The devastating impacts of Hurricane Ian still linger throughout Southwest Florida’s communities, continuing to affect the number of visitors who come here and boost the local economy.

As this past week was recognized nationally as Travel and Tourism Week, Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau Executive Director Tamara Pigott presented the most up-to-date information on this past season at the Tourist Development Council meeting Thursday morning.

The numbers, as expected post-Ian, weren’t good.

Bed Tax collections for the month of March came in at $5,728,042, down 47.8% from 2022. In terms of Bed Tax for this fiscal year to date, $22,199,122 has been collected, down 44.2% compared to last fiscal year.

Tourist Development Tax Collection from fiscal year 22-23 is down significantly from FY 21-22. For March of FY 22-23, $438,993 was collected compared to FY 21-22, when $11,351,628 was collected. From October of FY 22-23 to current date, Tourist Development Tax Collection are down from FY 21-22.

When it comes to hotel numbers, occupancy in March was 80.2%, down 6% from 2022. The average daily rate was $246.51, down 15.4% from 2022, with revenue per available room at $197.69, down 20.5% from the same time last year.

“Of course, all of the metrics you’re going to see are down,” Pigott said. “No surprise.”

For vacation rentals, occupancy is down 50.5% from last year, as is the average daily rate.

With RSW celebrating its 40th year, Pigott said in March, 1,166,442 passengers came through the airport, down 23% from 2022. For the calendar year to date, 3,066,754 passengers have come through RSW, down 17.3% from the same time last year.

President/Partner at Downs & St. Germain Research, Joseph St. Germain, presented the January-March 2023 quarterly report looking at visitor tracking, occupancy, and economic impact. He said while in some regards January through March was still “busy,” the data shows numbers decreasing across the board and with different kinds of visitors.

“(This time of year is) largely filled with a lot of leisure visitors, people coming for vacation,” St. Germain said. “One of the things we noticed this time is there’s just more purposeful visiting, meaning coming to see mom and dad, or a sporting event like Spring Training, or for a meeting or what have you, and less of that general leisure.”

Visitor and lodging statistics show a 34.6% drop off in visitors from January through March of 2023 compared to 2022, totaling 736,300. Visitor days were down 28.6%, room nights down 30.6%, and direct expenditures down 31.4%.

The total economic impact in dollars of those months from 2022 to 2023 is down 31.1% — with $1,548,508,200 being collected in 2023 down from $2,247,346,400 in 2022.

“It’s never fun to see the negative,” St. Germain said, adding the year-to-year visitors coming to stay in their second home or with a relative didn’t move much from ’22 to ’23. “There were a lot less people staying in hotels, motels — paid accommodations. Because those units weren’t available or things of that nature.

“If you visit your mom and dad every February, most of them still came back this February, most of them just stayed with mom and dad as opposed to a hotel/motel/resort.”

St. Germain said a reason the drop-off numbers from 2022 to 2023 are so drastic in really credited to how good 2022 was for Southwest Florida.

“These numbers look down because you’re not only having a hurricane to deal with, but coming off such a great year,” he said.

When it comes to tourist destinations inland versus coastal, St. Germain said inland hotels and resorts are nearly back to full operation.

“Inland is very close to back to what it was in terms of availability in units,” St. Germain said. “Occupancy was down a little bit, but rates were up and things of that nature. As you recover, inland is close to what it used to be. As you look at (coastal) especially the available units, that’s where we see our biggest decreases.”

From October to December of FY2023, available room nights for coastal spots are down 69.1%, and down 57.1% when looking at January through March.

“There are very few units open on Sanibel, Fort Myers Beach,” Pigott said. “Very, very few.”

When it comes to inland, available room nights are down just 4% from January through March compared to last fiscal year. Overall, 69.1% of hotel/motels/resorts/rentals are operating throughout the county as of March.

“We’ve been at (69%) for a while, and I think that’s where we’re going to be,” Pigott said. “Most of what we’re talking about is major renovation or rebuild going forward.

