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Tag: Anna Maria Island tourism

Tourism visitation flat, room rates up

Written by Leslie Lake on . Posted in Business, Taxes, Tourism.

ANNA MARIA ISLAND – Visitor numbers are down slightly in the Bradenton area from last year, but higher room rates are pointing to confidence in the market, Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Elliott Falcione told the Manatee County Tourist Development Council on Aug. 19.

“Confident short-term rental owners are not wanting to compromise those rates because visitation is off a little bit,” he said in his report on tourism. “The overall economic impact is up. Those are great numbers.”

In fiscal year 2023, there were 821,900 visitors to the Bradenton area, and in 2024, that number was 814,100, a decrease of .9%. The total economic impact, however, rose 2.3% from $1,382,734,200 to $1,414,380,000.

“That .9% of less visitors is basically flat,” Falcione said. “We don’t need to be breaking tourism records, this is a nice sustainable 12 months a year without major peaks and lulls.”

In comparing June 2023 to June 2024, the number of visitors to the Bradenton area rose 11.4%, going from 98,200 to 109,400; room nights were up 18.4% from 197,000 to 233,300 and the total economic impact increased 14.9% from $138,837,200 to $159,554,600. Tourist tax collections rose 15.2% from $2,923,352 to $3,367,633.

Those numbers are higher on Anna Maria Island.

In a year-to-year comparison from June 2023 to June 2024, occupancy on the Island increased 2.4% compared to 1.5% on the mainland and 1.7% in Longboat Key. Room rates during that period increased 4.5% on Anna Maria Island from an average $255.25 to $266.86 per night. Mainland rates decreased 1.8% from $148.58 to $145.94 per night and Longboat Key showed a 1.5% increase going from $253.83 to $257.70 per night.

would be catastrophic to the small businesses.”

Falcione said the tourist tax is capped at 6% by state statute.

“There’s no seven penny in the future,” he said. “Six penny is the max that anyone in the state of Florida can levy. I’m not anticipating any of that changing.”

Falcione said other counties – Sarasota, Hillsborough, Orange and Pinellas – currently impose a 6% tourist tax.

“We’re one of the last west coast communities that doesn’t collect six pennies on the dollar,” he said.

TDC Chair Ray Turner said the biggest misnomer is that it’s going on the ballot as a tax.

“People should understand it’s not a tax to them, it’s a tax to short-term rentals,” Turner said.

“When we go to vote, if we go in person, we pretty much know who we’re going to vote for, we want to get in and get out and just the human nature of optics is when you see a tax you may be likely just to say no, and really not read the details of what that tax means,” Falcione said. “But it is a tax that’s not assessed to a resident unless a resident stays in a short-term rental in Manatee County. 99% of the tax collecting would be out of town visitors.”

“We’re not for additional taxes for our local people,” Bradenton Mayor Gene Brown said. “This is not an additional tax for our local people, this is an additional tax for the people coming here. When you drill down, you see what it really is.”

“The way I explain it to the average taxpayer is the tourists are going to be providing things year-round for all of us to take benefit of,” Palmetto Mayor Shirley Groover Bryant said. “It’s improving our community year-round. There are things that don’t go away when the tourists go away that help us to have a nicer, more vibrant community.”

March tourism numbers soar

March tourism numbers soar

Written by Jason Schaffer on . Posted in Business, Featured, Tourism.

ANNA MARIA ISLAND – March tourism numbers are up from last year in all three Island cities, significantly so in the City of Anna Maria.

Each month, the Manatee County Tax Collector’s Office reports how much income the county’s 5% tourist tax produces. The tax is collected from owners of accommodations rented for six months or less who charge the tax to their renters, who are mostly tourists. The amount of the tourist tax taken in each month is a gauge of how many people are coming to the Island in a given month, and for March, that was a big number.

While Bradenton Beach was up 1% compared to 2023 and Holmes Beach was up an impressive 19% during the same period, Anna Maria showed a staggering increase of 58% over March 2023.

The Sun reached out to Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) Executive Director Elliott Falcione to make sense of the significant increase.

“I’m not sure without further research, but what might have happened in the City of Anna Maria is more of the homes went into the short-term rental pool,” Falcione said. “I’d be curious if there’s any real estate transactions from homeowners that used that as their homestead then made it a short-term rental and had a management firm operate it.”

