BRADENTON – It appears to be an especially busy tourist season on Anna Maria Island, and there is data to prove it, according to Research Data Services’ Anne Wittine, who addressed the Feb. 14 meeting of the Manatee County Tourist Development Council with her bi-monthly “state of tourism” update.
Wittine began by discussing throughput data, which is the number of travelers passing through airport TSA checkpoints. While 2022 data is not yet available, Sarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ) was up 156% in 2021 over 2020 and 61% over pre-COVID 2019. SRQ is one of only two Florida airports that posted a positive number over 2019, the other being Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW) which was only up 1% compared to SRQ’s 61%. Many of the arrivals to SRQ are headed for Anna Maria Island.
Bradenton Mayor Gene Brown asked Wittine if the addition of new airlines and destinations that have been added to SRQ have been the cause of the record-breaking throughput numbers. Wittine said RSW has had similar growth, but has not seen the results SRQ has because of the marketing efforts of Manatee County.
“I think the marketing that has supported the growth of these airlines has been a huge factor,” Wittine said. “Southwest Florida has also added new airlines, but has not seen the success you guys have enjoyed.”
The data for occupancy in the month of January 2022 has been tabulated, and it’s more good news for the Island and Manatee County as a whole, with 90% of properties reporting higher occupancy in January 2022 than 2021, as well as 2020 and 2019. When it comes to visitors in general, December 2021 data is the latest available at this time, and it shows a 33% increase from 2020. Room nights are up 29% and the economic impact for the county is up from $51,874,600 to $80,284,700, an impressive increase of 55%.
Visitor origins show the most visitors coming from Florida, which is typical. The Midwest is up 49% and is the #2 visitor origin, with the Northeast in third and the Southeast rounding out the top four. The data is not in for Canada and Europe yet, but Wittine expects those markets to be a big factor when the data is available. COVID-19 travel restrictions from Europe and Canada were only recently lifted.
The data also shows an increase in party size from December 2020 to 2021, up from 2.3 to 2.5 people. The length of stay for the same period is also up significantly from 5.9 nights to 6.2. These numbers may not seem like much, but according to Wittine, it is a huge increase. Lastly, the total number of visitors was up 42% from 683,300 in 2020 to 969,300 in 2021 and the economic impact jumped 44.8% from $908,996,700 in 2020 to $1,315,958,700 in 2021. Both of these are all-time record numbers.
