BRADENTON – After struggling to stay afloat throughout the worst of the COVID pandemic, area businesses may be getting some relief with people once again coming through their doors.
In her monthly state of tourism update, Anne Wittine, director of quantitative research for Manatee County’s tourism consultant, Research Data Services (RDS), released data showing tourism is increasing on Anna Maria Island and surrounding tourist destinations.
“In January we saw a turnaround – we saw more out-of-state visitors than Florida visitors,” said Wittine. “A lot of this has to do with the public perception of air travel, as well as more Americans being vaccinated. These numbers would be much higher, but Canada and Europe are still locked down, so international tourism is almost nonexistent at this time. That could change as early as May or June, but there is no guarantee. Statistics are showing that the largest number of out-of-state visitors are coming from the Southeast.
“The data we are seeing implies that as we move through the summer, we are going to see longer stays,” Wittine added, concerning a comparison of February 2020 to February 2021 showing an increase in length of stay. The research suggests this will be a trend for months to come.
“People have felt like they’ve missed out, so when they get to take that vacation, they really want to make it count,” she said.
RDS also released the March traveler sentiment study, which is done every month and gathers data from respondents who are planning to visit the area. The March study showed that 37.1% of respondents currently have a trip booked. According to Wittine, this is the highest number since they started the survey, and up from 25.2% in February. In addition, 24.4% of respondents said they were planning to travel in the next 30 days, up from 16.6% in February.
Another statistic of interest in the RDS study was how optimistic would-be travelers are about personal health, with more than 81.3% of respondents saying they are optimistic about personal health. Wittine noted there isn’t 81.3% of the public vaccinated, so it shows a general increase in optimism overall.
“In terms of feeling safe, we’ve got 50% saying they feel safe dining in a restaurant, 61% saying they feel safe shopping, 38% are OK with visiting indoor attractions, and taking a domestic flight is at 35%. All of these numbers are the highest we’ve seen since we started this,” Wittine said.
