PALMETTO – Local occupancy rates and the average rate that visitors pay for accommodations have both increased every month so far this year, the Manatee County Tourist Development Council learned on Monday.

From January through September, the number of visitors was up nearly 10 percent from the same period last year, and the average daily rate was up between 1 and 5 percent, according to Walter Klages, of Data Research Services, adding that European visitors increased by 19 percent.

More visitors from Great Britain, Germany, Austria and Switzerland are expected since the Manatee County Convention and Visitors Bureau representatives in the U.K. and Germany have begun identifying privately-owned short-term rentals previously unknown to European tourists, tourism consultants said.

Tour operators recently learned about a large number of local private short-term rentals that were previously unknown before the creation of North American Vacation Homes, a European tour operator that feeds leads on rentals to other tour operators and travel agents, according to Dru Bryan, of Gosh P.R., the CVB’s London representative.

Unlike most Americans, Europeans use tour operators to book their trips because tour operators carry trip insurance that protects visitors from flight foul-ups and bad vacations, like staying next to a building under renovation, she said.

Central Europeans also will benefit from the newly-discovered supply of rentals, according to Vera Sommer, the CVB’s representative in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Germans are the top tourism spenders in the world, she said, exceeding even American tourists in their expenditures, and often travel during the summer, which is Anna Maria Island’s less crowded tourist season.

The $64,000 question

The TDC learned that the Manatee County Tax Collector’s Office has collected about $64,000 so far this year as a result of field inspections of short-term rentals (six months or less).

Another $5,000 was collected from property owners who live out of the country and had a short-term rental since 2008, spokeswoman Tanya Ranney said.

About 6,000 people are registered with the county tax collector’s office as short-term rental property owners, she said.

For the past 12 months, resort tax collections total more than $8 million, up 10 percent from the previous 12 months, Ranney said.

The 5 percent resort tax pays for tourism marketing, with a one-fifth portion going to beach renourishment.

Paddle up

The Nathan Benderson Park Aquatic Center on the Manatee/Sarasota county line is the frontrunner for the 2017 World Rowing Championships, Paul Blackketter, of Benderson Development, told the TDC.

The event would bring rowers, canoers and kayakers to the area for three years prior to the event for qualifying events and practices, he said, adding that the facility is the only one in the U.S. in contention for the spot.

The county does not have enough hotel rooms to accommodate the crowds PALMETTO – Local occupancy rates and the average rate that visitors pay for accommodations have both increased every month so far this year, the Manatee County Tourist Development Council learned on Monday.

From January through September, the number of visitors was up nearly 10 percent from the same period last year, and the average daily rate was up between 1 and 5 percent, according to Walter Klages, of Data Research Services, adding that European visitors increased by 19 percent.

More visitors from Great Britain, Germany, Austria and Switzerland are expected since the Manatee County Convention and Visitors Bureau representatives in the U.K. and Germany have begun identifying privately-owned short-term rentals previously unknown to European tourists, tourism consultants said.

Tour operators recently learned about a large number of local private short-term rentals that were previously unknown before the creation of North American Vacation Homes, a European tour operator that feeds leads on rentals to other tour operators and travel agents, according to Dru Bryan, of Gosh P.R., the CVB’s London representative.

Unlike most Americans, Europeans use tour operators to book their trips because tour operators carry trip insurance that protects visitors from flight foul-ups and bad vacations, like staying next to a building under renovation, she said.

Central Europeans also will benefit from the newly-discovered supply of rentals, according to Vera Sommer, the CVB’s representative in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Germans are the top tourism spenders in the world, she said, exceeding even American tourists in their expenditures, and often travel during the summer, which is Anna Maria Island’s less crowded tourist season.

The $64,000 question

The TDC learned that the Manatee County Tax Collector’s Office has collected about $64,000 so far this year as a result of field inspections of short-term rentals (six months or less).

Another $5,000 was collected from property owners who live out of the country and had a short-term rental since 2008, spokeswoman Tanya Ranney said.

About 6,000 people are registered with the county tax collector’s office as short-term rental property owners, she said.

For the past 12 months, resort tax collections total more than $8 million, up 10 percent from the previous 12 months, Ranney said.

The 5 percent resort tax pays for tourism marketing, with a one-fifth portion going to beach renourishment.

Paddle up

The Nathan Benderson Park Aquatic Center on the Manatee/Sarasota county line is the frontrunner for the 2017 World Rowing Championships, Paul Blackketter, of Benderson Development, told the TDC.

The event would bring rowers, canoers and kayakers to the area for three years prior to the event for qualifying events and practices, he said, adding that the facility is the only one in the U.S. in contention for the spot.

The county does not have enough hotel rooms to accommodate the crowds

I don’t think the market will go anywhere until after the election.” “Stocks can’t go up when there are so many problems around the world.”.

These phrases are typical of what we were hearing from investors starting early this year. Apparently, many have voted with their money as we have been seeing individual investors remove far more money than they deposited in stock mutual funds for over three years in a row now.

Despite the market’s significant recovery from the depths of the 2008-2009 financial crisis, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose from under 7000 in early 2009 to over 13,000 presently, U.S. equity mutual funds saw net outflows of 38 billion in 2010, 135 billion in 2011 and 59 billion in the first 9 months of 2012. Granted there were two attention-getting corrections. One each in the summer of 2010 and 2011, but the stock market has turned in positive performances every year since 2009 and through the first three quarters of 2012.

It is not unusual for individual investors, as a group, to get it wrong when it comes to predicting the market or the best place to invest. For example, in 2010, while money was flowing out of funds which invest in U.S. stocks, investors were investing heavily in international stock funds. Those funds were the worst performers in 2011, once again burning those who followed the crowd.

Still, it is a bit perplexing why investors continue to pull money out of an asset class that has been performing reasonable well. I suspect, and this is just my opinion, that after more than a decade of disappointment and enduring several bubbles and subsequent bubble bursts, many investors have had enough.

We’ve seen this pattern before. It was quite a while ago, but after a very frustrating decade in the 1970s where inflation and interest rates were high and stocks were at about the same level in 1982 as they were in 1968, investors acted in a similar manner as they are today. And it may not just be economic frustration that factors into this behavior. Back in the 1970s we had Watergate, Nixon’s resignation, Carter’s ineffectiveness and a generally poor outlook for our future as a nation. Sound familiar?

It’s hard to invest in the future of corporate America as an owner if you don’t feel good about the prospects. But, of course, history has always had a different lesson for us. Good times and bad times ebb and flow like the tide. Unless this time is different and we have a permanent period of a languishing economy, I suspect the stock market will continue its long-term march higher, and the apathy investors are showing towards equities at present will be proven wrong just as it has been in the past.

Tom Breiter is president of Breiter Capital Management, Inc., an Anna Maria based investment advisor. He can be reached at 778-1900. Some of the investment concepts highlighted in this column may carry the risk of loss of principal, and investors should determine appropriateness for their personal situation before investing. Visit www.breitercapital.com.