Siesta takes a breath after a busy summer season

Although Siesta Key’s winter season usually gets credit for being the hectic, sometimes harrowing part of the year, summer is catching up.

Businesses on the Key reported that their numbers were up this summer, having slowed down only as students and vacationing families returned to school.

Jonathan Poyner, Sarasota County Parks and Recreation beach event manager, said the success is evident — you can see it in the parking lot at Siesta Key Beach, where he works. He said the lots are busy during expected times, but also during formerly subdued periods, such as weekday afternoons.

It helps, he added, that recent stormwater projects like the one completed in 2013 have ameliorated “Lake Siesta,” the vast rainwater deposits that used to accumulate and stand on upland portions of the beach.

Siesta Key store Gidget’s Coastal Provisions reported a 15% increase in sales over last year’s (which was its first), according to owner Brian Wigglesworth, who said business had just slowed down in the last week.

“It was a perfect storm this summer.” — Russell Matthes, co-owner of Daiquiri Deck 

Rhonda Holliday, rental and property manager at Fisherman’s Cove vacation rentals, said her guest arrivals from May though August were up 28%. June and July were the strongest months during that period.

Alana Tomasso, of Midnight Cove Vacation Rentals, reported her revenues for June, July and August were up 14% over the same period last year.

The Sarasota County Tax Collector’s office only has bed tax numbers through June so far, but in May and June, it collected about $941,000 on Siesta Key alone. Collections countywide during those months are up approximately 10% year-over-year in 2015. 

Countywide from April through June, occupancy rates, average room rates and RevPAR — which measures the revenue hotels bring in per available room — all rose from April through June in 2015 compared with 2014.

The improvement is significant because the area posted record tourism numbers in 2014, and the increases come despite numerous rainy days this summer.

Virginia Haley, president of Visit Sarasota County, said a lot of summer business in Sarasota County comes from the Tampa area. Because many visitors during that time of year are relatively close, bad weather can affect summer visits to Sarasota.

Although the tourism numbers don’t show a drop, weather may be to blame for a 93% to 83% drop in “overall satisfaction” in survey results this summer, she said. 

Haley said that in spite of those results, the summer in Sarasota has been good, and that TripAdvisor’s designation of Siesta Key as part of its “2015 Travelers’ Choice” awards accounted for some success, though she emphasized efforts by Visit Sarasota and the local chambers of commerce.

Russell Matthes, co-owner of Daiquiri Deck, praised the Sarasota and Siesta Key chambers of commerce for their work bringing visitors to the area and said the TripAdvisor designation was a solid contributor — but he said the formula for summer success in a beach community is more complicated.

His business enjoyed a 5% increase over last year’s sales, and Matthes said factors such as Sarasota County growth, low gas prices, low unemployment, a strong market and a strong economy also contributed.

“It was a perfect storm this summer,” Matthes said.