Falcione also said his department does not promote spring break, saying the Island is busy enough and doesn’t need further promotion during the busiest time of year. He says there has to be a balance between the huge influx of tourists during the busy spring season and the quality of life for the residents who live here. This attitude falls in line with other, more popular, Florida spring break destinations such as Miami and Panama City, who have essentially told spring breakers to find somewhere else to party. Miami officials went so far as to publicly “break up” with spring breakers, saying the relationship is over and they need to move on. No one in Manatee County has gone as far as that to echo that sentiment, since AMI has not been a “party” destination with the riots and violent crime Miami and Panama City have experienced. Nonetheless, the number of people coming is plenty, and the CVB sees no reason for advertising the Island as a spring break destination.

Falcione said the tourist tax is a very good thing for Island residents, because it benefits the residents without any money coming out of their pockets.

The tax is used for things such as boat ramps, piers, beach parking lots, the new water taxi, and perhaps most importantly, 20% goes to beach renourishment.

As far as how to alleviate some of the problems with traffic and congestion, Falcione says a lot of it comes down to parking. He says if there was a solution to the limited parking on the Island, traffic would flow more smoothly and residents would be able to travel during the busy spring season without spending a frustrating amount of time stuck in traffic.

While many Island residents are opposed to a proposed parking garage at Manatee Beach, Falcione says he supports it.

“The parking garage would need to be designed to not look like a parking garage, and would need to be designed to integrate into the look of the Island,” Falcione said. “Once people coming to the Island realized that they could just come to the Island on Manatee Avenue and pull right into a place to park, then what it does is get people off Gulf Drive. Right now the traffic isn’t just the demand for the beaches, it’s cars going up and down Gulf Drive searching for a parking spot and causing traffic problems.”

Falcione says he doesn’t believe the garage will bring more tourists, but rather mitigate traffic on the Island. When asked if he was worried about voicing his support for the controversial parking garage, Falcione said, “I am who I am and I speak from the heart. We all drive cars, and if I’m going from point A to point B, and I want to park that car as fast as I can and know there’s a parking spot as soon as I get on the Island, I’m going to take it. Most importantly, it gets my car off the road and I’m not a part of traffic. I’m not that smart, to me it just seems to be common sense.”

TDC recommends raising tourist tax

Written by Jason Schaffer on . Posted in Business, Tourism.

BRADENTON – A visit to Manatee County could soon cost tourists more, as the Manatee County Tourist Development Council (TDC) voted unanimously to recommend raising the county’s tourism tax from 5% to 6% at its April 15 meeting.

The TDC makes recommendations to the Manatee County Commission, which was scheduled to vote on whether or not to approve the increase at its April 23 meeting.

The tourist tax is often referred to as the “bed tax” because it is paid when anyone rents a short-term vacation rental in the county, such as hotel rooms, resort rooms, condo rentals, VRBO, Airbnb and similar accommodations, for six months or less.

“This is not a resident tax,” Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Elliott Falcione said. “This is paid for by the visitors that come into our beautiful county. I’ve always told the media that there’s no better partnership than one that pays for an asset that appeals to a visitor and benefits the residents at no cost to the residents.”

Falcione explained that the money benefits both visitors and residents by offering maintenance, upgrades and marketing for several attractions, including:

• Coquina Beach;

• Bradenton Beach Pier and Anna Maria Pier;

• Grassy Point;

• Anna Maria Bayfront Park;

• Beach renourishment (1% of the current 5%);

• Myakka History Center;

• Bradenton Area Convention Center;

• Bishop Museum;

• Manatee Performing Arts Center;

• Premier Sports Campus;

• The Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport (SRQ); and

• Gulf Islands Ferry (water taxi).

Falcione said the TDC does not plan to request more marketing dollars if county commissioners approve the 6% request, which would generate an estimated $6 million a year.

“You’re looking at a guy who doesn’t get too excited about breaking tourism records every year, because we have to be careful,” Falcione said. “I’m the weird tourism director around the state that is a less is more kind of guy. Our brand elements are low-rise, low-key detox environment; real authentic Florida. We don’t want bumper-to-bumper traffic in this beautiful community. The reality is that for 90 days a year, we’re dealing with bumper-to-bumper traffic.”

