ANNA MARIA – Research Data Services’ (RDS) Ann Wittine presented an optimistic state of tourism update to the Manatee County Tourist Development Council (TDC) on Aug. 21 at The Center of Anna Maria Island.
She began by addressing her company’s research into public sentiment on the new water taxi service that is slated to begin operation soon.
The Tampa-based company is the tourism consultant for the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.
“We are doing a water taxi survey, and we have been doing that for a while,” Wittine said. “We were out for Memorial Day weekend, Fourth of July weekend and we’ll be out on Labor Day weekend. We are hearing more interest now than ever before. Not just a little bit more interest, but a significant interest in the water taxi.”
Wittine says RDS is not just talking to tourists, but also residents and business owners. She told the TDC the surveys are showing an increase in interest from all potential user groups. She said there will be more data available after the Labor Day weekend research is completed. That information will be presented at the TDC’s Monday, Oct. 16 meeting.
Wittine’s report featured the latest available statistics related to the tourism industry in Manatee County from June 2023. Total visitors were up by .8% and economic impact was up 2.9%. Room nights were down slightly from June 2022 by .5%. Wittine says this is due to larger party sizes this year.
Room occupancy for June was down slightly (2.6%) after being down 2.8% in the last report from RDS that quoted data from April 2023. The average daily room rate, however, is up 3.5%, at $216.41 per day in June 2023 compared to $209.19 in June 2022.
RDS also keeps track of where visitors are coming from when they visit the area. The largest increase in any visitor origin domestically is Florida, which is up 7.5% over the same time period in 2022. Globally, travel from Europe has risen 13%, after being down more than 13% in RDS’s April report. The largest domestic visitor origin was the Midwest, which is down 10% over the same time in 2022, but still remains strong.
“We are still double the number of Floridians that we had in 2019 that came this June,” Wittine said. “This is due to the marketing efforts we did during COVID. What this shows is, if we can bring first-time visitors, they fall in love and they come back again. That’s what the Florida number shows us.”
Wittine says the most growth potential for tourism is still Europe, which is down more than 67% since 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lastly, Wittine said the number of visitors to Manatee County was 821,900, up 2.4% from June 2022 and the economic impact was $1,382,734,200, up 7.6% from the same period.
