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TDC supports Holmes Beach path funding

TDC supports Holmes Beach path funding

Written by Jason Schaffer on . Posted in Community News, Holmes Beach.

Superintendent of Public Works Sage Kamiya was back in front of the Manatee County Tourist Development Council (TDC) at its June 10 meeting. He was there to answer questions and concerns previously brought up by TDC members after his initial presentation requesting tourist tax funding for a city-long multimodal path at an Aug. 21, 2023 meeting.

Kamiya noted that there is a path for walkers and bicyclists that runs along a portion of Marina Drive, but it needs improvement. The proposed new path would begin around the 2800 block of Gulf Drive and continue almost the entire length of the city to where Gulf Drive and Marina Drive merge in the 8000 block. The proposal calls for the path to be separated from the road by a grassy buffer area to keep people using the path separated from the road, improving safety.

At their last presentation to the TDC, city officials estimated the budget for the entire project was $2,436,727 with half of the money going to the Gulf Drive path improvements ($1,293,238) and the remainder designated for Marina Drive path improvements, engineering design, flashing crosswalks and educational signage. Kamiya told the TDC that the path improvement plan would be implemented in phases, with the first phase focusing on the city center area on both Gulf Drive and Marina Drive. The phase 1 estimate is $1,133,401, with $399,460 coming from the city of Holmes Beach and the remaining $733,948 being requested from the TDC.

Rather than approve or deny the funding at the Aug. 21 meeting, the TDC unanimously chose to have the matter brought to a future meeting in hopes of getting answers to questions multiple board members had, such as whether or not the path would eliminate public parking spots, which side of the street the path would be built on and a more specific timeline, among other concerns and questions. The TDC discussed the request at both the Oct. 16, 2023 and Dec. 4, 2023 meetings, but still had questions.

According to Kamiya, because of the delay, Holmes Beach decided to use funds set aside for phase one of the project for other city projects, so the numbers have changed since it was last discussed. The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has recently started the Project Development and Environment (PD&E) Barrier Islands Complete Streets Improvements Study. This study includes the evaluation of multimodal alternatives for State Road 789, County Road 789, Marina Drive and Palm Drive in Holmes Beach.

Kamiya told the TDC that his hope is the PD&E study will provide funding that will take some of the financial weight off the amount the city is requesting from the county’s tourist tax dollars.

“We did get an FDOT letter to support the project,” Kamiya said. “This makes sense from their perspective because they do want to improve safety. There’s been several fatalities along the roadway, so that’s been our push for this.”

Kamiya went on to ask the council if they would back a portion of the proposal that would not be funded by the PD&E study. He said that amount would be around $500,000. Kamiya also noted that the study doesn’t initially carry construction money with it. The funds would be for design and planning, and when it is time for construction, funding through the study as well as the county would have to be discussed further.

TDC member and Bradenton Mayor Gene Brown had concerns about this project at each of the previous two meetings in which this was discussed and was the first to speak up with more questions this time around.

“I’ve been one that’s said all along that it’s important to do the whole Island if we’re going to do anything,” Brown said. “I do have a question; you’ve asked Rep. Buchanan for $2.24 million dollars for a multimodal path along Gulf Drive and Marina Drive. What is that money to be slated for?”

Kamiya responded saying the actual amount requested was $2.9 million and, because the PD&E study does not include construction money, those funds requested would be used for just the multimodal path along Gulf Drive. He added that the $2.9 million would only pay for part of the project and further funds would have to be found to complete the entire project. Kamiya also made it clear that the study funds would only be for the Gulf Drive portion of the project, not Marina Drive or any remaining portions.

Mayor Brown countered, saying he still did not support the request because too many questions remained and he thought the proposal was confusing and incomplete without solid details. Brown also said he was not pleased that Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth was not in attendance for what he saw as a very important meeting. He believed it was not in the best interest of the city to request such a large sum of money without a mayor or vice-mayor in attendance.

Minutes before the TDC took a vote on the request, the discussion took a turn toward the Gulf Island Ferry having a docking place in Holmes Beach. TDC members discussed whether an existing docking location could be improved to support the ferry or the possibility of a new dock being built somewhere in the city. With the stipulation that the possibility of the ferry landing in Holmes Beach be added to the request, the TDC voted unanimously to send the recommendation for $500,000 to Manatee County commissioners.

