Loans through the U.S. Small Business Administration and the Florida Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network are available to businesses whose customers are staying away because of red tide.
The red tide bloom that continues to persist in the Gulf of Mexico began in September 2017 in Southwest Florida, reaching Anna Maria Island on Aug. 3. Since then, dead fish and the respiratory irritation caused when the algae’s neurotoxin is dispersed in the air have kept the Island’s usual crowds away from restaurants and retail stores.
SBA loan office opens Sept. 7 in Holmes Beach
The Small Business Administration Disaster Loan Outreach Center opens Friday, Sept. 7 at 11 a.m. to assist such businesses affected by red tide.
The center is at the Island Branch Library, 5701 Marina Drive in Holmes Beach. After Sept. 7, hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. No appointments are necessary.
SBA representatives will provide information about disaster loans and assist business owners in completing loan assistance applications. Manatee County’s economic development team and local Chamber of Commerce partners also will provide information and resources to assist businesses in documenting financial losses.
Florida Small Business Emergency Bridge Loan Program
The Florida Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network’s Small Business Emergency Bridge Loan Program is available to small business owners in designated disaster areas, including Manatee County, who experienced physical or economic damage because of red tide.
Small business owners can qualify for between $1,000 and $50,000 in interest-free loans, payable after 180 days. If paid late, an 18 percent interest rate applies.
The program is not designed to be the primary source of assistance to affected small businesses; program eligibility is linked to the pursuit of other monies, such as the proceeds of insurance claims or other loans, other financial assistance the borrower receives after receipt of the loan or proceeds from the revived business.
Applications will be accepted from for-profit, privately-held small businesses that have maintained an office in Florida since at least Aug. 13, 2018, employ between two and 100 employees and have suffered physical damage and/or economic injury because of red tide.
Borrowers will be required to sign agreements that proceeds of the loans will be used only for maintaining or restarting the businesses in the designated area. Use of proceeds to pay off debts already incurred for qualifying business maintenance or restart purposes may be authorized on a case-by-case basis.
Applications will be accepted through Oct. 12, contingent on availability of funds.
For more information, visit SBA or call 800-659-2955.
BRADENTON – A new marketing campaign aims at attracting potential visitors to Anna Maria Island and Manatee County with the cure for what ails them.
The Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) is working on the 2019-20 Cure Campaign with an eye to what visitors want, marketing spokesman John Fisher told the Manatee County Tourist Development Council on Monday morning.
Got fam-nesia? Come to the Bradenton Area and spend time with your family. Got pale-a-tosis? Get to the beach and get a tan.
These and several other ailments will require beach therapy, retail therapy, and other cures in a game format on the county’s tourism website, he said.
Participants will be able to select their symptoms and the game will generate a prescription for certain accommodations, restaurant dishes, and activities. Prospective visitors can share the prescription with friends on social media, which will enter them into a contest for a chance to win their prescription. The game also will generate a sick note for a visitor’s boss when they share some personal information.
“It’s all about engaging people to get interested in the destination while having fun,” Fisher said.
The time has come for a new style of marketing campaign, CVB Director Elliott Falcione said.
“We have to be bold and catch their eye,” he said. “Once we’ve got them, 94 percent of the time they will come back.”
Until now, the county has been using marketing campaigns based on slogans, such as the current “Craft Your Own Vacation,” and the previous “Our Little Secret,” “Crystal Blue Persuasion,” “Pure Florida, Nothing Artificial” and “Real. Authentic. Florida.”
To better target visitors with new marketing efforts, the CVB has launched a partnership with Adara, a data-gathering business that works with airlines, hotels and vacation rental websites to identify people looking for information on travel and persuade them to book flights and accommodations while gathering information about them for future marketing efforts, the TDC learned. The company describes itself as an “anonymized, real-time search, purchase and loyalty data-gathering co-op.”
Tourism update
The first quarter of the year is the most active tourist season on Anna Maria Island and the rest of Manatee County, culminating in the height of the season in March.
In the first quarter of 2018, the number of visitors countywide was up 4.9 percent to 233,400. In March alone, visitation was up 7.3 percent over March 2017, according to Walter Klages, of Research Data Services, the county’s tourism consultant.
First quarter occupancy was down 1.4 percent from the first quarter of 2017 to 84.1 percent. In March alone, occupancy was down 1.9 percent.
