Record revenue: Tourism bounces back
‘Bed tax’ tally for 2021 tops $53.3 million, surpassing $42.6 million benchmark set in 2019
The tourism industry in Lee County is fully back from pandemic struggles in 2020.
According to the latest figures released by the Lee County Clerk of Court, tourism hit a new record in Lee County in 2021, raking in more than $53.3 million in bed taxes for the fiscal year. The 5% tourist tax, which is applied to all hotel stays and rentals of six months or less, surpassed the previous record of $42.6 million in fiscal year 2019.
“Tourism is a huge driver of our economy, funding one out of every five jobs in Lee County,” said Linda Doggett, Lee County Clerk of the Court and Comptroller, in a prepared statement . “The best part of the bed tax is that all Lee County residents benefit from it, but it doesn’t cost us a penny.”
The tourist tax is collected and distributed by the Clerk of Court and assists in bolstering destination marketing, local sports facilities, and maintenance of the county’s 50 miles of beach and shoreline. The tax also impacts the funding of local non-profit organizations at more than 40 local attractions.
Officials said during fiscal year 2020 in what was the peak of the pandemic, $39.6 million was collected in bed tax revenue, resembling the total from fiscal year 2015. The county’s fiscal year runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.
“We’re hopeful that as we continue to recover from the pandemic, our tourism tax collections will continue to grow,” Doggett said. “During October 2021, we collected $2.4 million, a 29% increase from October 2020 and a 65% increase from October 2019, which only brought in $1.46 million.”
When it comes to the Cape, city spokesperson Melissa Mickey said, “Cape Coral is benefitting tremendously from the tourism boost our area has seen, and we hope our tourism tax collections continue to increase. The uptick in tourism positively effects our economy by providing an improved tax revenue, increased standards of living and more employment opportunities.”
Record numbers at RSW
The Lee County Port Authority on Monday announced a record-breaking 769,524 passengers traveled through Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW) in Fort Myers. This represents an increase of 84% compared to October of 2020, and 20% more than the passenger traffic in October of 2019. Year-to-date, passenger traffic is up 71% compared to last year, and October marks the sixth consecutive month that RSW has reported record-breaking passenger traffic.
The traffic leader in October was Southwest with 173,552 total passengers. Rounding out the top five airlines were Delta (157,161), American (122,882), United (102,435) and JetBlue (66,809).
Officials said Southwest Florida International Airport had 7,092 aircraft operations, an increase of 32% compared to October 2020. Page Field saw 13,684 operations, a 10% increase compared to October 2020.
Sunshine State visitation through the roof
On Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that Florida’s visitation from July to September of 2021 exceeded 2019’s visitation over the same period for the first time since 2020. DeSantis made this announcement based on VISIT FLORIDA’s estimates that show Florida welcomed a total of 32.5 million travelers in the third quarter of 2021. The announcement also marks the second consecutive quarter of growth in domestic visitation, with 31.2 million domestic travelers to Florida in quarter three, reflecting an increase of nearly 7% from 2019. In addition, approximately 1.2 million visitors traveled to Florida from overseas, and 85,000 from Canada between July and September of 2021, representing a 597% increase from 2020, and a 16.1% increase from quarter two of 2021.
“In 2020, the experts thought Florida’s economy would be among the most impacted in the nation because of how important tourism is to our state; instead, we are setting the pace for job creation and visitation in the U.S.,” DeSantis said. “We have been able to set these records because in Florida we kept businesses open and made sure Floridians could keep working. In just fifteen months, Florida’s visitation numbers have surpassed past pre-pandemic levels, helping drive revenue, job growth, and economic activity to all 67 counties in our state.”
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