By Panama City Beach Mayor Mark Sheldon
Panama City Beach is currently experiencing its biggest tourist year on record. We have had more visitors on the sandy beach in 2021 than we have ever had before. Ever.
The numbers started growing in March, with a large influx of visitors during the spring break timeframe and have continued strong throughout the spring and into the summer months with large crowds for both Memorial Day and July Fourth weekends.
Our visitor numbers are in direct correlation with the growth of travelers seen coming through the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport. The airport serving our area is also breaking travel records. Total passenger volume for May is up 40 percent over two years ago (2019) and up more than 400 percent over last year. Hotels, condos and short-term rentals are seeing full occupancy as well and rates have increased due to increased demand and low availability.
We know that a lot of this has to do with the COVID-19 pandemic. Florida remained open when many parts of the country were shut down. People who were already familiar with our area came down as usual, but many, many others “discovered” the World’s Most Beautiful Beach for the first time.
Aside from the desire to just get away, as COVID-19 rates have fallen and people remain anxious to travel, many are coming to the beach for our various special events and sports tournaments. Since March, we’ve had over 1,362 total teams travel here from across the country for various youth and adult sports tournaments including softball, baseball, soccer and more.
Other special events, including car and Jeep shows, motorcycle rallies, triathlons, a wine event and various festivals and concerts continue to bring thousands of people to Panama City Beach. Some of them are first-time visitors.
Visitors and locals are using City facilities like never before. Year-to-date revenue for swimming lessons at the Aquatic Center at Frank Brown Park is up 250 percent over all of fiscal year 2020, to right at $100,000. Admission to the Russell-Fields City Pier to date is up 23 percent over all of last year, to approximately $1.1 million.
The City’s one-cent business tax receipts collected on all goods sold in the City, is another indicator of how busy we are this year. Collections through June are up 43 percent for the year to $10.18 million year to date. While City sales tax revenues were down in Fiscal Year 2019-20 due to COVID, prior to this year, 2018-19 was a record year. We are currently $1.4 million in collections above 18-19 year to date.
In coming, visitors do find our people to be hospitable and our City to be family friendly. They enjoy the overnight accommodations, the special events, the shopping, dining and family attractions. And at the end of the day, they revel in our breathtaking sunsets over the World’s Most Beautiful Beaches.
We welcome them and appreciate that they chose Panama City Beach as their vacation destination.