Occupancy decreased because lodging units have increased, especially transient lodging establishments, Klages said, noting a “significant increase in inventory causing people to switch from older product to newer product.” Airbnb is the “gorilla in the room,” Falcione added.
The traditional end of the season – Easter – was early this year, on April 1, also significantly impacting visitation, Klages said.
Direct expenditures were up 9.1 percent to nearly $283 million in the first quarter.
Room rates were up 1.7 percent to $203 a night in the first quarter. In March alone, room rates were up 2.4 percent countywide, and 3.5 percent on Anna Maria Island.
The top five U.S. feeder markets to the county in the first quarter were New York, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Boston and Tampa/St. Petersburg.
April saw a significant gain in the European market, which grew by 22.7 percent from April 2017, Klages said, adding that nearly half of April visitors were couples.
A non-stop flight is expected soon from Dallas to Sarasota/Bradenton International Airport, Falcione said, predicting “a big impact” on the Latino market.
PALMETTO – For the seventh straight year, tourism is up on Anna Maria Island and the rest of Manatee County, according to the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB).
In the first quarter of 2018 – the height of tourist season on the Island – visitors, expenditures, room rates and total economic impact were each up from 2017, according to a report released at the annual “Year in Review” event on Thursday, May 10 during National Tourism Week.
Visitors increased 4.9 percent to 233,400, spending $283 million, up 9.1 percent. Average room rates rose 1.7 percent to $203 a night. The total economic impact of tourism reached $447 million, up 9.1 percent from the first quarter in 2017. Occupancy rates did not increase, which the CVB attributes to the growth of accommodations.
Visitors, expenditures, employment and economic impact all increased in 2017 from the previous year, the county’s tourism consultant, Walter Klages, reported.
In 2017, countywide tourism generated $52.3 million in taxes, an increase of 5.2 percent, according to the report. Visitors exceeded 3.2 million, up 2 percent from 2016, producing an economic impact of $1.2 billion, an increase of 5.5 percent from 2016. Tourism-related employment opportunities were up 5.1 percent from 2016 to 26,600.
CVB Executive Director Elliott Falcione credited the increases in part to ongoing growth and diversification of accommodations and continued focus on sports and the arts.
Tourism awards
During National Tourism Week, the CVB presented its 2018 Champions in Tourism Awards.
The annual Tourism Ambassador Award was presented to Karen Riley-Love, a board member of the Anna Maria Island Chamber of Commerce, where she is involved with tourism outreach initiatives.
The annual Tourism Ambassador Award was presented to Karen Riley-Love, a board member of the Anna Maria Island Chamber of Commerce. – Submitted
She is a founding member of Friends of the DeSoto National Memorial, was a supervisor of the Florida Maritime Museum and has earned the designation of a Visit Florida Specialist by successfully completing programs such as Destination Weddings and Honeymoons.
The award honors an individual who represents the destination positively, engages in promoting and supporting area visitation and has provided the best possible visitor experience.
The Ed Hunzeker Hospitality Leadership Award, created in 2017 to honor its namesake and first recipient, County Administrator Ed Hunzeker, was presented to Dr. Patrick Moreo.
Selected for exemplifying the leadership, vision and lasting impact reflected by Hunzeker, Dr. Moreo has served hospitality and tourism industries as an educator and administrator for more than 30 years. As the Dean of the College of Hospitality and Tourism Leadership at the University of South Florida and a FRLA Sarasota-Bradenton Chapter board member, he gives his time to industry and community projects.
“Both 2018 recipients are true leaders: Dr. Moreo is committed to ensuring that the next generation of hospitality and tourism leaders are prepared to carry the torch and Karen Riley-Love works tirelessly to guarantee our visitors have a memorable experience that will bring them back time and time again,” Falcione said. “Both are the epitome of what an industry partner should be, and I am happy to publicly acknowledge and thank them both for their leadership and on-going support of our efforts and initiatives.”
HOLMES BEACH – Resident Nancy Deal challenged tourism officials on Monday to address pedestrian deaths and other safety issues created by thriving tourism on Anna Maria Island.
Noting the recent death of a woman visitor and the injury of her husband while they were crossing the street in Holmes Beach in January, Deal said, “I challenge this council to create a safety task force made up of conscionable stakeholders who have some responsibility in marketing for and profiting from tourism and development.