Year in Review: Tourism

Tourism numbers slip in November

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

MANATEE COUNTY – Research Data Services’ Ann Wittine presented her state of tourism update to the county Tourist Development Council (TDC) on Jan. 22, comparing tourism in November 2023 to the same month in 2022.

Total visitors were down by 6.4%, room nights were down by 7.5% and economic impact was down by 6.9%, said Wittine, the county’s tourism consultant, citing the latest available statistics. The average daily room rate was down 2.3%, at $186.63 per day in November 2023 compared to $191.11 in November 2022.

“This was the Hurricane Ian effect,” Wittine said. “Last year, we were hosting recovery workers, insurance adjusters, displaced residents and people who would have vacationed in other places but couldn’t because of other places being more impacted by the storm.”

Wittine was quick to point out that although last November’s numbers were down, the number of visitors (80,700) was up 45.1% from pre-COVID 2019 during the same period.

She said that although many of the numbers were down from the previous year, such as economic impact falling from slightly over $114 million in November 2022 to $106.3 million in November 2023, the goal of the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau is not necessarily to get more people to visit but rather see that those who do visit make a greater impact on the local economy. She said this strategy is working, as the pre-COVID 2019 economic impact for the same period was only $67.4 million, which makes November 2023 up 76.3%, a number the CVB is excited about.

Research Data Services also keeps track of where visitors are coming from when they visit the area. The largest increase in any visitor origin is Canada, which is up 51.8% over the same period in 2022. Travel from Europe rose by 1.3%. The largest domestic visitor origin outside of Florida was the Midwest, which saw 18,240 visitors in November 2023, down 1.3% from November 2022. Wittine credits the marketing efforts of the CVB in Florida for making visitors from within the state the largest of all measured regions.

“All of the marketing we did post-COVID to our immediate surrounding Florida markets has continued to have a ripple effect,” Wittine said. “This shows that if we can get a visitor from Florida here, they come back again. With that marketing, we brought a lot of people in that hadn’t yet discovered what they have in their own backyard.”

Idalia nudged tourism down slightly

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

ANNA MARIA – Hurricane Idalia caused many travelers to cancel their trips to Anna Maria Island in August, Research Data Services’ Ann Wittine told the Manatee County Tourist Development Council (TDC) on Oct. 16.

The Tampa-based consultant’s report featured the latest available statistics related to the tourism industry in Manatee County from August 2023 compared to August 2022. In August, the total number of visitors was down by 2% and economic impact was down slightly, by .01%. Room nights were also down slightly from August 2022, by .2%.

“The important thing to know is that even though visitors are down slightly, the economic impact remains flat, so the visitors that came, on an economic basis are leaving more of an economic impact on their destination,” Wittine said.

Room occupancy for August was down slightly by 3% after being down 2.6% in the last report, which quoted data from June 2023. The average daily room rate, was up 4.2%, at $183.63 per day in August 2023 compared to $176.22 in August 2022.

The consultant for the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau also tracks where tourists are coming from when they visit the area. The largest increase in any visitor origin came from Canada, up 40% over the same period in 2022. Travel from Europe has risen 5.8%. The largest domestic visitor origin was the Northeast, which was up 5.3% over the same period in 2022.

“Opportunity markets, which are essentially markets west of the Mississippi, are seeing growth,” Wittine said. “The biggest of these markets is Texas, where we’re seeing a lot of growth.”

She said the number of visitors in fiscal year-to-date in Manatee County was 983,900 as of the end of August. The economic impact of those visitors was $1,579,797,500, up 6.4% from the same period in 2022.

County approves ferry agreements with cities

County approves ferry agreements with cities

Written by Joe Hendricks on . Posted in Community News, Featured, Manatee County.

ANNA MARIA ISLAND – The Manatee County Commission approved an interlocal agreement that allows the Anna Maria City Pier to serve as a Gulf Island Ferry stop.

Approved on Oct. 10, the agreement requires the county to pay for any ferry-related pier improvements needed to accommodate the county-funded ferries.

In September, the Anna Maria Commission approved the county’s request to attach two, non-submerged composite pilings to the pier’s existing boat landing area to accommodate the ferries, at an estimated cost of $10,000.

