2.49 million passengers flew in and out of St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport in 2023
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The Tampa Bay area is expecting a lot of visitors this weekend with plans to attend Gasparilla and WWE’s Royal Rumble. Visitors are nothing new, and more and more people are coming to the area, setting records.
According to St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport, 2.49 million passengers flew in and out of PIE in 2023, which was the most in the airport’s history.
"This was a huge achievement," Thomas Jewsbury, St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport’s executive director, said. "We’re going to continue to see growth in the community, our travelers and passengers."
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Jewsbury said he thinks people like the convenience of PIE. All the flights in and out of the airport are nonstop.
Passengers also broke records six months out of the year, with July as the biggest month in PIE’s history with close to 280,000 people passed through.
"We've continued to see year-over-year growth, and as we prepare for future growth, we're embarking on an over $100 million terminal expansion project that will go under design later this year, and again, providing us the ability to go ahead and continue to accommodate the growth in this community that we're seeing," Jewsbury said.
They celebrated Tuesday, unveiling a new sand sculpture and offering passengers slices of pie and prizes from Visit St. Pete-Clearwater.
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"When we were approached to do this project, I was ecstatic," Dean Arscott, the artist behind the sculpture, said. "It's very close to my house. I travel a lot for work, so it was very nice to do a local project, and I love St. Pete," he said.
"This is just a testament to the destination and its success," Visit St. Pete-Clearwater CEO Brian Lowack said about PIE’s record.
Pinellas County also had a banner year for tourism overall. The county welcomed a record number of visitors in 2023, according to Lowack.
"That equated to 15.8 million visitors to the county, which also equated to a $98 million bed tax collection," Lowack said.
Lowack said tourism contributes to one in 10 jobs, and more than $11 billion in economic impact annually.
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"This is the lifeblood of our economy," Lowack said. "Those dollars flow directly back into our economy to pay for things like beach nourishment, the expansion of attractions to make our destination have even more broad appeal to visitors and locals alike."
Some of the money was used for an emergency beach erosion control project in 2023 after Hurricane Idalia destroyed dunes up and down the county’s coast.
Jewsbury credited Allegiant Air for a lot of PIE’s growth, and said it offers the most nonstop destinations in the area. The airport is the second-largest destination for Allegiant when it comes to passengers out of the 124 cities it serves.