than other states ,” she said . “ Tourism was the first industry to bring back the economy and communities . Sometimes that gets forgotten .”
The view from above
While leisure travel is picking up , a new forecast from the U . S . Travel Association said it will take longer for business travel to return to pre-pandemic levels .
“ With vaccinations and infection rates in the United States trending favorably , restrictions lowered and traveler confidence rebounding , domestic leisure travel is projected to reach 99 percent of its pre-pandemic peak in 2022 and to grow steadily thereafter ,” the report said . That forecast may change given the recent appearance of the Delta variant and rising infection rates .
However , business-related travel is not expected to surpass pre-2020 levels until 2024 , according to the report .
While business travel is forecast to increase more than 32 % this year , it comes after a year when business-related trips were down nearly 68 %. Leisure travel ’ s more modest 21 % increase in 2021 is balanced against a decline of just over 23 % the previous year .
As for travel spending , after falling to $ 55 billion in 2020 , vacationers are expected to shell out $ 671 billion this year for leisure travel and $ 718 billion in 2022 , according to the travel trade group . Business travel spending is anticipated to reach $ 116 billion this year , after falling to $ 88 billion in 2020 .
When it comes to jobs , the tourism industry is one of the largest employers in Florida .
Statewide nearly 14 % of the workforce in the Sunshine State is in the tourism and hospitality sector . For many of the counties in the North Central Florida region that number is even higher .
Just over 19 % of Flagler ’ s workforce is in tourism-related positions while nearly 21 % of all private jobs in St . Johns County are in the tourism sector . Nassau County tops the list with almost a quarter of all private-sector jobs related to hospitality and tourism . For Putnam County the number is a bit lower at just under 13 % but still a sizeable portion of the total workforce . Tourism industry jobs also make up a significant portion of the workforce in Baker and Clay counties at 11.6 % and 16.3 % respectively .
From a statewide perspective , things are improving as well , according to Dana Young , President and CEO of VISIT FLORIDA .
“ Florida is outperforming the national average in all key performance indicators , including hotel demand , traveler spending and domestic air capacity , which is up over 15 % from 2019 ,” she said . “ We are confident that second-quarter visitation estimates will show further positive growth when they ’ re released in the coming weeks .”
Young said while state economists estimate tourism will not fully recover until 2024 , “ the progress we have made so far represents a remarkable rebound that has us on track to beat those projections .”
One of the reasons for the state ’ s strong tourism picture is the effort to market Florida to travelers .
“ Florida being open and the only state up until very recently doing any advertising to visitors outside its borders , has put us in a very strong position to now capitalize on the pent-up demand for travel ,” Young said . “ While border closures , labor shortages , and the ever-evolving nature of the pandemic continue to pose challenges , the steps we have taken as an industry have put us in the best possible position to overcome them .”
Open for business Lukasik said one factor that helped Flagler County was the vacation rental piece of the tourism puzzle . “ We started showing signs of a very aggressive recovery faster than even our neighbors to the north and south ,” she said , referring to the bigger tourism destinations in St . Johns and Volusia counties . “ And I believe a lot of that had to do with our strong vacation rental property product we have , and because they are the type of vacation rentals that command a high average daily rate . The vacation rental product is the one that carried us .”
According to Lukasik , Flagler ’ s tourist development tax revenue – also called the bed tax – is up 40 % through May compared with the same period last year . While the pandemic shutdown in 2020 skews those numbers , when compared to the same period in 2019 county bed tax collections are up a still healthy 14.2 %. The same thing is happening in Putnam County , Jones said . “ Fortunately , large projects at local industries have helped increase occupancy rates and created additional customers for restaurants and other hospitality-related businesses ,” she said . “ Prepandemic tourism was rapidly increasing in both number of visitors and events . Now that things have opened up , our hotels , other accommodations providers and restaurants are doing better .”
Things are also picking up in Nassau County , according to Langley .
“ Recovery has been faster than expected in both the leisure market and the meeting business at our destination resorts ,” he said . “ High demand at lodging facilities has resulted in record average rates while the shortage in the workforce has put upward pressure on labor costs , creating more discretionary income , which has a positive impact on the county ’ s overall economy .”
Looking to sustain the positive momentum , some of the
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