County commissioners also approved an amendment to an interlocal agreement reached with the city of Bradenton Beach in 2021. That agreement pertains to the recently completed dock expansion project that included attaching 13 perpendicular finger docks to the floating day dock by the Bradenton Beach Pier and also replacing the nearby dinghy dock.

In 2021, the county agreed to reimburse the Bradenton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) for 50% of the dock expansion project costs, not to exceed $850,000 in matching county funds. The amended agreement allows the CRA to construct a $403,900 ferry waiting area near the dinghy dock, where a stormwater cistern was removed. That expenditure will count toward the matching funds limit but the county will reimburse the CRA for 100% of the waiting area costs.

Duncan Seawall will construct the waiting area that includes decking, a canvas-covered pergola and some covered tables. On Oct. 19, the city commission approved the new CRA project.

According to City Treasurer Shayne Thompson, $534,398 remains of the $850,000 matching funds limit, from which $403,900 will be deducted. The extended agreement gives the CRA until Sept. 30, 2024 to finish the waiting area and any additional pier and dock improvement projects eligible for reimbursement.

Dock discovery

During a recent visit to the floating dock, the county’s contracted engineer and contracted ferry operator concluded the dock is too low to accommodate a ramp that provides ADA-compliant access for passengers.

Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Elliott Falcione serves as point man for the long-desired ferry service. He told The Sun that the county now plans to use the dinghy dock as an alternative ferry landing. The dinghy dock is stationary and higher than the floating dock. Falcione said the ferries will not carry the previously discussed boat-mounted access ramps but portable or dock-mounted ramps could be used where needed.

“There will be safe access and ADA compliance,” Falcione said of the ferry stops that also include the Riverwalk Day Dock in downtown Bradenton and the county-owned Coquina South boat ramp.

Falcione expects service to begin around Thanksgiving and initially operate from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays. Saturdays and Sundays. He said the schedule can then be adjusted based on consumer demand.

“I’m excited that we’re as close as we’ve been,” he said. “Once we get this running, we work on how we transport the service workers.”

Falcione said one of the two ferries was recently damaged when its roof came in contact with a dock piling while docked in Cortez.

“That’s in repair but it doesn’t delay this operation,” he said.

JOE HENDRICKS | SUN

The floating dock in Bradenton Beach, above, is too low to be used as a ferry landing. The Bradenton Beach dinghy dock, right, will serve as an alternative ferry landing

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.

TDC recommends funding for water taxi

TDC recommends funding for water taxi

Written by Jason Schaffer on . Posted in Community News, Transportation.

BRADENTON – Among the many agenda items up for discussion at the April 24 Manatee County Tourist Development Council (TDC) meeting, the soon-to-be operational water taxi service was an issue all TDC members were enthusiastic about.

The water taxi service, planned to begin operation in July, will link Anna Maria Island and Bradenton in an effort to alleviate some traffic congestion and parking issues.

Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) Executive Director Elliott Falcione told TDC members last week that everything was going well with the construction of the boats, the three cities that will be on the ferry route and all other aspects of the project.

“The boats are coming along very well and should be complete by mid-to-late June and there will be some branding on them as well,” Falcione said. “We are about 90% there on an operation agreement between Manatee County and the water ferry operator. We hope to bring that to the Board of County Commissioners (BCC) in mid-to-late May.”

Falcione said the three cities that will be on the route will be Bradenton, Anna Maria and Bradenton Beach. He said that all three cities have drafted interlocal agreements and the TDC will bring those to the BCC at the same time as the operations agreement.

“If the stars align, and I hope they will, it’s been a long time coming, we’re hoping to start a Friday, Saturday and Sunday service in the month of July,” Falcione said. “Would July Fourth be the perfect scenario, absolutely, and we’re going to try to get there.”

The main focus of the TDC’s discussion was a subsidy to fund the water taxi service for the first year of operation. Falcione said earlier ideas to subsidize the service included the Coquina Beach Market and beach concessions, but those options were no longer on the table. He said the only option for year one would be to use tourism tax proceeds.