“The supply chain issues around electrical equipment, there’s a huge delay. Even when you’re ready to go, you’re hampered by some of these parts and equipment you need to make your property work.”

St. Germain presented a statistic that showed 58% of visitors considered choosing other destinations when planning their trip, an increase of 38% from January to March of 2022.

“This year, three out of five of your visitors considered other destinations before ultimately picking here,” he said. “That’s the highest number that we’ve seen. It basically means your messaging, your marketing, things of that nature, you have to fight harder to get your current visitors given what you have.”

As for those who chose Lee County, 33% came to relax and unwind, while 28% came to visit friends and relatives, and 16% to see sporting events.

In terms of where people are coming from the most, 37.4% traveled from the Midwest, 20.6% from the Southeast, and 19.3% from the Northeast.

“Post-hurricane, international hasn’t gotten back to pre-pandemic levels,” St. Germain said. “We were starting to get back and then it kind of faded a little bit with the hurricane.”

Visitors spent an average of 8.3 nights, and 25% were first-time visitors.

“We are not backing off the international market,” Pigott said. “We know the value of it. We have a lot of special things planned and having a press conference showing our recovery to this point.”

Sanibel and Captiva

Summer is typically the slower part of the year for the islands, but officials are anticipating a season like none experienced before for 2023 as the ongoing recovery and rebuilding efforts due to Hurricane Ian will be a long-term journey for the community.

“We are expecting it to look very different than what we’ve probably ever seen before,” SanCapChamber President and Chief Executive Officer John Lai said.

He explained that there is a “tremendous” shortage of lodging units available. Before the storm, there were about 2,600 units across Sanibel-Captiva. As of early May, about 200 units were operational.

“We don’t expect that number to change significantly in the next few months,” Lai said, adding that officials do believe the current inventory might double though by the end of the summer season.

He noted that 95% of the islands’ economy is tourism-driven.

“When that is the case, lodging is key,” Lai said.

“Ian is certainly going to have a devastating effect on our 2023 year, both in the winter season and our summer season,” he added.

However, officials are optimist about the future because of the progress made so far.

“All of our beach facilities, with the exception of Lighthouse Park, are open,” Lai said, noting that beach shorelines along both Sanibel and Captiva look great, plus the water quality is excellent.

“We’ve seen about 76 businesses reopen,” he added of the islands, explaining that they are doing really well, especially the businesses in the beach rental industry, like golf carts and beach items.

Lai pointed out the reopening of the J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge.

“Which is a huge draw for us,” he said.

Among the reopened businesses are restaurants on both islands. Lai explained that the chamber is collaborating with them to ensure that they are being promoted at every available opportunity. Also, the chamber is working on keeping day-trippers up to date and aware of what is open and what is not.

Next week, the chamber will reopen its Francis P. Bailey Jr. Visitor Center.

“Which is key,” he said. “Because we can direct people to the right places.”

Because of the reduced lodging for the summer, the chamber is focusing on drawing inland properties and surrounding counties to come, visit the beach, have lunch or go shopping, and then head home.

“We’re in a different state right now,” Lai said. “We’re trying our hand at attracting the day-trippers.”

As for the fall-winter “season,” normally the busiest time of the year, the news was not all bad.

“There’s reason to be optimistic,” he said, citing traffic count figures. “A lot of that has to do with the people helping to rebuild our islands. They did give a nice bump to the restaurants that reopened.”

“What we are hearing is they had very strong February and March numbers,” Lai added.

Statewide, a busy summer season projected

As Southwest Florida continues to rebuild, forecasters are predicting a busy Sunshine State after a down “season” following Hurricane Ian.

According to statistics from a new AAA – The Auto Club Group, 83% of Floridians plan to travel this year, with more than half taking a summer vacation. The most popular vacations being planned are: beach destinations (40%), theme parks (37%), city/major metro (27%), resort vacation (25%), and national/state park (22%).

“Travel demand has come roaring back this summer and we’re already seeing large crowds at popular domestic and international travel destinations,” stated Vice President of Travel for AAA, Debbie Haas. “The recent decision to lift all international travel restrictions will only add to demand.”