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TDC recommends raising tourist tax

TDC recommends raising tourist tax

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

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 is scheduled to vote on whether or not to approve the increase at its Tuesday, 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 a period of 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 in to 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;
  • Bridge Street Pier and Anna Maria City 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).

The tax also partially funds renourishment of Anna Maria Island’s beaches.

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

Bradenton Anna Maria Island Longboat Key

County approves record high tourism budget

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Business.

ANNA MARIA ISLAND – Manatee County commissioners have approved a record $13.2 million marketing budget for the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) for fiscal year 2020-21.

Highlights of the 2020-21 CVB budget:

Online/digital marketing            $2.36 million

Sports marketing                        $2.1 million

Advertising agency (Aqua)       $1.23 million

LECOM Park                      $900,000

Florida Railroad Museum   $700,000

Central European marketing $688,714

Allegiant Airlines initiatives $630,000

United Kingdom marketing $628,693

TV/radio ads                       $458,000

Tourism consultant             $310,000

Website management        $300,000

Concert series                    $200,000

Anna Maria Island budget items

AMI Chamber of Commerce Tourist Information Center and Ambassador program         $181,900

AMI Chamber ads                $90,000

Magazine/newspaper ads    $82,050

Symphony on the Sand        $60,000

Sandblast                             $12,000

Source: Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau

The budget – up 67% from five years ago – is aimed at attracting more visitors to Bradenton, Anna Maria Island and the Manatee County portion of Longboat Key.

The largest overall expenditure is online and digital marketing – more than $2.36 million over two years – reflecting an industrywide departure from print advertising.

Sports marketing ranks second, with $2.1 million allocated, not including another $900,000 in capital improvements for baseball stadium LECOM Park (McKechnie Field).

Other high-ticket items are the Aqua advertising agency ($1.23 million, not including its portion of the online and digital marketing budget), marketing in Central Europe ($688,714) and marketing in the United Kingdom ($628,693).

Budget funding is generated by Manatee County’s 5% tourist tax, paid by visitors to lodging establishments that rent for six months or less. The county spends about half of the tax proceeds on tourism marketing to draw more tourists to the area; 20% of the taxes are allocated to beach renourishment. Other recent uses have included rebuilding fishing piers in Anna Maria and Bradenton Beach.

The Manatee County Tourist Development Council (TDC) voted in June to recommend the budget to Manatee County commissioners for final approval on Sept. 24.

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$11.6M tourism budget proposed

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Business, Tourism.

The Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) proposes spending $11,675,206 to market Manatee County to tourists during 2018/2019.

The county’s Tourist Development Council unanimously recommended the budget to the Manatee County Commission on Monday.

Following a 61 percent increase in 2016/2017 from the previous two years, primarily to promote the 2017 World Rowing Championships, the proposed budget represents a 9 percent decrease from 2016/2017. The two-year budget breaks down to $5,876,473 for 2018 and $5,798,733 for 2019.

A new budget item will pay for a new employee salary, an Arts and Culture Marketing Coordinator, at $92,159 a year, with another $50,774 annually for advertising arts.

The coordinator will work for the CVB to market and promote arts, culture and heritage, educate small arts organizations and search for grants, CVB Director Elliott Falcione said, adding that the position was created when arts groups throughout the county declined to support a centralized not-for-profit arts organization, concerned that it would compromise their groups.

The largest single expenditures in the budget are $500,000 annually for an advertising agency and $400,000 annually for the City of Bradenton’s LECOM Park and Pittsburgh Pirates training facility.

The Anna Maria Island Chamber of Commerce will receive $60,950 each year, with another $45,000 each year for advertising.

The tourism budget allocates other funds for online advertising, the county film commission, county tourist information centers, trade shows, sports marketing and marketing in the United Kingdom and central Europe.

Marketing initiatives for the next two years include trade missions to the UK and Germany in alternate years, and increasing Facebook and Twitter advertising in Fort Lauderdale and Miami, Falcione said.

Priorities

In April, hotel, motel and condo occupancy in Manatee County increased 4.2 percent, while the average daily room rate rose 7.6 percent from April 2016, said Walter Klages, of Tampa-based Research Data Services, the county’s tourism consultant.

“We’re not the cause of all the visitation,” Falcione said, crediting Visit Florida with attracting 112 million visitors to Florida last year. Local marketing efforts will get a boost from the state’s marketing agency if Gov. Rick Scott signs a $72 million budget on July 1 for Visit Florida as expected, up from the $25 million the Legislature approved this spring, he said.

“The number one priority is to get the four cities on Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key in the room to talk about transportation,” he said, especially paid parking lots and bridge replacement, mentioning a 2015 Urban Land Institute study that included transportation recommendations.

“If we market a character that’s not the reality, we’re out of business,” he said.

The biggest priority is “to be able to keep the experience we have today,” TDC Chair Carol Whitmore said. “I just want the experience of old Florida where I can go in shorts and flip-flops to a five-star restaurant.”