Double Digit Growth For Summer Tourism
By Clayton Wallace, Condo Owner Magazine, January 7, 2013
It’s official. Tourism revenue along the Northern Gulf Coast in Florida and Alabama has reached record numbers for the second year in a row. Tourism officials in the area said they were ecstatic with the revenue generated during last year’s record-breaking summer tourism season and most optimistically projected more growth for 2012. How much growth was anyone’s guess.
Up and down the coast from Panama City Beach to Gulf Shores, tourism revenue experienced double digit increases in revenue from 2011, much to the delight of local tourism officials. “Last year, we got back to 18 percent above pre-oil spill levels,” said Gulf Shores and Orange Beach Tourism President and CEO Herb Malone. “Year-to-date, we’re up another 15 percent from last year.”
Malone praised the entire Alabama Gulf Coast community, including lodging partners, attractions owners and the local business community for the continued success of tourism in the area. “We were able to do this because of the teamwork that came from everyone down here.”
Just across the Florida line in Pensacola, Visit Pensacola Vice President of Tourism Terry Scruggs was all smiles as well. “Our bed tax collection, which is a direct reflection of our lodging revenue, was up 12 percent in 2011 over the previous year. This year, we were up 26 percent from 2011.” Scruggs said Pensacola played host to approximately 3.5 million visitors in 2012. Most importantly for condo owners, Scruggs said the average daily rate for lodging increased between 3 and 4 percent.
Scruggs attributed much of the growth in the past two years to the influx of marketing capital from petroleum giant BP in the wake of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. “However, that funding ended this year,” he said. According to Scruggs, Visit Pensacola utilized their data and made a pitch to the Escambia County Commission for increased funding. “We built a case for our county to replace what BP had given us the past couple of years,” he said.
He said before the oil spill, going back a decade, the area experienced between 4 and 5 percent growth each year. However, with the additional funding, they experienced double digit growth each of the past two years. “Our projections indicate that if we continue to spend marketing dollars like we have the past couple of years, we’ll double our tax revenue in approximately nine years,” he said.
Commissioners were so impressed by the numbers they agreed to the additional funding.
In Panama City Beach, CVB President and CEO Dan Rowe said his area also experienced double-digit growth from 2011. “This has been a banner year for Panama City Beach,” he said. “Through Sept. 30, our bed tax revenue is up 12 percent compared to this time last year.”
Revenue generated from special events was a big part of the increase, according to Rowe. “We’ve had a great 2012 and our events were once again a hit with visitors, offering something for everyone throughout the year,” he said. “The Seabreeze Jazz Festival, which takes place each April, has become a tradition for families and couples to usher the beginning of summer. We also hosted the Seafood & Music Festival in the fall, which was a real hit with everyone who visited. Both are events everyone marks their calendar for each year.”
Beaches of South Walton Marketing and Communications Director Jon Ervin said he was pleasantly surprised by the tremendous growth his area has seen in tourism. “We track bed tax specifically. For our fiscal year of October 2011 to September 2012, South Walton was up 18.38 percent, which followed the tremendous increase of almost 30 percent the previous year,” he said.
According to Ervin, not only did more money flow into the area from tourism, but the number of visitors also increased from last year. “This recently concluded fiscal year was a new high in taxable lodging in South Walton. It was estimated that approximately 3 million visitors came to our beaches the previous year. If we extrapolate the 18 percent gain in revenue, it pushes that figure even higher,” he said. According to Ervin, he believes some of the revenue increase came from an increase in the daily rate charged by industry partners—although he cannot confirm that—but the vast majority of the revenue increase is from an increase in the number of visitors.
According to information provided by Tom Kraus, a tourist information analyst from the Emerald Coast CVB, Destin and Fort Walton in Okaloosa County also had a record-setting year. Although final numbers were not available at press time, he said preliminary indicators show that the average daily rate of lodging was at its highest level since at least 2008, which was a record high.
One aspect of marketing the area that has garnered much attention from tourism professionals is the advent of “apps” for smartphone and Internet-connected tablets. Malone of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach Tourism said he quotes a statistic that is shocking to many people. “More than half of the humans on Earth have never known a world without the Internet,” he said. “Almost half of the people in the United States check their smartphones at least once an hour, and almost half of them check their smartphones before they get out of bed in the morning.”
To that end, Malone said they have studied how people use their various Internet-connected devices and have tailored their “app” to reflect these trends. “There’s a difference in the way people use their tablets and their smartphones,” he said. “They use their tablets for research on the area before they go on vacation. The smartphones are with them while they’re here, and they use them while they’re in the car looking for a restaurant or attraction.”
Rowe said in Panama City Beach, their new “app” had a very successful launch this year. “I am very proud we launched the Panama City Beach official mobile application, available for Android, iPhone and iPad users,” he said. “This app showcases all our destination has to offer while also serving as an adventure planning tool. Visitors can use the app to map out their day with itinerary ideas to suit a variety of personalities from the ‘sandy bottom bunch’ to ‘eco seekers.’”
Another aspect of tourism that continues to flourish is the increase in visitors that come to the area via air travel. According to Ervin, South Walton saw a great increase in visitors that flew commercial flights instead of driving—a trend he believes will continue. “Both of the last fall seasons, visitation was up and reports indicated that the percentage of visitors coming in via air travel was up from almost 10 percent in 2011 to about 20 percent this year,” he said. “The conclusion we draw from this information is that double the visitors flew in this year. These are visitors that came in from markets such as Nashville and Houston—cities that are too far from here to drive for a typical weekend, but are easily managed by relatively short commercial flights.”
Scruggs said between 5 and 10 percent of Pensacola’s visitors fly in through commercial flights, and the CVB is in the midst of an exploration phase of a long-termed plan to grow tourism through airline travel. “This year, we’re pushing in the Chicago, D.C., Memphis, Dallas and Houston markets,” he said. “We’re trying to target cold weather cities to increase our airline travel during the winter months. This is a completely different demographic from our typical summer tourists.”
Rowe said he is also encouraged by the numbers of visitors that fly in to Panama City Beach. “The airport continues to post increases in enplanements,” he said. “Additionally, Southwest Airlines added a third Saturday flight and seasonal service from St. Louis this past summer to enhance the ability of visitors to reach Panama City Beach. The service from St. Louis was so successful that Southwest is bringing it back next spring.”
All in all, tourism professionals are riding high on the wave of continued popularity of area beaches. Although they declined to look into their crystal balls for predictions on 2013’s summer season, they were unanimously optimistic. “Everyone has been focused on what the new norm would be with regards to tourism revenue,” Ervin said. “To continually establish new record highs and report double digit growth is very encouraging. We were prepared to see a plateau in growth but have not reported a leveling yet.”
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