BRADENTON – As Anna Maria Island continues to see a record-breaking number of visitors this summer, the question continues to be how long will the season last, and why is this year so different than years past? Anne Wittine, from Research Data Services (RDS), addressed the most recent meeting of the Manatee County Tourist Development Council with some data that shows the current trend and projects how long it will continue.
Air travel is a big indicator of how the travel trends related to AMI are progressing. Although not all travelers to Sarasota Bradenton International Airport are coming to Anna Maria Island, it’s acceptable to draw a comparison to arriving flights and the influx of travelers to AMI. While there is normally a drop-off after March, that is not the case this year. Total passengers entering SRQ are up 73.4% over 2020, which makes sense due to COVID-19 restrictions last year. The number that says a lot is the 32% increase from 2019, which was pre-COVID. These are numbers never seen by SRQ. According to Wittine, much of this can be attributed to travelers being vaccinated and more comfortable with travel.
Since January, the Bradenton area has seen a large increase, in out-of-state visitors, far outperforming the same period last year. April was the first month that Florida residents outnumbered out-of-state visitors. According to Wittine, this is expected, and we are seeing more Florida travelers than we normally would.
According to the research, the area has seen a 638% increase in visitors over April of last year, a 357% increase in room nights, and an economic impact that went from $13,038,000 in 2020 to $102,442,900 in 2021. That’s an increase of 686%. Those were COVID numbers last year, but the increase was 31%, 47%, and 26% respectively over 2019, which was pre-COVID. This shows the record-breaking numbers continue to show themselves in just about every category measured.
“This year is great, but it’s not really typical, so next year is going to present some challenges as we start to get more back to normal,” Wittine said, explaining what appears to be a post-COVID anomaly. “Next year’s April probably won’t look quite like this one did.”
Looking at where visitors are coming from, the Northeast is the largest source, with an increase of 2,217% from 2020. The Southeast is the next largest source of visitors with a 1,738% increase from 2020. The factor that could make this record-breaking summer even more impressive is that Europe and Canada are still not able to travel to our area. The study showed zero visitors from those locations in April, but with restrictions possibly being lifted soon, it could mean a very large number of European and Canadian visitors coming to AMI.
The RDS study also conducted a “Traveler Sentiment Study” that showed record numbers of potential travelers were 82% optimistic about personal health, 76% were optimistic about personal finance, and 40% of people surveyed who were thinking about traveling have already booked. This, also, is a record number.
The numbers of people who feel comfortable dining in a restaurant, shopping, visiting indoor attractions, and taking domestic flights are also at record post-COVID highs. All of this data shows that travel is a priority for many, and summer is going to continue to be a busy season on the Island. If Europe and Canada loosen restrictions soon, it could be a summer that breaks every record.
