ANNA MARIA – Hurricane Idalia caused many travelers to cancel their trips to Anna Maria Island in August, Research Data Services’ Ann Wittine told the Manatee County Tourist Development Council (TDC) on Oct. 16.
The Tampa-based consultant’s report featured the latest available statistics related to the tourism industry in Manatee County from August 2023 compared to August 2022. In August, the total number of visitors was down by 2% and economic impact was down slightly, by .01%. Room nights were also down slightly from August 2022, by .2%.
“The important thing to know is that even though visitors are down slightly, the economic impact remains flat, so the visitors that came, on an economic basis are leaving more of an economic impact on their destination,” Wittine said.
Room occupancy for August was down slightly by 3% after being down 2.6% in the last report, which quoted data from June 2023. The average daily room rate, was up 4.2%, at $183.63 per day in August 2023 compared to $176.22 in August 2022.
The consultant for the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau also tracks where tourists are coming from when they visit the area. The largest increase in any visitor origin came from Canada, up 40% over the same period in 2022. Travel from Europe has risen 5.8%. The largest domestic visitor origin was the Northeast, which was up 5.3% over the same period in 2022.
“Opportunity markets, which are essentially markets west of the Mississippi, are seeing growth,” Wittine said. “The biggest of these markets is Texas, where we’re seeing a lot of growth.”
She said the number of visitors in fiscal year-to-date in Manatee County was 983,900 as of the end of August. The economic impact of those visitors was $1,579,797,500, up 6.4% from the same period in 2022.