“If there are more accidents involving tourists – you want to get rid of us pesky locals, anyway, right? – what will that mean to the tourism industry on the island or in the county?”
Nancy Deal
After relating several recent incidences that she witnessed where bicyclists, pedestrians and vehicles were at odds, she concluded, “AMI is not a brand. Manatee County is not a brand. We are a community of living things – plants, animals, human beings – with the right to safety, security and the opportunity to survive and thrive in peace.”
Manatee County Tourist Development Council (TDC) Chair Carol Whitmore acknowledged the problem, which is most evident during January, February and March.
“It was rough. Very rough,” Whitmore said about the height of the season. “But to say the TDC does not want citizens to be here is 100 percent wrong. I still live here. The reason why people come here from all over the world is because of the residents.
“I don’t want to lose the character of the Island. This is a big reason why people come to visit this destination,” she said. “I don’t know what we could do as a TDC to ensure that.”
There is “a major need” for safe pedestrian and bike pathways, TDC member and Island restaurateur Ed Chiles said, adding, “We have to look at solutions.”
Meanwhile, “When I’m at the end of Pine Avenue, I have to get myself in a completely different mindset,” Chiles said. “I just have to know I’m going 7 to 12 miles an hour.”
“I change my itinerary in season,” he said. “If I’m going to Mar Vista on Longboat Key, I know there’s 45 minutes to daydream or make phone calls coming back up.”
The good news, he said, is, “We’re in demand.”
Locals know that “If you want to come out here in the morning, you have to be here by 9 o’clock, and if you want to come in the evening you come after 5 or 6,” TDC member Jack Rynerson said.
It’s not just a problem on the Island, but also in Bradenton, TDC member and Bradenton Mayor Wayne Poston said, adding that it’s not just tourism creating the problem; the area also is attracting more residents.
“We have to be more patient than we are,” he suggested.
“There’s no one silver bullet, but we are reclaiming some of our right of way,” Anna Maria Mayor Dan Murphy told the TDC. “Over the years, people have encroached onto the right of way. It’s a painful process, people buy a house and the right of way is already cultivated,” he said, adding that the city, after lengthy discussions with property owners, is taking back a little of the right of way at a time.
Multimodal transportation would seem to be the answer, Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Director Elliott Falcione said.
The TDC has endorsed water ferries and recommended tourist tax money for Anna Maria and Bradenton Beach pier renovations, but Island cities “apparently aren’t sure if they want to do that or not,” he said. “They need to decide. There’s no need to spend dollars from the tourism coffer if cities don’t want it.”
Nancy Deal’s presentation
“A few weeks ago, an 80-year-old tourist was struck by a car and killed at the curve on Gulf Drive in Holmes Beach, which is at the end of our street. Around that same time, another tourist was struck by a car in Bradenton Beach and was, fortunately, only injured.
My husband and I have been year-round residents on AMI since 2001. We ride our bikes from tip to tip of AMI and from the Gulf to the Intracoastal. Last month we witnessed the busiest season for bikers and pedestrians in our experience. We saw many, many large groups of families with children of all ages on bikes, in carriers, and in bike strollers dragged behind mom or dad’s bike. It has not been unusual for us to see groups of 12 riding on Gulf Drive at the spot where the tourist was killed.
As locals can tell you, visitors to the island are understandably self-absorbed in enjoying their vacation and seem to lose their sense of caution, common sense and knowledge of common rules of the road. It is harrowing to drive on the island, sharing the very narrow streets with bikes, pedestrians, construction vehicles, landscaper trucks and trailers, pool company trucks, garbage trucks, Segway, golf carts, utility trucks, dump trucks, bulldozers, 18-wheelers delivering food and beer, and of course, other cars.
As Chief Tokajer can tell you, every week a new batch of thousands of visitors means another heroic effort to educate them about local ordinances and safety issues. Locals advise visitors about safe bike and walking routs as often as we can. Why, just last week, I was trying to direct a man pushing a baby in a stroller trying to cross busy Gulf Drive to a nearby crosswalk and he told me to * myself. In essence our city has to endlessly protect visitors from themselves and others, while trying to mandate the day-to-day administrative duties that any city has.
If the industries of tourism, real estate, rentals, hospitality and development continue to entice more and more people to AMI and Manatee County, with the promise of paradise and bicycle and pedestrian-friendly streets, and they profit from those people – those industries need to take a much more aggressive responsibility for the safety of everyone who comes here and lives here.