Falcione asked the TDC for a recommendation of $400,000 to carry the service for the first year, as well as $25,000 for marketing efforts. After the first year, he said they would look into grant opportunities and other funding sources so the program could ween off of the tourism tax funding. The $400,000 is to fill the gap between projected first-year total operating costs and first-year income from paid water taxi rider fares, which will be in the $8 to $10 range per rider, depending on whether it is a one-way trip or a hopper pass that would be good for the day. Plans are still in place for Island workers to use the service for free to get to and from work, which could help with parking issues.

Bradenton Mayor Gene Brown moved to recommend the $425,000 subsidy as discussed, and Palmetto Mayor Shirley Groover-Bryant seconded. The motion was passed unanimously and will be presented to the BCC later this month.

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.”

Big changes could be coming to the Coquina Beach Trail.

TDC approves proposal to use Coquina Beach Trail for shuttles

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

BRADENTON BEACH – The Manatee County Tourist Development Council (TDC) is recommending a plan to Manatee County commissioners to widen the Coquina Beach Trail for shuttles.

The trail is a paved path about the width of a city sidewalk that begins at the south end of the Coquina Beach parking lot and runs 1.5 miles along the beach north to Fifth Street South. The plan, discussed at the April 24 TDC meeting, would resurface and widen the trail, potentially for the use of the Old Town Tram golf cart shuttle service owned by Josh LaRose’s Easy Parking Group and partially funded by the Bradenton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA). 

Big changes could be coming to Coquina Beach Trail
Easy Parking Group’s ‘Old Town Trams’ currently service Coquina Beach to Bridge Street, but are not allowed to drive on the current beach trail, making for a bumpy ride for passengers, or long waits in heavy beach traffic. This tram stopped for a break in the shade near 13th Street South. – Jason Schaffer | Sun

“They desperately need a way to get people back and forth from Bridge Street to here without sitting in traffic for an hour,” said Doris Snyder, who comes to the beach from Palmetto on a regular basis. “We like to hit one of the restaurants on Bridge Street for lunch or dinner when we come down here, but it’s impossible to park in that area unless you get incredibly lucky. We use the golf cart service a lot, but even if they drive off the road in the parking area instead of sitting in traffic, the ride beats you to death. A cart path would be amazing.”

Project Manager Mike Stern told TDC members that the trail improvements would cost $1.5 million – including the removal of 96 Australian pine trees whose roots are damaging the pavement – and take about eight months to complete. Stern said a large part of the cost will be building a root barrier, which will require the current trail to be removed so that the barrier can be placed underground to prevent future tree roots from growing under the trail and destroying it, causing more unnecessary cost in the future. With the barrier, the trail should last for many years with little serious maintenance, he said.

“While this sounds like a large investment, we hope this will last much longer than the original trail did because we are fairly confident that there was not as much root barrier, if any, used the first time around,” said Chad Butzow, director of Public Works for Manatee County. “Hopefully we’ll get a bit more longevity this time around.”

The county currently spends between $35,000 to $40,000 a year maintaining the trail, and Public Works says that the steps being taken with the new trail will save that money because the tree roots will no longer be an issue. If this holds true, a third of the cost of the project would be covered by the nearly half a million in repair dollars that wouldn’t need to be spent over the next decade. 

When asked by TDC members if the trail could be widened enough to make ample room for golf carts and pedestrians, Stern explained that as long as they were working from the existing footprint, no new permits would be needed, but because of environmental issues due to its proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, any size expansion proposals would require permits at the state level that could take months or even years, and be potentially costly.

Big changes could be coming to Coquina Beach Trail
Beachgoers enjoy the picnic area and shade provided along the Coquina Trail. – Jason Schaffer | Sun

While not addressing Easy Parking Group’s Old Town Tram by name, TDC member and Bradenton Beach restaurant owner Ed Chiles stated that six-passenger golf cart trams should be allowed to use the path so people could park at the beach and not have to endure the sometimes impossible task of finding a parking space near the Bridge Street shopping and dining area. 

“The biggest single issue in Bradenton Beach is lack of parking,” Chiles said. “Coquina Beach may be the most parking spaces anywhere in one place in the county. This trail offers connectivity. I don’t want to see all the golf carts on there, I want to see one set of trams. That connects 1,200 parking spaces that this county has worked so hard on to what the CRA has worked so hard on in downtown Bradenton Beach.”

