With summer in full swing, and the last lingering snowbirds safely returned to their northern climes, it’s time for our annual overview of the tourist season’s numbers and trends, and what they indicate for the community. And in 2023-24, the overall takeaway is positive.
As David Dorsey chronicles in “Recovery Mode” on page 42, this was in most respects a bounce-back season for Southwest Florida. From raw numbers—Tourist Development Tax numbers showed substantial year-over-year gains in Charlotte, Collier and Lee counties, passenger numbers are up at Punta Gorda Airport and especially Southwest Florida International—to visitors’ testimonials and overall vibes, the area had and has much to celebrate.
Charlotte County brought in $1.3 million in tourist tax revenue in March 2024, which was 20% more than last year and a Charlotte County record for most in any month—thanks in large part to Port Charlotte’s newly opened Sunseeker Resort and its restaurants, shops, pools and other amenities. Margaritaville Resort has been a similar boost for Fort Myers Beach and Lee County. And with future draws including Shalimar Beach Resort on Sanibel under construction, as Sean Doherty, tourism director of Punta Gorda and Englewood Beach VCB, put it: “We’re definitely heading in the right direction.”
The news isn’t good for every industry, however. High numbers of tourists in town doesn’t mean good business for watersports and other outdoor activities if the weather is too cool and gray and damp to make time on the beach seem appealing, as was too often the case earlier this year.
And turning from tourism to a more homegrown endeavor, the best weather in the world wouldn’t be much immediate help to an industry reeling from repeated hurricane devastation, a bacterial pestilence that so far can’t be cured and the loss of land when a beleaguered owner sells to developers. Oranges remain symbolic of Florida in many of our minds, but fewer of them are being grown here all the time, and these are grim days for the state’s citrus industry.
In “Out of Juice” on page 32, Artis Henderson talks with local experts about the state of the orange business and the numerous difficulties facing modern farmers. Even as we prepared to send this issue to press, the Gulf Citrus Growers Association ceased operation on the cusp of its 40th anniversary.
This isn’t necessarily the end of an era—the closure of the association doesn’t prevent farming, and the industry has seen tough times before and bounced back—but citrus production has declined by 60% in the last four years, and demand for land is hardly lessening.
Nevertheless, hope remains, according to Fritz Roka, director of Florida Gulf Coast University’s Center of Agribusiness: “We’ve got a lot of sharp people in the industry working with equally sharp and dedicated researchers. Until the last tree gets pulled out, there’s always hope.”