Falcione says the TDC will not spend money to promote the area during the busy spring season. He did say the TDC will invest in airline incentives so more visitors will choose SRQ and save the time involved in driving to and from airports in Tampa and St. Petersburg.

In order for the county to request the additional 1%, it had to reach a threshold of $30 million in tourism taxes collected, which was achieved in 2023 by a narrow margin of about $90,000, and the tourism industry had to generate over $600 million, which was also achieved in 2023, with the total topping $625 million.

If the county commission approves the recommendation, it will take effect Aug. 1. The neighboring counties of Sarasota, Hillsborough and Pinellas all charge the 6% maximum tourist tax.

Tourism numbers rise

Tourism numbers rise

Written by Jason Schaffer on . Posted in Business, Tourism.

ANNA MARIA – Research Data Services’ Anne Wittine presented her upbeat state of tourism report to the Manatee County Tourist Development Council (TDC) on April 15.

Wittine’s report featured the latest available statistics related to the tourism industry in Manatee County from February 2024 compared to February 2023.

Total visitors were up by 4.9% and tourism’s economic impact was up 6.1%.

Wittine’s report shows that occupancy is just under 1% from the same time last year, and room rates have increased by 4%. Visitor origins have also showed growth. Florida visitors have shown the most growth since last year, increasing by 13.7%, followed closely by the visitors from the Northeast. The largest decrease in visitor origins is Canada, which decreased by 32.9% from February 2023.

“Room nights were down slightly, and I know that looks weird, but the reason is because we had a shorter length of stay and a larger party size,” Wittine said. “That’s still a 20% increase over 2019.”

Wittine maintains that trends show a large growth in virtually every category when compared to pre-COVID 2019, and the state of tourism continues to be strong.

Parking at a premium for holiday weekend

Parking at a premium for holiday weekend

Written by Jason Schaffer on . Posted in Anna Maria Island, Community News.

ANNA MARIA ISLAND – As America makes its 247th successful trip around the sun, many people are expected to celebrate the nation’s birthday on the Island’s white sand beaches.

With July Fourth coming next Tuesday, be prepared for several days of festivities, as many will arrive early for the weekend and crowds are anticipated to be some of the largest AMI has ever seen.

While there has been a slight leveling off after the tourism boom that occurred in 2021 as Florida became one of the few states that opened for business after the COVID-19 lockdown, recent holiday weekends have been busy and there is no reason to expect anything less for this one.

Law enforcement officials have gone on the record saying Memorial Day weekend last month was the busiest weekend ever seen on the Island.

“In my opinion, the Sunday before Memorial Day was the busiest day I’ve ever seen on the Island,” Holmes Beach Police Chief Bill Tokajer said. “We issued more than 100 parking-related tickets, but I drove around our city’s public parking spots and there was never a time there weren’t spots open, people just need to keep a lookout for them.”

A map of available public parking spaces in Holmes Beach can be found on the city’s website.

Parking at a premium for holiday weekend
Beachgoers enjoyed nearly perfect weather on Memorial Day weekend at a very busy Manatee Beach. The July Fourth weekend could see even larger crowds. – Jason Schaffer | Sun

In Bradenton Beach, the parking situation is amplified with the addition of more than 50 new no parking signs on Gulf Drive South, though some motorists don’t seem to care about the new signs.

“Over Memorial Day weekend, our officers wrote more than 400 tickets for illegal parking at Coquina Beach and Cortez Beach, and there were still plenty that probably got away with it,” Bradenton Beach Police Lt. Lenard Diaz said.

Both Tokajer and Diaz believe that some people feel like it’s worth the price of a ticket to just park and get on with their beach day, a sentiment echoed by many people The Sun has spoken to regarding beach parking.

“It costs about the same to park at Disney as it does to get a ticket for illegally parking here,” Britany Hillibold of Bradenton said. “I live less than 10 miles from the Island and it can take two or more hours just to get onto AMI. Then the process of finding a parking spot begins. I get why some people just park and head to the beach knowing they’ll have a ticket on their windshield when they get back to their car. For the price of a couple of grouper sandwiches, you’re good to go.”