Elliott Falcione, executive director of the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the trams using the trail would also be a big help for water taxi passengers to get to and from downtown Bradenton Beach when the service begins in July of this year. 

TDC Chairman James Satcher moved that the proposal be presented to the Board of County Commissioners, with the option to expand the scope of the proposal, such as a wider trail with a shell path adjacent, at a later date. The proposal was passed at the close of discussions. 

In other business, it was reported that phase one of the ongoing drainage project at Coquina Beach is now complete, which added 192 parking spaces. Phase two is estimated to be completed by early July, adding 862 additional parking spaces, according to Stern.

Stern said the paving of the parking lot should be completed by the end of May, but there will still be more work to be done. He was pleased to report that fewer of the Australian pine trees that offer shade to the picnic area along the beach and parking area would need to be removed than first thought. This will not only save time and money, but keep much-needed shade in the area.

TDC recommends $950,000 for water taxi

TDC recommends $950,000 for water taxi

Written by Jason Schaffer on . Posted in Community News, Manatee County.

BRADENTON – The Manatee County Tourist Development Council (TDC) unanimously voted on Nov. 4 to recommend that Manatee County commissioners allocate up to $950,000 in resort tax revenue to help fund a water taxi initiative.

Commissioners unanimously supported the initiative in October. The service is planned to run from its core stop just east of the Green Bridge in Bradenton to the City Pier in Anna Maria, then go south to the Bridge Street Pier in Bradenton Beach and finally to the South Coquina Boat launch. The water taxi will run Friday through Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.

TDC members cited funding from three sources – the county resort tax, beach concession revenues and the Coquina Beach Market, which Manatee County recently began operating.

Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) Executive Director Elliott Falcione said the TDC also will be seeking federal and state grants for the project as well, but those may not be available until the service is in operation.

“At this time, we hope to be ordering the vessels within the next few weeks,” Falcione said. “It’s going to be two 49- or 50-passenger pontoon-style vessels that will be about 50 feet in length.”

Falcione said they will be using a Florida-based boat builder, but could not give an accurate estimate on how long the construction would take. He cited supply problems that are causing issues in many construction industries for not being able to give a completion date.

Falcione said they also are working on a service that could transport employees from the mainland directly to the Island, alleviating problems they have with parking, which is especially difficult during the busy spring tourist season.

Ian didn’t stop tourism, it’s boosting it

Ian didn’t stop tourism, it’s boosting it

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

BRADENTON – The latest tourism statistics shatter the numbers from pre-COVID 2019, according to Anne Wittine, of Tampa-based Research Data Services, Manatee County’s tourism consultant.

Wittine presented her tourism update to the Manatee County Tourist Development Council on Nov. 4 with the latest available statistics related to the tourism industry from September. The number of visitors and room nights and the overall economic impact of tourism on the county’s economy are up from pre-pandemic levels, she said.

“Compared to our benchmark in 2019, pre-COVID, our visitors are up 38.3%, room nights are up 36.7% and economic impact is up 51.4%,” Wittine said. “That’s also considering that most properties lost three days that month due to (Hurricane) Ian.”

Room occupancy for September was down slightly at 57.7% compared to 59.3% in September of last year, however, it is higher than September 2019 when it stood at 54% pre-COVID. The average daily room rate is up at $174.82 per day this September compared to $168.04 in September 2021.

While the Island is used to seeing a large number of tourists from Florida, those numbers have actually dipped 15.7% from September of 2021, but are up 61% from 2019, showing the effect that COVID-19 travel restrictions had on people who didn’t leave Florida during the height of COVID. The largest number of visitors to the county from outside Florida are coming from the Midwest, followed closely by the Northeast. Tourists from Europe and Canada are down slightly from 2019; there is no data from 2020 or 2021 since travel from those regions was restricted.

“In terms of the fiscal year, this is a major benchmark. For the very first time, we’ve got visitors staying in commercial lodgings numbering over a million,” Wittine said. “This is up 11% from last year; an all-time record. We have not seen this before. I’ve been saying to Elliott (Falcione, executive director of the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau) that this is a bubble; you guys aren’t going to be able to keep it up, yet you’ve kept it up.”

