TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online
Despite Economy, State Tourism Rises 3.4%
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Published: May 16, 2008
TALLAHASSEE - Rising gas prices and a slumping economy did not dissuade visitors from traveling to Florida during the first three months of 2008, when the state's tourism numbers rose 3.4 percent.
The same growth remains to be seen, however, in spending by tourists, which came in below state projections for two of the same three months.
Gov. Charlie Crist held a news conference on Thursday to announce that 23.8 million people visited the state in January, February and March. That number includes rising tourism among international visitors - a 2 percent overall increase in overseas travelers, and 6.6 percent increase in Canadian visitors. Additionally, Florida residents made 1.2 million more in-state trips over those taken during the same period last year. The rise in in-state travel, attributed largely to high gas prices keeping people closer to home, represents a 10.5 percent increase.
Crist lauded the state's online and television marketing efforts for boosting the tourism numbers and, presumably, spending by tourists.
"To have that many more people visiting the Sunshine State - they're spending money, they're going out to dinner, they're visiting our tourist attractions, and that has to have a positive impact," he said.
So far, however, state sales tax collections have not kept pace with the rise in tourism.
According to the state Office of Economic and Demographic Research, tourism-related sales tax collections were down 2.9 percent, or $10.9 million, below state projections for January, and down 2.4 percent, or $8.3 million, below projections for February.
The news was better in March, when tourism-related sales tax yielded 1.5 percent or $5.4 million more than expected, though overall sales tax collections were down $47 million from monthly projections. Results are not yet available for April.
Those collections would be down further had the state not invested in attracting more tourists, said Winter Park Rep. Dean Cannon, who oversees the House council on transportation and economic development. To that end, he defended the Legislature's decision this spring to spend about $2 million more of the state's general revenue on Visit Florida, the state's tourism marketing arm, despite a shortage of funds overall.
"Tourism dollars are sort of like the carbohydrates of the Florida economy," Cannon said, while the state's investments in high-tech business are the "proteins."
"I think that it was important to do whatever we can to secure short-term economic boost that can be derived from tourism and visitors to Florida, while we let some of the more slower-growing but higher-dollar projects that we've been planting to mature a little bit," he said.
Reporter Catherine Dolinski can be reached at (850) 222-8382 or cdolinski@tampatrib.com.
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