Pinellas tourist development tax reaches record for January while bouncing back from hurricanes

Name: Record tourism revenue after hurricanes
Uploaded: 2025-03-20T21:47:22-04:00
Description: Officials with Visit St. Pete-Clearwater say January’s tourism development tax revenue set a record for the month, totaling $8.29 million, just months after devastating hurricanes. FOX 13’s Kailey Tracy reports.

Record tourism revenue after hurricanes

Officials with Visit St. Pete-Clearwater say January’s tourism development tax revenue set a record for the month, totaling $8.29 million, just months after devastating hurricanes. FOX 13’s Kailey Tracy reports.

LARGO, Fla. - Pinellas County is bouncing back in a massive way from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, surprising even some local leaders.

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According to Visit St. Pete-Clearwater, January’s tourist development tax, also called the hotel bed tax, money for projects like beach renourishment, was $8.29 million. That’s a record for the month.

READ: One of Treasure Island’s major parking lots remains closed as spring break season gets underway

"Demand has held strong since the storm incidents this past fall," Eddie Kirsch, the director of digital and data for Visit St. Pete-Clearwater, said as he presented January’s numbers to Pinellas County’s Tourist Development Council on Wednesday.

"For the third year in a row, the tourism development tax surpassed $8 million in January," he said.

This January’s tourism development tax beat the previous record in 2023 by about $4,000.

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"It’s amazing to me that our January collections in 2025 were better after two hurricanes not too long ago," Pinellas County Commissioner Brian Scott, the Chair of the Council, said. "That’s amazing to me and is great news."

By the numbers:

It follows a record December for the TDT too. While it did grow overall, St. Petersburg and Clearwater carried most of the weight in January. St. Pete’s TDT grew by nearly 34% compared to last January, totaling about $1.5 million. Clearwater, including its beach, grew by 16%, with more than $2 million. Events like the St. Petersburg Power and Sailboat Show in downtown helped add to those numbers.

St. Pete Beach, Treasure Island and Madeira Beach’s TDT fell by almost 35% this January compared to last.

While hotel demand was up almost 17% compared to last January, outpacing Hillsborough and Sarasota, Kirsch said, council members pointed out other factors could be contributing to that too.

MORE: Pinellas hospitality industry welcoming Spring Break visitors after devastating hurricanes

"Another thing that I think has helped the hotels out quite a bit are the vacation rentals. There are a lot of those that are closed down and hotels are more available than them," Phil M. Henderson, Jr., the president/CEO of StarLite Cruises, said.

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Kirsch said more groups visited in January, and there were more daytrips than in the past. He said they’re also hoping to reopen about 1,400 hotel rooms by the spring and summer.

They hope to keep the momentum going through spring break and the rest of the year.

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"With a later Easter, there’s a longer spring travel period that, hopefully, we’re able to take advantage of, and we’re paying close attention to the hotels and projects that are reopening to make sure that as those start to reopen, we’re focused on driving demand and getting those back open," Kirsch said.

They’re also looking into how locals staying in hotels with FEMA’s Transitional Sheltering Assistance program may have factored into the data. Kirsch also credits Visit St. Pete-Clearwater’s marketing, though, to the record numbers. More than double the visitors this January said they saw some sort of promotional advertising for the area before their trip.

The Source: The information in this story was gathered using Visit St. Pete-Clearwater data.

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