Tourism, airport set records
More snowbirds are coming and spending more money
BY JEFF CULL jcull@florida-weekly.com

If the amount of taxes collected on hotel rooms is any indication of a successful tourist season, this year's was a smash.

Bed tax receipts - the 5 percent surcharge on hotel rooms and short-term rentals - were up more than 20 percent in February and March than last year.

The Lee County Clerk of Courts collected $3.5 million in bed taxes in March, compared to $2.9 million in March 2006.

"We've had an overall very good tourist season," said Nancy Hamilton, communications director for the Lee County Visitor &

Convention Bureau.

That means more money to promote "The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel" and improve the top tourist attraction, the beaches and shoreline. It also shows that more people are making Lee County a tourist destination.

Hamilton said hoteliers added about 1,500 new rooms in the last year and that helped boost occupancy.

"(The tourist tax increase) is really a better comment on our inventory," she said.

Some businesses are also just getting back to form after Hurricane Charley devastated the region in 2004.

South Seas Island Resort on Captiva Island recently opened after completing $140 million in renovations. And many Sanibel and Captiva businesses are back in full swing after fixing up the storm damage.

Another indicator of the strength of this year's tourist season: More than 1 million passengers traveled through Southwest Florida International Airport during March - making it the busiest month ever in the airport's 23-year-history.

It was the eighth straight month of record-breaking traffic and only the second time that monthly traffic at the airport has surpassed the 1 million-passenger mark - March 2005 was the first.

"This was the busiest first quarter that Southwest Florida International Airport has ever had," said Robert Ball, executive director of the Lee County Port Authority. "March is always the busiest month for the airport, but this year was phenomenal with 1,081,425 passengers."

Bed Tax Information

The Tourist Development Council/Visitor & Convention Bureau is funded by a 5 percent tourist tax collected on accommodations rented for less than six months. The funding is allocated in the following manner:

>>53.6 percent - advertising and promotion (VCB Operations)

>>33.0 percent - provides funding for beach/ shoreline related improvements

>>13.4 percent - provides debt service payment on the Lee County Sports Complex and promotion of not-for-profit attractions

- Source: Lee County VCB