Last week we were driving around that curve on Gulf Drive and met an old woman walking just off the street. There are no sidewalks there, no crosswalks, no bike lanes, very little berm on either side of the road. Same day, on the way home, same spot, we passed an older man walking in the street with no way to be seen by oncoming traffic.
I challenge this council to create a safety task force made up of conscionable stakeholders who have some responsibility in marketing for and profiting from tourism and development. If there are more accidents involving tourists (you want to get rid of us pesky locals, anyway, right?), what will that mean to the tourism industry on the island or in the county? That said, there are many business folks on the island who benefit from tourists who sincerely care about the hearts, souls and the safety of everyone in our community and I am sure they would be interested.
Finally, I want you to understand – AMI is not a brand. Manatee County is not a brand. We are a community of living things – plants, animals, human beings – with the right to safety, security and the opportunity to survive and thrive in peace.”
In other business:
The TDC heard a request from Beverly Lesnick, chair of the Anna Maria Island Chamber of Commerce, to take into consideration the amount of tourist tax produced by Anna Maria Island versus Longboat Key when allocating tourist tax proceeds to each chamber.
Whitmore noted that Holmes Beach tourism is down compared to the other two Island cities. Falcione responded that many factors could contribute, but that flat visitation is good when average daily rates are up.
Murphy thanked the TDC for recommending funding for the Anna Maria City Pier. He announced that construction should begin in August 2018 and be completed by December 2019.
The county’s tourism consultant, Walter Klages, said that 97.6 percent of the people who visit the Bradenton area are satisfied with the destination, that the European market is growing and that an Irish market is emerging.
The Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau hosted 25 travel writers in 2017, attended media events in the UK, Atlanta and Dallas and launched a new website.
The board acknowledged the resignation of board member David Teitelbaum and announced plans to honor him for his service at the next meeting in June.
The local tourism website will relaunch in November with a version that is completely mobile-friendly, Elliott Falcione, director of the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, announced Monday.
The website is “the heart of what we do,” he told the Manatee County Tourist Development Council.
New features include a real-time map showing visitors what restaurants and attractions are near their location.
Travel starts with research, and most tourists search online, said Carol Johnson, the county’s Trip Advisor account representative, who gave advice to tourism operators on maximizing their presence on Trip Advisor at the TDC meeting.
“Develop your reputation online,” she said, citing the example that after Hurricane Irma, tourists confused Barbuda, which was totally destroyed, with Bermuda, which was not affected.
Irma caused damage and delays at Anna Maria Island’s two city piers, the TDC learned.
Bradenton Beach Mayor Bill Shearon reported that the day dock repair next to the Bridge Street Pier will be delayed because Irma impacted a southwest Florida supplier.
Irma also damaged the Anna Maria City Pier, TDC member Doug Copeland said, adding that it will be “a brand new pier” when it’s rebuilt. Permitting is expected to take 6-9 months.
The cost could be $4-5 million, TDC Chair Carol Whitmore said. Because the pier was damaged by a storm, FEMA will contribute to the reconstruction, Copeland said.
“As we move out of hurricane season our market is stabilizing,” Walter Klages, of Research Data Services, Manatee County’s tourism consultant, told the TDC.
September tourism statistics clearly show “a pullback due to Hurricane Irma,” he said.
But August tourism was up 4.7 percent in visitors, 4.1 percent in room nights and an “impressive” 11.1 percent in economic impact over August 2016, he said.
Visitors came primarily from Florida, followed by Europe, the Northeast U.S., the Midwest, the Southeast and Canada.
The average number of people in a party that visit Manatee County is three, mostly family and couples, but singles visitation is growing, he said. The average age is 46.
In other business, Florida Maritime Museum Supervisor Kristin Sweeting updated the TDC on the progress of The Folk School, which began in January, targeting heritage tourism with classes on maritime skills like net mending, as well as other Old Florida skills like soap making and canning.
The classes will move from the museum to the historic Burton/Bratton store’s first floor when renovations are complete, she said, adding that the upstairs of the historic building will be used for museum collections storage and a maritime research library.
Manatee County tourism officials have long promoted the county and the communities of Bradenton, Palmetto, Anna Maria, Bradenton Beach, Holmes Beach, Longboat Key and Lakewood Ranch with slogans like “Florida Like It Used to Be” and “The Closer Caribbean.”
