Tourism's turn
Red Tide put a crimp in Pinellas County's numbers for August, mainly as a result of nearby residents deciding not to visit.
By STEVE HUETTEL
Published October 13, 2005
CLEARWATER - Red Tide took a bite out of tourism in Pinellas County again in August.
The number of visitors for the month dropped 1.7 percent compared with August 2004 and those who stayed in hotels and other accommodations declined 3.8 percent, according to a report released Wednesday by the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.
The biggest hit came from Florida residents who canceled or cut short trips to the beaches because of the toxic algae. About 8,000 fewer Floridians visited the county in August than during the same month last year, a decline of more than 11 percent.
"We kind of expected it because of the lingering effects of Red Tide," said Carole Ketterhagen, director of the tourism agency. "It was primarily the Florida drive market, people who planned a getaway weekend and didn't feel comfortable with it."
In August, more than 200 customers living in Central Florida canceled reservations at the TradeWinds Island Resorts in St. Pete Beach, said marketing director Lynda Waters.
Noxious effects of Red Tide - eye and throat irritation and the stench of dead fish - hit the resorts only sporadically during the month, she said. But news reports of problems at hotels just to the north kept some locals away.
"There were significant cancellations from Tampa, Lakeland and St. Petersburg . . . places where we rely on for a huge percentage of our guests," Waters said.
The estimated number of hotel and motel room nights was down 5.4 percent, and revenues from the county's lodging tax fell 2.5 percent to $1.2-million.
Other vacation hot spots around the Sunshine State reported declines for the month in hotel "bed taxes," typically a sign of lagging tourism.
In Orange County, home to Orlando and the state's top destination, revenues fell 4.2 percent. But tourism officials said the numbers were skewed because so many evacuees and relief workers from Hurricane Charley jammed the county's hotels in August 2004.
"The resort tax numbers appear lower but in fact are on par," said Danielle Courtenay, a spokeswoman for the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Also reporting tax collection decreases were Daytona Beach (11.9 percent) and Panama City Beach (6.8 percent). Hillsborough County's 1.3 percent gain in August was the smallest monthly increase during a year when collections jumped 30 percent to a record of nearly $20-million.
Hillsborough's numbers also are misleading because of a lodging boom in August 2004 caused by the hurricanes, said Karen Brand, spokeswoman for the Tampa Bay Convention & Visitors Bureau.
August marked the second month in a row of declining tourist visits to Pinellas. The number of visitors dropped 0.7 percent in July, the first year-to-year monthly decline since September 2004, when Florida was in the middle of a series of hurricanes.
But a strong winter and spring season for Pinellas more than offset the soft summer market. This year, nearly 4-million visitors came to the county, an increase of 3.7 percent over the same period last year.
July and August were "an anomaly," said Ketterhagen. "We've never had as severe a Red Tide as we did in July. If you look where we've gone, this has just been a phenomenal year."
Steve Huettel can be reached at huettel@sptimes.com or 813 226-3384.