Collier County sees more tourists in February

The tourism picture in Collier County brightened a bit in February.

The county saw 194,700 visitors staying in hotels and other vacation rentals last month — an increase of 0.7 percent over the year, according to a report by Tampa-based Research Data Services.

Tourism spending also rose 2.5 percent to more than $255.9 million, up 2.5 percent from a year ago.

Other year-over-year statistics aren't as positive:

» The county once again saw declines in occupancy (-1.3 percent), average daily rate (-0.7 percent) and revenue per available room (-2 percent).

» Tourism from five of the county's key feeder markets slowed.

In the United States, the county saw fewer visitors from the Northeast (down 1.4 percent), the Midwest (down 1.8 percent) and the West (down 1.6 percent).

Jack Wert, Collier County's tourism director, blames the slowdown on a milder winter up North (until recent weeks, anyway).

"February was still off a little. It was a little better than we thought. It's still primarily warm weather up North that is causing fewer people to come down," he said.

Last month visitation from Europe also declined 2 percent over the year — and by 8.2 percent from Canada, a trend blamed on the weakness of its dollar.

"Canadian visitation isn't really big in the short-term numbers; it is really big in our seasonal residents," Wert said. "So we don't count those people in our counts."

As for Europe, Wert said his office continues to monitor the value of the euro. While European tour operators indicated a slowdown in bookings for travel to the Naples area in January at the ITB tourism trade fair in Berlin a few weeks ago, they reported business picked up in February, a positive sign for the summer, he said.

"It looks like their summer visitation ought to be OK," Wert said. "More of them come May through October."

Increases in visitation from other parts of Florida and from the Southeast helped make up for declines seen from other areas in February.

The number of visitors coming from within the state rose the most — increasing 8.6 percent over the year to more than 43,000.

Internationally, visitation fell by 1.6 percent last month. However, it increased from new markets, including Latin America. Although Latin America is a small market, the number of visitors from there rose nearly 50 percent year-over-year to nearly 1,650.

The monthly report was included in the agenda packet for Monday's Tourist Development Council meeting, but not discussed. Other presentations took priority, including a conversation about the possibility of hiking the county's 4-cent tourist tax by a penny to help pay off the debt for a new sports complex that could cost $60 million to $80 million and help grow sports tourism in the county.

After several council members expressed concern about using the tourist tax to fund such an expensive sports complex, the advisory board decided to hold a workshop on the idea and a possible reallocation of tourist tax dollars, which are collected on overnight hotel stays and other vacation rentals.

A date for the special workshop has not been set, but it's expected to be held in the next few weeks before the Tourist Development Council meets again in April.

"It will be a busy work session, that's for sure," Wert said.

The county also saw fewer visitors in January — and those tourists spent less than they did a year ago.

Visitation has been on the decline due to many factors, including a shortage of rooms and meeting space on Marco Island related to the conversion of Marco Island Marriott Beach Resort into a JW Marriott.

In 2016 the county saw its visitor numbers fall in almost every month year-over-year. Despite the falloff, tourist spending has generally been on the rise.

Year-to-date through February, visitation is down 0.4 percent and the number of room nights booked has fallen 3.9 percent over the same months last year. However, spending is still up slightly, by 0.5 percent.

A separate study by hotel research firm STR, headquartered in Henderson, Tennessee, showed occupancy for the transient, or vacation, market rose 5.4 percent in the first two months of this year, while group business dropped by 7.5 percent over the year.

About 90,000 square feet of meeting space is still out of commission due to the JW Marriott conversion, Wert said.

"We don't have that group meeting capacity, but the leisure travel is still growing, and that's good because that is what we market," he said. "It is the group business that is off, and that is what is dragging down the number of visitors and occupancy."

Looking ahead, there's more optimism among the county's lodging managers. In a survey, nearly 3 out of 4 , or more than 74 percent, said reservations are either up or the same as they were a year ago for March, April and May. A year ago, 40 percent said bookings were down for those same months.

The bad weather up North in recent weeks could be good for Collier County, leading to a strong finish to season in April.

"The big snowstorms and the snow and ice up North will help us as we move along here," Wert said. "I think we will see some of those folks want to get away."

By the Numbers

Here's a look at Collier County's top domestic markets in February 2017 by percentage of visitation:

Market                                      Market share

1. New York                               12 percent

2. Chicago                                   8.9 percent 

3. Miami - Fort Lauderdale          8.1 percent 

4. Boston                                     5.4 percent

5. Hartford-New Haven                4.9 percent

6. Minneapolis-St. Paul               4.6 percent

7. Philadelphia                            3.6 percent

8. Detroit                                     3.3 percent

9. Cleveland                               3.2 percent 

10. Baltimore                              3 percent

Source: Research Data Services Inc.