After years of changes, today’s tourism slogan was coined in 2012. “Real. Authentic. Florida.” It is so popular that the Anna Maria Island city of Bradenton Beach changed its city motto from “Blessed with History, Hospitality, Spirit” to “Real Florida History, Hospitality and Spirit.”
The current tourism logo is “Bradenton, Anna Maria Island, Longboat Key,” in the turquoise and orange colors of Manatee County stationery, benches and park signs. All three destinations are widely known today, thanks in part to decades of memorable slogans and logos.
1981 – “Our little secret” made itself obsolete, working so well that the county now routinely ranks high on national lists of vacation destinations, according to Manatee County Commissioner Carol Whitmore, who chairs the county’s Tourist Development Council. The tourism logo used at the time was “Manatee County and the gulf beaches around Bradenton on the West Coast of Florida,” irritating copy editors and linguaphiles.
1989 – “Crystal Blue Persuasion” was controversial; some opposed the slogan, speculating that the 1968 song title referred to the drug methamphetamine. The period’s logo was “Manatee County – where Tampa Bay Meets the Gulf of Mexico,” giving free publicity to Tampa.
1993 – “Pure Florida, nothing artificial,” reminiscent of orange juice advertisements, was accompanied by a mouthful of a logo, “Bradenton & Florida’s Gulf Island Beaches, including Anna Maria Island, Longboat Key, Bradenton Beach, Holmes Beach and Palmetto.”
Bradenton had replaced Manatee County on the suggestion that cities are more recognizable than counties. As Bradenton Mayor and Tourist Development Council member Wayne Poston said, “Pittsburgh Pirates fans don’t know where Allegheny County is.” But the logo didn’t specifically name the city of Anna Maria, and wrongly implied that Palmetto is a Gulf Island beach. The city was left out of future logos.
1995 – “Florida’s quiet side,” not quite a slogan, according to the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (which changed its name from the Manatee County Convention and Visitors Bureau), appeared on some publications with the logo, “Bradenton & The Gulf Island Beaches Of Longboat Key & Anna Maria Island.” The “side” referred to the southwest coast of Florida, compared to the more densely populated southeast coast of the state.
The logo was changed in 1999 to “Bradenton & Florida’s Gulf Islands of Anna Maria & Longboat Key,” and changed again in 2000 to “Florida’s Gulf Islands – Anna Maria & Longboat Key, The Bradenton Area.”
2005 – “Take me away,” another mini-slogan, appeared on some brochures with the logo, “florida’s Gulf Islands – anna maria, longboat key, bradenton,” which was grammatically problematic because the city of Bradenton is not an island, and prompted objections to lower-case letters on state and city names.
2007 – “Welcome to our world,” another near-slogan, appeared on a brochure with the logo, “florida’s Gulf Islands – anna maria, longboat key, bradenton & lakewood ranch,” which included the unincorporated community of Lakewood Ranch for the first time in a tourism logo, but mistakenly implied that Bradenton and Lakewood Ranch are islands.
2010 – The logo was changed to “Anna Maria Island & Longboat Key, florida’s gulf islands, and on the mainland, Bradenton & Lakewood Ranch,” raising eyebrows of some Anna Maria Island residents who never considered that going into town was quite as adventurous as going to “the mainland.” The reference was removed the following year when the logo was changed to “Anna Maria Island – Longboat Key, florida’s gulf islands, Bradenton & Lakewood Ranch.”
In 2012, the county tourism agency hit on “Real. Authentic. Florida.” Echoing catchphrases popular in business advertisements, including “Old Florida” and “Real Florida,” the reality underlying the slogan has changed since 2012, and is likely to continue changing as Anna Maria Island and the communities of Manatee County continue developing and redeveloping.
Meanwhile, the slogan avoids mislabeling or leaving out any of the area’s communities, has no grammar, and hence no grammar problems, eliminates annoying ampersands and seems to have pleased just about everyone.
We are pleased that they saw the wisdom and necessity of saving the mangroves, the seagrass beds and the marine life, and denied the marina proposal.
But in approving the rezoning for Long Bar Pointe, Manatee County commissioners missed the people’s point.
Several thousand people showed up, tuned in, went online or signed petitions for the 13-hour commission meeting last Tuesday to voice pent-up frustrations about how life as we know it in our corner of Florida is vanishing.
