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Beach tourist season best ever in 2014

December 1, 2014
/ Carlton Proctor
/ community-dashboard

As if making up for an epic ice storm and catastrophic flood earlier this year, Mother Nature was most kind to the Gulf Coast during its 2014 tourist season. Just how nice was it? Very, according to key data and revenue figures compiled by the Santa Rosa Island Authority and Visit Pensacola. "In 2012, in terms of hotel and restaurant revenues, we had the best year ever on Pensacola Beach," said Buck Lee, executive director of the SRIA, which manages Pensacola Beach. "And, despite the rainy summer weather, 2013 was better than 2012. "And in 2014 we topped 2013 and set another record for sales on the beach and revenues to the Island Authority," he added. The SRIA charges hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops fees per purchase of between 2 percent and 5 percent. The revenue is used to maintain and improve infrastructure and operational costs of the SRIA. Data provided by Steve Hayes, executive director of Visit Pensacola, Inc., backs up Lee's observations. Visit Pensacola is the lead local agency tasked with marketing and promoting Escambia County's tourism industry. "What we've seen in our tourism economy for 2014 has been great, a lot busier than 2013," Hayes said. "Quite frankly it was because of the weather. We had fabulous summer weather, and that extended into September and October as well." The beautiful October weather helped the Holiday Inn Express Pensacola Beach have its best fall ever, said Beverly McCay, general manager of the Gulf-front hotel. "This October was the best we've had since opening in 2008," she said. "This contrasts with last year when we had the (federal) sequester that had a big impact on government and military spending for travel. October 2013 was the worst we've ever had." McCay said inclement weather during the first four months of this year hurt businesses on the beach. "We had a bad beginning to 2014, but by the time spring break arrived things turned around, and by the middle of March the floodgates opened," she said. "Going into May, which sometimes can be a soft month, we never missed a beat as the summer season arrived in June and July," she added. Perhaps the best indicator of just how good the summer of 2014 was for Pensacola Beach's hotels is Escambia County Tourist Development Tax. Also known as the bed tax, revenues for the past 12 months — Oct. 1, 2013 to Sept. 30, 2014 — hit a record $8.4 million, up from $7.8 million for the same period ending last year. That's a 7.5 percent increase. Revenue from the bed tax has doubled in the past four years. Data gathered by Hayes shows the average hotel daily rate also climbed from $104 in 2013 to $108 this year. Average daily occupancy for all hotels on Pensacola Beach also climbed by 6.3 percent. Aside from the inviting summer and fall weather, also driving this growth has been new markets developed out of the traditional metro areas that have been the mainstays for Pensacola Beach for decades. "Of course we're a drive market, and certainly lower gas prices have helped grow the numbers on the beach," Lee said. "But one thing I have noticed is we're seeing more and more license plates from Texas." Lee said a lot of the visitors, according to SRIA data, are coming from cities west of Houston, like San Antonio and Austin. Hayes said there are other large metro markets, that have been underdeveloped in the past, that are visiting Pensacola Beach, as evidenced by credit card purchase data Visit Pensacola obtains through Visa. "We're definitely expanding our outside traditional market reach to cities like St. Louis, Nashville and Baltimore," Hayes said. He attributes some of that growth to the arrival of Southwest Airlines' service to Pensacola International Airport in November 2013. Southwest has one daily flight to and from Nashville, and two to Houston. "When you take a look at the Visa data and who's spending and where they're from, Nashville does pop out," said Hayes. He noted that Nashville visitors were the second highest spenders in October. "This is great data to take back to the airlines when we try to convince them to provide us more air service," Hayes said. One interesting trend Lee is seeing is growth of weddings on Pensacola Beach during the month of October. "October has been a good month out here," he said. "And it's really surprised me at how many weddings there have been during that month. That's a market that's really grown over the past few years." As for 2105, early signs are pointing toward another strong season. One concern going into 2015, McCay said, is that Easter is 15 days earlier this year than last. That effectively shortens the spring break season, so important to kick-starting the Pensacola Beach season. But McCay said she is hopeful gasoline prices stay low, and is encouraged that advance bookings into 2015 are up 5 percent over last year at this time. "I have a friend in South Florida, and of course, her season is the opposite of ours," McCay said. "If her season is good the trend has been that ours will be good too. So I'll be watching to see how they do this winter."

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Beach tourist season best ever in 2014

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