REMEMBERING BOB DAVIS
Titan of Volusia’ s Hospitality Industry
by Rick de Yampert
Bob Davis, right, with Costa Magoulas, dean of the College of Hospitality and Culinary Management at Daytona State College. Photo provided by Daytona State College
Circa 2017, Bob Davis, the guru of Volusia County’ s hospitality industry, sent a message to his Facebook friends: a PDF file of a Daytona Beach publication from March 1968.
The touristy publication included an advertisement touting“ the New Swinging Beachcomber,” a nightclub with“ Go-Go Girls” and something called a“ Psychedelic Freakout Nitely.” The crude black-and-white ad featured a cartoonishly drawn, bikini-clad girl and stereotypical“ beach bum.”
A corner of the ad sported a drawing of a tiki hut with a sign that read“ Sin Shack.”
Davis’ s friends knew he was taking a nostalgic stroll through not only local history but his own personal history. Two years before that ad appeared, Davis had arrived in Daytona Beach from his native New York to take a job managing the Hawaiian Inn.
What followed for Davis was a nearly 60-year acclaimed career in the Daytona area’ s hotel and tourism industry, including 26 years as president and CEO of the Lodging & Hospitality Association of Volusia County, from 1999 until his death from cancer at age 87 in July 2025.
Davis played an outsized role in ushering Daytona Beach from the days of what he called“ a very quiet beach town” with quaint, family-owned hotels – despite the Beachcomber’ s“ Psychedelic Freakout Nitely” claim – to a thriving tourist destination drawing millions of visitors annually.
In tacit recognition of the daunting task of filling Davis’ s shoes, the Lodging & Hospitality Association of Volusia County disbanded in November 2025.
Its dissolution“ was pretty much related to Bob’ s passing,” said John Betros, General Manager of the Daytona Beach Regency hotel and chair of the trade group.“ The world lost a really, really good man. He was a very good leader, and to listen to him mentor me personally – it was invaluable.”
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