While parking will be difficult, restaurant wait times will be excessive and travel to and from the Island will be slow, there will still be plenty of sand, sea and sun to make the Island a great place to wish America a happy birthday. Just keep a few things in mind to have a safe and enjoyable fourth. The following are not permitted on any Island beach:

  • Motor vehicles,
  • Fires,
  • Grills (except where public grills are provided),
  • Pets,
  • Alcohol,
  • Harassment of wildlife (shorebirds and sea turtles are nesting, admire from a distance), and
  • Fireworks.

“I have three important reminders for the upcoming July Fourth holiday weekend,” Tokajer said. “First, you are vacationing in a residential area, so please keep noise to a minimum. Second, be respectful of your surroundings and leave it cleaner than you found it. Third, always park with all tires off the road. Parallel parking is parking with the flow of traffic. Saying you didn’t see the sign or were not aware will not get a ticket voided.”

Holmes Beach police, along with Bradenton Beach and Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, which patrols the city of Anna Maria, remind the public that local ordinances are strictly enforced, and all three departments plan to increase the number of officers on patrol for the busy holiday weekend.

“Remember to not put yourself in a position to be a victim of a crime of opportunity,” Diaz said. “Lock your car and don’t leave valuables in plain sight on car seats or places that entice criminals. Also, don’t bring valuables to the beach. Just bring what you need so you can relax and enjoy yourself.”

While violent crime is uncommon on AMI, a heavy influx of visitors may bring out a few people with bad intentions. Taking common sense precautions can help assure a fun and safe day at the beach.

AMI tourism numbers remain strong

AMI tourism numbers remain strong

Written by Jason Schaffer on . Posted in Business, Tourism.

ANNA MARIA – Research Data Services’ (RDS) Ann Wittine presented her state of tourism update to members of the Manatee County Tourist Development Council (TDC) on June 5 at a meeting held at The Center of Anna Maria Island.

As predicted in her April 24 address to the TDC, most numbers continue to be on the rise.

Wittine’s report featured the latest available statistics related to the Manatee County tourism industry from April. Total visitors and room nights were down slightly from April 2022, but economic impact was up for the month in 2023 with 97,000 visitors (down 2.1%), 220,700 room nights (down 4.1%) and $143,973,100 in economic impact (up 3.4%).

“While we did see a slight decrease in visitation this April over last April, a big part of this is because last year Easter fell on April 17, but this year it was April 9,” Wittine said. “This is a normal thing. When we see an early Easter, we find the season compresses. While we saw a slight decrease from last year, we see an increase in economic impact, meaning that visitors that are coming are spending more.”

Room occupancy for April was down slightly (down 2.8%) after being down more than 3% in the last report from RDS, which quoted data from February 2023. The average daily room rate, however, was up 7.9% at $265.70 per day in April compared to $246.30 in April 2022.

The Tampa-based RDS also keeps track of where people come from when they visit the area. The biggest increase in domestic visitor origin was the Midwest, which was up 5.1% over the same time period in 2022. Globally, travel from Europe fell 13.6% and travel from Canada was down 25.6% over April 2022. Wittine said the reason for the decrease in European and Canadian visitors was due to April 2022 being the first spring these tourists were not under COVID-19 lockdown orders. She said that current numbers are more in line with what is expected.

“As we have been seeing, we have a slight rollback in the number of people coming out of Florida,” Wittine said. “This is expected. The important thing to note is that we are still up 50% over where we were in 2019, so all of the marketing to the nearby markets has had an amazing ripple effect with the visitors continuing to come back.”

Wittine forecast numbers going down slightly at her last address to the TDC, but said at this meeting that rental agencies and condo owners on AMI have reported solid bookings for June and July.

Get ready for Memorial Day weekend

Get ready for Memorial Day weekend

Written by Jason Schaffer on . Posted in Anna Maria Island, Community News, Featured.

ANNA MARIA ISLAND – It’s almost here – the unofficial start of the summer season, when large crowds visit the Island to soak up the sun and play in the sand.

