As Charlotte County officials struggle to restore beaches and structures damaged from recent hurricanes, a new tourism trend has emerged. While visitors continue to flock to Charlotte County, more have chosen to visit and stay in Punta Gorda due to hurricane damage in Englewood and Manasota Key, according to the Punta Gorda/Englewood Beach Visitor & Convention Bureau.
The destruction of vacation rentals and beaches is reflected in the VCB’s tracking report for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 — October through December.
The 5% Tourist Development Tax imposed on lodging shows January’s revenue of $1,068,448 was nearly $29,000 less than in January 2024.
“While we are still up 4.3% year-to-date through January, we were down in January and could possibly see decreases in February and March compared to last year,” said Tourism Director Sean Doherty.
“We feel those decreases would most likely be due to the aftermath of the storms leaving a reduced inventory of lodging rentals, particularly on the beachside, which are typically popular during our season, as well as the fact our public beach parking lot, facilities and access points have been closed.
“Having said that, my understanding is that [Sunseeker Resort Charlotte Harbor’s] occupancy has improved as we’ve moved into 2025, so we’re hopeful that can help offset the potential losses in West County at least from a TDT standpoint.”
Sunseeker has a total of 785 guest rooms, including 189 signature Sunsuites.
Lower TDT revenue was discussed at the Board of County Commissioners meeting March 11, when Commissioner Chris Constance cited the VCB report and said that although the tourist tax is “basically staying flat, it’s at a super-high level.”
Doherty said there continues to be progress beachside and on the barrier islands. Manasota Key Resort reopened last month, and other rentals, such as Palm Island Resort and various vacation homes, have continued to gradually come back online.
The VCB’s quarterly and annual research reports show the county had an uptick in overall visitation coming through Punta Gorda Airport. In the first quarter of fiscal year 2024, the county saw 32% of visitors flew into PGD versus 23% in the first quarter of 2023.
“We only had 47% arrive by car versus 51% in fiscal year 2023’s first quarter,” Doherty said.
“It’ll be interesting to see our research results for the second quarter, which ends at the end of this month.”
The unknown factor is whether Charlotte County will continue to attract its high number of Canadian visitors. According to VCB data, 6% of all visitors are from outside the U.S., and of those, 3% came from Canada in the first fiscal year quarters of 2023 and 2024.
During what officials call trade wars, tariffs are not the only thing affecting Canadians. Now, they must register with border officials.
In addition, the Canadian dollar, as of March 14, equals 70 cents of the U.S. dollar — an exchange rate that could be a deterrent for some visitors.
Doherty said VCB staff attended a Visit Florida conference at the beginning of February, where an international update was given that included information on the Canadian market.
“Granted, the latest data was gathered in September 2024 prior to any tariff talk, so we’ll have to wait and see if and how much that might affect things,” Doherty said.