Wittine also discussed some occupancy barometers related to Hurricane Ian. She said October sold out with people looking for long-term rentals due to the storm. Many of the occupants were from insurance companies, recovery workers and people with damaged homes farther south.

Spring tourism surges on AMI

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

ANNA MARIA – Spring tourism was strong on Anna Maria Island, according to Anne Wittine, Director of Quantitative Research for Tampa-based Research Data Services.

The Manatee County tourism consultant told the Tourist Development Council at
its June 23 meeting at The Center of Anna Maria Island that April 2022 broke records.

With 99,900 visitors, tourism rose 19.8% from April 2021. Room nights were at an all-time high at 230,200, up 5.5%, with an economic impact of $139,186,600, a 35.9% increase from a record-breaking April 2021. “These numbers are partly due to the fact we were so full in March that many people simply weren’t able to come” until April, Wittine said. “Also due to a late Easter, some of those trips were extended to April.”

Wittine spoke of visitor origins, saying there was a notable increase in visitors from the Northeast, up 74.9% from April 2021, and from the Midwest, up 81.7% during the same period. The Southeast was up 24.6%, however, Florida visitation was down 31.8%.

The average party size was 3.0 people, up from 2.8 last April. Wittine says while that number doesn’t sound like much, it’s a significant increase of 7%. The average length of stay was 5.1 days.

Fiscal year-to-date numbers were equally impressive, with the number of visitors up 21.6% and the economic impact up 35.9% over the previous fiscal year.

Airport traffic at Sarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ) was also up over 15% from April 2021.

Wittine also addressed gas prices and their impact on tourism.

“Considering gas prices and all the things that are going on, we are not hearing from property managers that it’s affecting their summer business,” Wittine said. “For May, we’re still seeing properties reporting increases from last year.”

A Traveler Sentiment Study showed that concern about gas prices went from 38.7% last May to 60.6% this year. It also showed that 76.1% of visitors were optimistic about personal health and 53.9% were optimistic about personal finances. Both of these numbers are lower than last May, when 81.9% were optimistic about personal health and 76% were optimistic about personal finances. Concern about the economy almost doubled, but so far has not kept visitors from booking vacations.

Water quality key to tourism

Water quality key to tourism

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

ANNA MARIA – While Sarasota Bay is healthier than it was in the 1970s and 1980s, it’s not as healthy as it was 15 years ago. 

That little-known fact is a serious concern to Dave Tomasko, executive director of the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program. 

“We are the only estuary program whose number one goal is to protect water clarity,” Tomasko said during the December meeting on the Island of the Manatee County Tourist Development Council. “People want to throw out the anchor on their boat, jump in the water and see their feet.”

Tomasko said there are three main reasons to worry about water quality in Sarasota Bay. One of them is quality of life, since people don’t like spending their time in murky water or covered in algae. Both locals and tourists choose this area because of optimal swimming and boating conditions. Tomasko stressed how much the quality of the water has to do with our economy.

“People pay a premium to live here,” Tomasko said. “If you want to have cheap waterfront communities, go to Merritt Island. You’ll pay a lot less per square foot than you will here or on Siesta Key or Longboat Key. The water is not good there.”

There are 20,000 jobs associated with the bay, he said, including not just the fishing industry, but service industry people like bartenders and servers, bayfront businesses and their owners and staff. The list goes on, he added, saying that water quality is a major factor in keeping these people employed.

“The final thing is Florida’s wildlife heritage. This is the worst year on record for manatee deaths in the state of Florida,” said Tomasko. “Over a thousand dead, and halfway through this year we were already in the worst year. The previous worst year was a red tide year in 2013.”

According to data gathered by Tomasko and the program, the reason for the manatee deaths is very simple; they’re starving to death. Decreased water quality has caused the seagrass meadows, which are the primary food source for manatees, to die off by at least 60% in the Indian River Lagoon. To help save the starving manatees, for the first time ever, the Estuary Program is going to pay people to feed them romaine lettuce. While Sarasota Bay has not reached that level, it has lost 22% of its seagrass and could be headed in that direction sooner than later.

The Piney Point wastewater spill last spring was cited as a major concern and may be doing more damage than just the red tide outbreak in 2021, he said, and the ripple effect could cause problems that the bay has yet to see.

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