The Greater Naples Chamber hosted a May 7 gathering to recognize the region’s hospitality industry during National Tourism Week, with about 100 guests from area restaurants, hotels and attractions celebrating against a backdrop of lower tourism numbers and challenges for the industry from the Florida Legislature.

Co-hosts for the event at The Cove at Paradise Sports Complex in East Naples were Naples Marco Island Everglades Convention and Visitors Bureau, Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association and Skal International.

While the mood was festive, the mid-April report by the CVB to the Collier County Tourist Development Council, representing the latest numbers available from February, showed that tourism had experienced the first year-over-year drop of the season. Tariff, economic and border concerns prompted a 23% decrease in Canadian visitors, usually a top market.

According to the CVB, typically more than 2 million visitors a year bring an economic impact of $3 billion to Collier County. The hospitality industry in the county employs more than 30,000 people, with almost 80,000 throughout Southwest Florida.

Softness in the tourism market

Kristina Park, president and CEO of the Greater Naples Chamber, said she thinks lingering perceptions of hurricane damage from recent storms, a geopolitical layer and fears of a potential recession are affecting traveler confidence.

“From a chamber perspective, we’re all focused on business resiliency, helping our community in the short term understand how to bridge any gaps that may exist so that they can be successful year-round,” Park said. “More long term, as an entity, we’re looking at how we fill ‘shoulder seasons’ that are down in tourism because it’s not our ‘season’ and try to bring business to our market in those to create better year-round impact.

“Super-seasonal markets can come with a lot of challenges, even when it comes to the employee base and their abilities to be homeowners and stay in a market.”

Chris Lopez, regional director for Southwest Florida for the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, a nonprofit hospitality industry trade association, said hotels and restaurants are seeing a softness in the market.

“Specifically to our destinations in Collier County and Lee County, as well as a softness in the amount of expenditures visitors are putting out,” he said. “They may be coming down for shorter stays in our hotels. They may be deferring to simpler meals or home-bought meals as opposed to restaurants for sit-down meals in our markets.”

Lopez said the FRLA started seeing that trend in August 2024 and noted that group travel, such as industry groups or corporate groups were not booked out as far in advance as they would have liked to have seen for season.

“We continue to see that same trend: Travel is still happening, bookings are still happening,” Lopez said. “It’s just not as full, not as condensed as we’ve seen in previous years.”

Challenges to tourism in Florida Legislature

While the hospitality industry in SWFL is already dealing with lower tourism numbers, during the regular session of the Florida Legislature, the House passed Bill 7033 that would eliminate the 62 Tourist Development Councils across the state and limit the way some counties can spend their Tourist Development Tax — commonly called bed tax — revenue.

The TDT is a tax on all hotel, campground and vacation rentals for stays of six months or less. Under the proposed legislation, a county must spend at least 40% of all TDT revenue, but no more than $50 million annually, to promote or advertise tourism before using revenue for public facilities, including transportation.

In Charlotte, Collier and Lee counties the TDT rate is 5%, and neither of the three counties has reached $50 million in TDT revenues for the previous and current fiscal years.

The legislation was proposed as part of property tax relief efforts, but the regular session ended without a budget resolution. A special session of the Legislature starts May 12 and must end by June 6. Lopez said the FRLA is closely monitoring next steps.

Lopez said that potential dissolution of Tourism Development Councils and redirection of tourist development dollars to offset property taxes would wipe out local tourism promotion “simply by the fact that it is not an unlimited pot of money.”

“There are parts of House Bill 7033, which is called the tax package, that would be harmful to TDTs and TDCs across the state,” Lopez said. “We are cautiously optimistic that there is no appetite for matching legislation and matching tax applicable legislation in the Senate. Hopefully, that stays true through the special session to reach a balanced budget; we hope for right now that we have the appropriate support in the Senate and in the executive branch that current operations of TDTs and TDCs will not be affected.”

Park said the Naples Chamberalso is closely monitoring the legislation and keeping its members informed.

“We’re not going to take our foot off the gas, and we’re making sure that our membership is aware,” Park said. “We’re in constant contact with our legislators to make sure they understand on behalf of the business community: It is not just the tourism community that cares about this issue.

“Destination marketing is critically important. Hospitality is our No. 1 industry and doing what we need to do to support that is crucial to the quality of life for Floridians.”

The CVB will present the March tourism numbers to the Collier County TDC on May 20.