Third Place
Editorial
2013
Long silenced by unspoken taboos against questioning exploding tourism and big development, voices cracked and tears were blinked back as people expressed hundreds of versions of “I love Old Florida. Stop wrecking it.”
Not much of Old Florida remains around here, other than in Cortez village, whose residents define the concept, and have the right to make the argument.
We are proud of them for fighting and winning against Carlos Beruff a second time (he tried to buy and redevelop – strike that – demolish the Cortez Trailer Park to build a marina complex in 2007).
Local tourism marketers continue to tout “Old Florida” as a fact – our latest tourism slogan is “Real. Authentic. Florida.”
But what they’re calling “old” really isn’t.
In Old Florida, there were no three-story, six-bedroom vacation rentals two feet apart from each other. No traffic jams backed up 10 miles from 26th Street to Anna Maria Island in March. No wall to wall umbrellas on the beach in August. No gang shootings. No battling crowds in Publix, on the beach, in restaurants. No exodus of 20 percent of the Island’s residents in the first decade of this century. No longtime friends calling to say, “I’m moving someplace more peaceful,” where sand blowers and chain saws and pile drivers don’t drown out the waves.
One of our old tourism slogans was “Paradise without an attitude.” But with New Florida elbowing everyone around to make room for itself, visitors are developing an attitude – one of entitlement.
Residents are developing an attitude, too, and they made it clear to commissioners last week.
Before developers submit their revised plan, commissioners should go back and listen to the 13-hour recording, without the pressure of having to make a decision just days after the developer filed a lawsuit over the project’s road.
Listen to the county attorney who advised denial of the project.
Listen to the people.
Residents do not want several thousand new homes and twice or three times as many new people in real authentic Florida, especially more vacation rentals, especially in a hurricane zone.
And most especially not another Seaside, a panhandle tourist destination that the developer cites as a model for Long Bar Pointe, and a fabrication of an Old Florida that existed only in the minds of its developers, not in the hearts and memories of Floridians.
HOLMES BEACH – As the Manatee County Tourist Development Council applauded a report of record tourism on Monday and approved adding $500,000 to the county’s $2.6 million tourism marketing budget, Holmes Beach Commission Chair David Zaccagnino added an Island perspective seldom voiced.
“You’ve done too good of a job,” he told the advisory board to the Manatee County Commission, inviting them to attend a Tuesday, Dec. 13 Holmes Beach Commission meeting at 7 p.m. at city hall that will address problems caused by vacation rentals. “If this keeps going the way it’s going, you’re going to ruin this little Island community.”
Third Place
Local Government Reporting
2011
Residents have blamed tourists, rental agents and developers – but not the county’s tourism marketing agency – for noise, trash and parking problems destroying residential neighborhoods that have been partially redeveloped with large, multi-bedroom “resort” houses.
“Residents are showing up with pitchforks and torches,” Zaccagnino said about recent city meetings. “You’re inviting everybody… but you don’t want to clean up when you’re done.”
The city has responded to complaints with increased code enforcement and police action, but has limited staff and funds to tackle the growing problem, according to city officials.
“There’s a great deal of pressure being put on code enforcement, police and maintenance,” he said, asking the TDC and the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) for help at Tuesday’s meeting and beyond.
“People living here shouldn’t be driven out of their homes,” said TDC member David Teitelbaum, a Bradenton Beach resort owner and Island Chamber of Commerce director, saying the issue is not whether to promote tourism, but abuses of the right to quiet enjoyment of property.
The solution is not to cut tourism marketing, he said, rather, it should be handled by revoking business licenses (rental agents allowing occupancy violations in rentals), calling the county health department (residential pools being used as commercial pools) and other enforcement methods.
“A few bad apples are spoiling it,” he said.
“We can’t get off the pedal” and cut back marketing efforts, said CVB Director Elliott Falcione, or it would take four to five times more money to get the “heads in beds” back again.
Still, visitors want the low-rise, low key, “detox” environment of the Island, he said, adding that tourism efforts need to be “tweaked.”
“There’s a balance,” TDC Chair and former Holmes Beach Mayor Carol Whitmore said, adding that she would not complain about visitors unless they break the rules.
Whitmore said she is concerned with maintaining the character of the Island, even to the extent of wanting the new county beach sign toned down.
“This is a very unique Island,” Zaccagnino agreed. “We don’t want it to change.”
