Real Estate Tips and Trends
Pinellas County Tourism – 2013
According to D.T. Minich, executive director of Visit St. Pete/Clearwater, 2013 was a banner year. The best ever in the annals of Pinellas tourism.
An interesting metric in the Annual Report was the 96,000 Latin American visitors who came to Pinellas, a 30% leap in that segment. In mid-December Copa Airlines started flying 4-days/week between TIA and Panama City, Panama. It marked the Bay’s first direct flight to Latin America. “If Pinellas could attract 96,000 Latin American visitors without direct flights for most of the year,” said Minich, “imagine how many might visit in 2014 after a full year of flights.”
An increase in international visitors is important to our area because of the hotel rooms they book and the money they spend eating and shopping. According to Minich, one international visitor’s spending equates to three domestic visitors.
More good news lies in the steady increase in the number of visitors from the Northeast and Midwest. There were 1.3 million visitors from the Northeast, a rise of 23,375 and 1.6 million from the Midwest, a rise of 21,182.
This positive report is great news for St. Petersburg. Things can only get better with the opening of Sundial, our greatly anticipated downtown entertainment complex of restaurants, nightlife, and shopping.
