Business leaders and tourism experts gathered for breakfast at the Harbor View Hotel Monday morning to digest the 2026 summer season and strategize for next year.
The annual State of the Island Tourism Breakfast, hosted by the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber of Commerce, featured data-driven presentations and new models of doing business.
Last year was a record-breaking summer in terms of visitation to the Island; this season didn’t hit that mark, but came close. While previous tourism breakfasts focused on housing, staffing, and marketing strategies, this year, the tone was a new one. On Monday, speakers focused on business innovation through artificial intelligence (AI). Presenters included the founders of an AI application that promotes local businesses based on collected data from users, which the chamber is introducing to the Island in a pilot program starting in the spring of 2027.
“AI was particularly timely this year, because it isn’t simply about technology or growth. It’s about discoverability, which is relevant to every business, new or established,” Erica Ashton, executive director of the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber of Commerce, told The Times in an email after the event.
She said even historic local businesses could be at a disadvantage if their online information isn’t current, because the way visitors search for businesses and lodging is “changing rapidly” as AI use increases. But concerns about AI and its impact on the environment and human life are growing in equal measure on the global stage.
“It may have felt quieter or different in certain sectors, but the Island continued to see strong visitation,” Ashton wrote in an email to The Times. “The bigger story is how visitor behavior is changing: how people get here, where they stay, how they spend, and how they discover what to do once they arrive.”
How people get here
There are two primary ways to get to the Island: via Martha’s Vineyard Airport or the Steamship Authority. According to data presented on Monday, the Martha’s Vineyard Airport saw 69,533 passengers from January to August. This was a 3.4 percent dip from last year, which was a record-breaking season.
In August, airline travel peaked at 30,627 passengers, which was a year-over-year increase of 5.4 percent. The chamber pointed out that travel usually peaks in July, but this year, the numbers showed high visitation through August.
The Steamship Authority saw a modest decline in passenger travel this year, by 3.7 percent compared with 2025, or a decline of 62,317 people. In August, however, passenger travel by boat slightly increased (by 0.1 percent), and cars and trucks increased by 0.6 percent.
Where visitors stay
In terms of where people stay when they arrive on the Vineyard, the bag is mixed. Some opt for Airbnb stays or short-term rentals, while others book a hotel or inn.
Data for hotel lodging on the Vineyard were combined with Nantucket in the chamber’s presentation, and showed a 4.9 percent increase in rooms booked across the islands from January to August 2026. Hotel-room revenue increased 8.6 percent in the same time frame, which was partly due to a price increase of 3.5 percent.
Airbnbs were listed at lofty prices this August. The Times perused the website during the summer and found listings for as high as $300,000 for a month long stay. Local occupancy tax revenue, which is a way of seeing short-term rental data, showed a 92 percent year-over-year increase from April through August. In the first half of 2026, local occupancy taxes generated $1.6 million.
How tourists spend, and how they discover the Island
Even through public health concerns, the Vineyard remained a tourist destination this summer.
In July, amid a rise in fear of ticks and the conditions they can give to humans, as well as heat waves and summer storms, beaches were still full when the skies were clear.
In August, the Agricultural Fair was moved a week earlier, pushing a higher concentration of tourists to the second week of the month. Plus, the Vineyard went viral on Instagram and TikTok quite a few times for topics that ranged from cultural significance to ticks, natural beauty, high expenses, and food reviews.
New events also emerged, like the Vineyard Icon Awards. The founder, fifth-generation seasonal resident Erin Goldson, presented at the breakfast on Monday.
Goldson said she started the awards to honor people who are making an impact on and off the Island, and who consider Martha’s Vineyard their “happy place.” She also wanted to give back to locals, and spoke to the significance of Oak Bluffs to the Black community. Her inaugural awards this year raised money for need-based scholarships, Martha’s Vineyard Community Services, and the Cottagers.
“Even for those whose family hasn’t been coming for five generations, there’s just something about the Vineyard where people come back; they come for one summer and they get hooked,” Goldson said.
