Pinellas County and Clearwater’s main economic engine is firing on all cylinders these days.
Tourism-generated bed tax revenues hit an annual record in 2023 and a monthly record in March 2024. Large events are drawing record crowds. Those are a few significant takeaways from the industry update that Visit St. Pete-Clearwater leaders delivered during AMPLIFY Clearwater’s mid-May State of the Community event at Ruth Eckerd Hall.
By the numbers
The tourist development, or bed, tax is a six percent charge on hotel and motel rooms, RV park stays and short-term rentals. It generated a record $98 million in 2023, says Visit St. Pete-Clearwater President and CEO Brian Lowack. Pinellas County had nearly 16 million visitors. Accommodation revenue from room stays hit $1.6 billion. The total economic impact of the tourism industry in 2023 was almost $11 billion.
“That’s why we do what we do,” Lowack says. “That’s why we drive visitation to the market, for economic impact.”
Lowack has been with Pinellas County government since 2012, serving in roles like intergovernmental liaison, interim director of the Housing and Community Development Department, and assistant to the county administrator. He was appointed head of the county’s tourism agency in October 2023, after filling the role on an interim basis for several months.
His tenure with the county provides insight into tourism trends in Pinellas.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism in Pinellas was “on an upward trajectory that we’ve never seen,” Lowack says. When he joined Pinellas County government in 2012, annual bed tax revenue was approximately $30 million. It reached $62.7 million in 2019.
“The trajectory was going up, then the floor dropped out in the travel space,” Lowack says.
But Florida was one of the first states to ease and eliminate travel restrictions and lockdowns. While COVID cases surged, the tourism industry rebounded and picked up steam.
“We were the only show in town,” Lowack says.
But in the fall and winter months of 2023, bed tax revenue leveled off and even decreased, compared to 2022. That was a troubling trend, Lowack says. Then came March 2024 and a record monthly bed tax revenue of $14.6 million. Six months into this fiscal year, total revenues exceed last year’s record pace.
Building on success
Lowack says large events like the Valspar Championship PGA tournament, January’s WWE Royal Rumble at Tropicana Field, the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and the ReliaQuest Bowl, which is played in Tampa but draws thousands of fans to Clearwater Beach, are seeing record attendance.
Visit St. Pete-Clearwater wants to build on that success.
“Those are the kinds of events that people are turning out to in droves and we want to continue to attract more,” Lowack says.
To that end, the latest round of the agency’s event funding program, which offers $15,000 to $150,000 on a competitive basis to events that boost tourism, has prioritized those large, “elite events” that generate an estimated 3,000 room nights or more.
Lowack says the agency is also funding tourism-related capital projects through a competitive application process for the first time in six years. Those applications were received in May and are currently under review. They go to the county’s Tourist Development Council for a recommendation in September and the Pinellas County Commission for a final decision in October.
Meanwhile, Visit St. Pete-Clearwater has an active public outreach campaign to persuade Pinellas residents to “embrace tourism” and its benefits. “From Visitors, With Love” highlights the positive economic impacts of tourism as the largest economic driver in Pinellas County and the state.
The sales tax revenue generated by tourism is the leading reason there is no state income tax, Visit St. Pete-Clearwater Community Relations Manager Oliver Kugler points out. In addition to the local jobs, billions in economic impact and bed tax revenues, tourism also generates Penny for Pinellas sales tax revenue, he says.
“They pay it to stay here in Pinellas County, we get to use it for so many great infrastructure things,” Kugler says.
In light of the economic benefits, Kugler wants to change the terminology local residents use to describe out-of-town visitors.
“I want to eradicate the word tourist from our vocabulary,” he says. “I just feel it has a negative connotation. I’m old school, I get it. But that word tourist just doesn’t sound right. It just doesn’t have the right feeling. I would rather use the word visitor, guest and traveler because those are very welcoming words.”
In a room filled with AMPLIFY Clearwater staff and members and Clearwater city officials, Kugler’s audience may not have needed much convincing about the benefits of tourism. AMPLIFY Clearwater, the chamber of commerce organization for the greater Clearwater area, is in the middle of the second cohort of its tourism business innovation incubator. It’s the first dedicated tourism incubator in Florida and AMPLIFY Clearwater launched the program to lean into the area’s professional expertise and economic strengths.
Clearwater Mayor Bruce Rector, elected in March, says his experience working with a sports facilities company for the last 10 years has convinced him the city has untapped potential in a specific segment of the tourism industry.
“We have a lot of opportunity in Clearwater, throughout the county but definitely in Clearwater, to grow our presence in the youth and amateur sports tourism industry,” Rector says. “And if we can successfully do that, it gives us more diversity in our tourism portfolio to where we’re not as dependent as we are today on leisure tourism.”
Potential challenges ahead
In addition to success stories and goals, the State of the Community is a time to discuss challenges ahead. Those include the rising cost of living, high property insurance rates, transportation and a lack of affordable housing.
Lowack didn’t hesitate to pick a looming challenge that could damage the thriving tourism economy.
“We’ve got to take care of our beaches,” he says. “We’ve been battling the Army Corps (of Engineers) over funding for beach renourishment. You’re gonna hear a lot about that in the next year, year and a half.”
The Army Corps has historically paid for 60 percent of beach renourishment projects until a shift in the agency's policy interpretation several years back has left it at an impasse with local governments. The Army Corps' current position is that federal money cannot be used to renourish private property and additional "perpetual" public access easements for more areas of beachfront private property are needed for an agency renourishment project to move forward.
Pinellas County now faces the possibility of significantly increasing the amount of bed tax money spent on renourishment projects. Last year, $5 million in tourist development tax revenues went toward beach renourishment. The County Commission recently approved another $4.4 million for a renourishment project on Pass-a-Grille Beach. In May, the Tampa Bay Times reported that a long-term spending outlook prepared for the Tourist Development Council projects tourist development tax expenditures on beach renourishment to rise to $102 million in 2026 and 2032. There is also another massive potential project relying on that money. Pinellas County plans to use tourist development tax revenues for its $312.5 million contribution to a new Rays stadium.
For more information, go to AMPLIFY Clearwater and Visit St. Pete-Clearwater