Unlike the busy winter/spring season when people come from all over the world by plane, Memorial Day brings people from closer to the Island who arrive by car. This means long wait times to get on and off the Island at peak beach arrival and departure times as traffic can back up for miles waiting to cross the three bridges, the only ways on and off the Island.

Parking will also fill up fast, so city officials recommend arriving as early as possible to avoid the heaviest traffic and being patient when searching for the often elusive and highly coveted parking spot.

“I have three important reminders for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend,” Holmes Beach Police Chief Bill Tokajer said. “First, you are vacationing in a residential area, so please keep noise to a minimum. Second, be respectful of your surroundings and leave it cleaner than you found it. Third, always park with all tires off the road. Parallel parking is parking with the flow of traffic. Saying you didn’t see the sign or were not aware will not get a ticket voided.”

Holmes Beach police, along with Bradenton Beach police and the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, which patrols the City of Anna Maria, all remind the public that no fires, grills, alcohol or pets are permitted on Island beaches. These laws are strictly enforced, and all three departments plan to increase the number of officers on patrol for the busy holiday weekend.

And don’t leave common sense at home.

“Remember to not put yourself in a position to be a victim of a crime of opportunity,” Bradenton Beach Police Lt. Lenard Diaz said. “Lock your car and don’t leave valuables in plain sight on car seats or places that entice criminals. Also, don’t bring valuables to the beach. Just bring what you need so you can relax and enjoy yourself.”

Tourism numbers in for February

Tourism numbers in for February

Written by Jason Schaffer on . Posted in Business, Tourism.

BRADENTON – Research Data Services’ (RDS) Ann Wittine presented an optimistic state of tourism update to the Manatee County Tourist Development Council (TDC) on April 24.

According to the latest available tourism statistics from February, total visitors and economic impact were up over February 2022, with 88,900 visitors (up 1.6%). Room nights were slightly down, with 218,900 room nights (down 1.1%) and $214,439,600 in economic impact was up 5.4%.

“Some of these numbers don’t seem that impressive on the surface, but this is February, so we were pretty near capacity,” Wittine said. “There just isn’t room for those big growth numbers we’ve been seeing. This is also during a month when some property owners told us they were impacted by red tide.”

Room occupancy for February was down slightly (-3.5%) after being up less than 1% in the December 2022 report from RDS. The average daily room rate, however, is up more than 10%, at $265.02 per day in February 2023 compared to $240.51 in February 2022.

RDS also keeps track of where visitors are coming from. The biggest increase in visitor origin domestically is the Northeast, which is up 10% over the same time period in 2022. Wittine attributes this growth to additional non-stop flights being added from that region. Globally, travel from Europe is up 73.2% and Canada is up 153.7% over February 2022. The largest decrease was from the Midwest, which was down 9.5%, followed by the Southeast, down 3.5% and Florida, down 2.2%.

“We had a slight increase in number of visitors, which is why room nights are slightly down,” Wittine said. “At the same time, we have a slight increase in length of stay. We are at 7.7 nights average this year compared to 7.6 last year, but more importantly, we are up from 7.2 in 2019 pre-COVID, which is a huge increase.”

RDS’s fiscal year to date (October through February) numbers are up significantly, echoing the double digit increase in February economic impact. At 437,900, total visitors are up 6.4% and at $743,677,600, economic impact is up 11.8% from the same period a year ago. Wittine has said many times that a great deal of the large increases in visitors and economic impact since pre-COVID 2019 are directly related to Sarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ) adding dozens of new direct flights from all regions of the country. Keeping with the constant growth reported, SRQ is once again up 16.3% from March of 2022 with 1.29 million people traveling through the airport in just the first three months of 2023, which is more than the entire year of 2020 and only slightly less than the entire pre-COVID year of 2019.

Wittine says she forecasts a summer where the numbers go down slightly. RDS does extensive surveys with people who have shown interest in visiting Manatee County, many of whom will be coming to Anna Maria Island, and the consulting company is beginning to see a trend of people concerned about rising prices for travel to the area.

Wittine says there’s no way to exactly predict what the coming months will bring, but she shared some comments from the vendors surveyed, which point to good things to come: “Bookings are up;” “A lot more last-minute, shorter reservations than normal;” “Looking good for summer;” “March was beautiful, more than expected;” and “April reservations are strong.”