Tourism season stretches into Labor Day

Although Sarasota County is known for its beaches, this year’s tourists weren’t all here for the splash.

The tourism summer months have steadily recorded higher tax revenues and accommodation occupancy numbers since the recession, and this year only reinforced the trend.

This year’s summer season lasted longer than usual, with people still arriving and staying through Labor Day, said Virginia Haley, president of Visit Sarasota County. The big draw during the holiday was the Chargers’ Tampa Bay Labor Day Showcase soccer tournament, she said.

The tournament had a regional economic impact of $4.7 million, and it booked 5,630 rooms in Sarasota and Manatee counties, said Shelby Connett, with the Sarasota County Sports Commission.

“You saw how sports could really pick up what was traditionally, for us, a dead time,” Haley said.

August is a major month for international tourists, too, Haley said. This month is traditionally a period of vacation in Europe. The top two visiting nationalities in Sarasota have held steady since last year, with the most coming from the United Kingdom and the second from German-speaking countries. According to Visit Sarasota’s data, there were 73,930 international visitors from October 2013 through June.

Sarasota County’s average daily rate at its hotels and motels in July was $161, a record high for the off-season months of July through September since 2005.

“We’ve turned July into one of our busiest months,” said Haley.

Different events attracted crowds in July, too, such as the Super Boat Grand Prix and the U.S. Masters Swimming National Championships.

The hotel occupancy rate countywide was 77.5% in July; only February and March topped that rate so far in 2014. The county does not yet have numbers for August and September.

Haley said the organization focuses on bringing in tourists during the off-season months and that it altered last fiscal year’s budget to make funds available to target August and September, when tourism begins to taper.

The organization has also targeted cities with airports that offer direct flights to the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, such as Chicago and Atlanta. Over the winter, the organization wrapped the inside of a car on Chicago’s metro train, and this summer it bought ad spaces in the Atlanta airport.

The county’s total tourist development tax for October 2013 through July was $15.3 million. In 2012 for the same period, the revenue was $13.5 million.

Siesta Key is still the county breadwinner for tourist tax dollars, raking in 32.65% of the TDT for the county during that period, according to the Sarasota County Tax Collector’s data. Siesta topped the rest of Sarasota County locations in terms of TDT for six out of 10 months this year.

Ed McConnell, owner of Siesta Village Outfitters, said business this summer was busy. His Siesta Key Village shop rents water sports equipment.

McConnell said he stayed busy from about February to the beginning of August. But despite seeing a high volume of business over the summer months, McConnell said the later half of August and the month of September were slower for him than previous years.

“Once the kids go back to school, it slows down,” he said.

In contrast, Steve Cavanaugh, with Tropical Sands Accommodation, said he was surprised by this year’s increases.

His property-management business began in 2006 and has been growing — he now manages 265 vacation rentals on the Key.

Usually May and August are less busy for his properties, he said, but compared with 2013 he saw a 20% revenue increase this year during those months.

“The last three weeks in August are usually dead,” Cavanaugh said. “I’m quite impressed and happy about it.”

Cavanaugh’s best guesses for the increases are the generally lower rates in August and the gaining popularity of Siesta Key’s beaches since it was named No. 1 in 2011.

“Sarasota and Siesta Key have so much to offer,” Cavanaugh said.