While Island business leaders and staff navigated the influx of visitors that occurs each summer, AI was rising in use across the country, as well as locally. Goldson pointed to the benefits of the technology, and promoted its use, but pointed out that it couldn’t replace human emotion.
“AI can’t build tradition,” Goldson said. “AI can’t replicate my parents getting married here, and my sister wearing the same dress a gazillion years later. AI can’t replicate the feeling when you walk off the ferry, and you feel [it], you smell it, you hear it.”
AI is described by experts as a technological model that uses pattern recognition to predict new information and answers to questions from users. And many enthusiasts see AI as a way to minimize busywork, offer incentives to consumers, and innovate beyond human capacity. There’s also a concern that’s grown parallel to the excitement: being left behind by an emergent and capable technology.
“If there was one thing I hated about my job, it’s when you have to juggle between employees, customers, [and] paperwork … I couldn’t stand it. The data entries, the clerical work — it just wasn’t me. So that’s why I started learning AI to try to figure out how to solve that issue,” David Dragas, founder of Vid AI and co-owner of Mikado Asian Bistro in Vineyard Haven, said to attendees at the breakfast on Monday.
“AI will not replace you,” Dragas said, repeating a phrase he had heard at a conference about AI usage for businesses in Las Vegas. He added, “But the person using AI will.”
Vid AI wasn’t the only company that presented at the breakfast. Two founders of a new application, WhiteFang, also spoke. WhiteFang is starting a pilot program with the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber of Commerce with its new application.
Co-founder Dave Everett said on Monday that WhiteFang is essentially a map fueled by AI, which collects users’ data (from income to the number of children they have) and uses that information to promote businesses they might be interested in as they explore the Vineyard.
The Times sat down with the co-founders of WhiteFang — Everett and Pat Purcell — after the event to get more information on the application, the partnership, and data collection, plus what this new model could mean for year-rounders.
Everett said the goal of the application is to give local businesses, rather than national chains, a “leg up” in getting discovered. The application is opt-in for businesses and consumers, and its goal is to increase visitation. Everett said WhiteFang also exists in Boston, and while it’s a new venture, it’s looking into ways to feed people in Boston information about Island businesses as a way to invite them to visit.
There are those opposed to AI, however, and they, even founders of AI platforms, are sounding the alarm for the risk the tool actively poses to the environment, as well as the potential harm to humans. (AI data centers use millions of gallons of water a day to cool systems.)
“This is not the kind of thing that’s going to be scary at all for anybody, as far as personal information,” Everett said outside the Harbor View breakfast hall. The co-founders pointed out that user data collection is commonplace with the use of technology as a whole, not just with AI.
“I think AI is a modern tool that if people are choosing to use it, it’s going to operate how it’s going to operate … similar to getting on Google back in the day. If you’re going to use it, it’s going to collect your data,” Purcell added. “If you have accounts on social media, it’s going to collect your data.”
This year, researchers from AI platforms OpenAI and Anthropic resigned from their posts, citing worries that AI is developing faster than companies can control; several have claimed AI poses a risk of human extinction.
The CEOs of both companies, Sam Altman from OpenAI (ChatGBT) and Dario Amodei of Anthropic, spoke in front of the United Nations (UN) in late September to discuss the mounting concerns and call for more guardrails for AI on the global stage. “We’re ready to work with you all,” Altman said to the UN. “We’re at a crossroads.”
“If managed poorly, I even believe that AI could be a risk to humanity as a whole,” Amodei said to the UN in September.
But the Island pilot program is full-steam ahead.
The Times asked the co-founders: If a business chooses to opt out of the AI tool through WhiteFang, would they be at a potential disadvantage once the application launches?
“I think time will tell,” Everett said. “The whole goal is to help small businesses, not hurt anybody, and not want to make it so there’s any competition between stores. It’s trying to just match up the right person with the right location.”
