-works staff, temporary services such as portable restrooms and shuttle buses, and interagency mutual aid. As city costs rise — including expected increases under newly settled labor contracts — officials said they are exploring ways to shift more of the bill onto visitor-facing revenues.

City finances and revenue Mayor (name not specified), presenting the finance slides, said direct city costs for October activities in 2024 were about $643,000, roughly 2.5 percent lower than 2023, and that direct revenues were about $716,000, a 3.7 percent decline from the prior year. The result was a net direct surplus of $72,622, down about 14 percent from the prior year’s approximately $84,000.

The mayor noted a key one-time saving: the city rebid the portable-toilet contract, which lowered that line item. At the same time, he warned that overtime for police and public-works staff — major cost drivers for October operations — is likely to rise after recently settled labor contracts.

The city also reviewed state-collected meals and lodging excise shared with the city. The October–December quarter that includes Haunted Happenings brought in roughly $1.4 million in fiscal year 2024 and rose by about $330,000 (23 percent) in the comparable quarter for FY25, driven largely by lodging excise growth tied to new rooms and state law that extended lodging excise to many short-term rentals.

Visitor counts, marketing and impacts Ashley Judge, executive director of Destination Salem, told the committee Salem recorded 1,040,600 visitors in 2024, an 8.6 percent increase over the prior year, and more than 87,000 visitors on Halloween day, a near 37 percent increase for Oct. 31 year over year. Judge said Destination Salem’s combined October websites saw roughly 1.8 million page views and that the Salem app had about 36,000 users with nearly 200,000 sessions.

“Haunted Happenings supported record-breaking visitation by keeping people informed, inspired and connected,” Judge said, summarizing the marketing effort and naming media placements and distribution of some 150,000 printed guides.

Transportation, parking and shuttles Christina Hodge, assistant transportation director, said the department moved to a license-plate-based online permit system for resident and October-only permits in 2024, and that the change reduced in-person walk-ins to permitting offices (1,278 walk-ins in 2023 versus 618 in 2024). Hodge reported a decline in total resident-permit parking citations in 2024 (1,666) from 2023 (2,225), while nonresident parking citations were slightly higher (3,318 in 2024 versus 3,218 in 2023).

Hodge also reported the city-run satellite parking-lot shuttle program recorded 21,425 shuttle boardings on days when the service operated. MBTA weekend train boardings to and from Salem in October totaled about 173,804 — roughly a 58 percent increase over the approximately 110,000 reported in 2023 — and ferry ridership reached about 84,000 for the season. Councilors and staff said they are discussing a possible fee for shuttle service next October to offset costs.

Public safety and emergency services Police Chief Miller described an expanded command structure and mutual-aid deployments that the city uses for the busiest October nights, saying total calls for service in October were roughly flat year over year (a decline of about 67 calls, or 1.5 percent). He said the city increased deployed personnel on peak nights by about 7 percent compared with prior years and that some outside agencies that assist Salem do not bill the city.

“Those areas where we’re implying that you’re safe, I believe we need to make harder,” Miller said when describing tightened crowd-control measures proposed in response to large-crowd incidents in other U.S. cities.

Fire and EMS officials said they expanded medical-cart coverage and mutual-aid planning. Fire Chief Valentine said the medical carts allow rapid response in dense crowds and reported the carts were dispatched about 56 times in 2024, a roughly 41 percent increase over the prior period. Most medical calls were for trips and falls or dehydration; there were some critical calls requiring CPR but no sustained pattern of a different medical emergency.

Operations, vendors and public space City special-events manager Jeremy Fisk and parks/facilities staff (Ray) discussed vendor placement on Salem Common, damage to fencing, and restoration practices. Councilors and several residents raised repeated concerns about long-term wear to the common from vendor staging and food trucks, and about damage to newly installed fence sections; staff said they are pursuing vendor insurance claims and drawing on a common-maintenance fund for repairs.

Fiesta Shows remains under a recently awarded three-year contract to operate certain activities on the common; the city said it removed an earlier exclusivity that prevented other food vendors from operating elsewhere downtown and that Creative Collective and other partners can now place markets and vendors in different locations.

Regulation and enforcement items The police and licensing staff reiterated that tour groups are regulated during peak times and that the city enforces a maximum group size of 40 people (limit enforced year-round). Chief Miller said enforcement and added licensing staff helped cite tour-operator violations during October. Officials also said the city is reviewing the timing and siting of lighting towers, generators and portable toilets after resident complaints.

Decisions, motions and next steps Committee members voted to receive and file the Haunted Happenings 2024 report. Councilor Hapworth moved to receive and file; Councilor Morsello seconded and the committee carried the motion by voice/hand count (recorded as six in favor; no opposition recorded in the meeting transcript).

City staff identified several near-term follow-ups: continued monthly post-October working-group meetings with external partners; exploration of a shuttle fee for next season; continued discussion about sponsorships and other visitor-user fees (while staff said they are sensitive to perceptions about commercialization); ongoing repairs to common fencing and maintenance; additional crowd-control and street-closure planning for next October; and a commitment to provide councilors with more detailed line-item financials if requested.

Ending The Committee of the Whole accepted the report and closed the hearing. Councilors and staff said they will return with additional material and that department heads remain engaged in a continuing after-action process to prepare for Haunted Happenings 2025.