Season in FL this year

[techie_g]

Orlando is a tourist destination, Ft. Lauderdale and Miami are clear tourist destinations. Sarasota-Manatee are not your typical 'tourist' anything. These counties are seasonal, long term attractions, full of seasonal residents, not visitors who drive or fly out in a week.


As I stated earlier, there is obviously less of a 'spike' associated with 'tourist season'. This place is not Panama City or Orlando...never will be.


I would suggest that we will see less and less of a spike in the next 10 years than what we've seen than the last 10 years. The reasons are quite simple: earlier retirements, newer job creations, and a younger population that is now considering SRQ MANA over places like Orlando, Jacksonville and over-crowded Tampa. In fact, the in-fill occurring now from Brandon to north Manatee County is massive. Manatee County (far West, SE, E, NE to Hillborough will outstrip Sarasota County's growth perhaps 2 to 1).

[Ceeceegone]

Definitely lighter to me and I drive all over. Once all these hotels get built, I don't think we will be experiencing it like this next year. Even if the market does take a pause, the options for warmth for snow birds are expensive CA, or no beach or tropical breeze of AZ. In addition, our Visitors bureau and Sarasota Chamber will be increasing thier marketing dollars to draw more people here. Once here, the still small town appeal, big city arts and culture and miles of clean and beautiful beaches lure them to stay or visit more frequently.

UTC and Nathan Benderson Park with the World rowing competitions planned, will also bring more visibility to our area.

[Coachgns]

It seems that way to me also - except for holiday weekends, seems lighter downtown.
And the H-T agrees with that also. From a story in February:

"International turbulence is causing its own trouble in Sarasota County.

European and Canadian tourism numbers are down and the industry as a whole was flat for the month of December.


It’s another hard year for the Canadian loonie and the British pound, which plummeted against the dollar after June’s Brexit vote. The drop continued to a three-year low following the announcement that formal Brexit negotiations would begin by the end of March.

Meanwhile, the German economy kicked off the year with a rosy outlook, but the country is coming off a year of violence and attacks.

That chaos is surfacing locally in the number of visitors who aren’t coming to Sarasota County.

After a solid five years of smashing records, tourism growth has, at least temporarily, tapered off."

[techie_g]

Don't conflate "tourism dollars/revenue" with seasonal revenue. Exchange rates affect tourism, but it hasn't dramatically affected revenue from actual part time RESIDENTS. House buying and tax revenue (ad valorem, CDD, and other fees) is off the charts..so is the tax revenue and income derived from explosive commercial development.


This area is less dependent on "tourism dollars" than ever before. Actual people moving here, buying here and living here more and more throughout the year has increased dramatically over the past decade. True 'tourism" has in fact tapered off. This is NOT a "tourist destination, and is becoming less and less so. The regional planning in SRQ-Mana is not focusing on developing "tourist attractions" at all (e.g. theme parks, waterparks, zoos, entertainment zones ala Bourbon Street, etc)...to the contrary - the commercial enterprises are planned communities/mixed use, retail, educational (e.g.USF, SCF, MTC, Lecom, etc). I could see true "tourism" to continue to decline significantly, in favour of far more actual part-time-to-fulltime residency. "Business tourism" (e.g. IMG,pro sports, international competitions, Polo, amateur soccer, etc) is quite a different economic animal.

[La-La land]

Originally Posted by techie_g

Don't conflate "tourism dollars/revenue" with seasonal revenue. Exchange rates affect tourism, but it hasn't dramatically affected revenue from actual part time RESIDENTS. House buying and tax revenue (ad valorem, CDD, and other fees) is off the charts..so is the tax revenue and income derived from explosive commercial development.


This area is less dependent on "tourism dollars" than ever before. Actual people moving here, buying here and living here more and more throughout the year has increased dramatically over the past decade. True 'tourism" has in fact tapered off. This is NOT a "tourist destination, and is becoming less and less so. The regional planning in SRQ-Mana is not focusing on developing "tourist attractions" at all (e.g. theme parks, waterparks, zoos, entertainment zones ala Bourbon Street, etc)...to the contrary - the commercial enterprises are planned communities/mixed use, retail, educational (e.g.USF, SCF, MTC, Lecom, etc). I could see true "tourism" to continue to decline significantly, in favour of far more actual part-time-to-fulltime residency. "Business tourism" (e.g. IMG,pro sports, international competitions, Polo, amateur soccer, etc) is quite a different economic animal.

Yes, but 90% of the tourism is on the barrier islands. Lots of tourists out here.

[Ladywithafan]

I do think it was lighter this year due to inflated prices on the weekly rentals after tourists realized that 10 people in a 2/2 with five cars doesn't cut it on the keys. They've been stockpiling people for the past three years into units like this & finally learned that's cause for EVICTION plus there's no place to park the extra four vehicles & towing has also doubled.

[PBToast]

Totally off topic...

All I know is...Everyone is beating me to it! I feel like the Last Boomer and when I finally show up they will announce "Florida is Full. No more."

Does anyone remember when they did that on Candid camera? Had a guy with a barrier at the border of CT and kept turning people away telling them CT was full!

[craigiri]

Originally Posted by Ceeceegone

Definitely lighter to me and I drive all over. Once all these hotels get built, I don't think we will be experiencing it like this next year. Even if the market does take a pause, the options for warmth for snow birds are expensive CA, or no beach or tropical breeze of AZ. In addition, our Visitors bureau and Sarasota Chamber will be increasing thier marketing dollars to draw more people here. Once here, the still small town appeal, big city arts and culture and miles of clean and beautiful beaches lure them to stay or visit more frequently.

UTC and Nathan Benderson Park with the World rowing competitions planned, will also bring more visibility to our area.

A Mall?
A retention pond which allowed them to build that mall?

I don't see those as the big draws.

The water and things around it are the draws for most tourists and/or seasonal visitors. There is a BIG problem I don't see discussed very much - RED TIDE.

It seemed a vast number of days this year had people avoiding the beaches or coughing (some even hit the emergency room).

I have a strong feeling that this amount of Red Tide is not "natural" and is the result of excess ag and ther runoff and possibly supported by the large oil spill years ago.

The Press and State and even Mote (survives on grants also) downplay it big time. But the bottom line is that the beaches are uncomfortable even when Red Tide is "light". At "moderate" you better go home quickly.....

When a multi-billion dollar industry is built around the beach....it's only in a place like Florida where they would foul their own nest(s) and then still try to hide it for as long as possible.

To put it straight - a family may spend $5K plus for a week to 10 days here and if they are lucky get 2 good beach days.