Only three months so far this fiscal year have seen more revenue collected than same months in previous fiscal year
For only the third time so far this fiscal year, in May, the Sarasota County Tourist Development Tax — or, “bed tax” — revenue climbed in comparison to the amount turned over to the Sarasota County Tax Collector’s Office in the 2023 fiscal year, the latest reports show.
This May, the Tourist Development Tax (TDT) revenue added up to $3,468,753.29, which was up nearly 4%, compared to the May 2023 total of $3,337,696.72, as shown in the new reports released by Tax Collector Barbara Ford-Coates and her staff.
However, with only four months to go before the Sept. 30 end of this fiscal year, the bed tax revenue is down $1,660,113.36, compared to the total collected through the same period of the 2023 fiscal year. This year’s revenue through May adds up to $36,486,530.59, which is down approximately 0.4%, compared to the figure of $37,991,601.51 through May 2023.
Since this fiscal year began on Oct. 1, 2023, the only other months with revenue higher than the tallies for the same months of the 2023 fiscal year have been February and March, the Tax Collector’s Office’s latest data show.
The 6% tax is charged on accommodations rented for six months or less time. The funds are used for multiple purposes, including beach maintenance, promotion of the county to visitors and upkeep of the county’s two Major League Baseball Spring Training facilities, in Sarasota and North Port.
During a July 9 presentation to the County Commission, regarding her organization’s proposed budget for the 2025 fiscal year, Erin Duggan, president and CEO of Visit Sarasota County, the county’s tourism office, addressed the decline in TDT revenue thus far in this fiscal year.
“We went through a few phenomenal years with the pandemic, when Florida was open and other places around the country and world were not,” she said. “I do think what we’re seeing is a lot of normalization [in terms of tourism],” Duggan added.
Among other details in the new reports from the Tax Collector’s Office, the revenue that Airbnb has turned over to the Tax Collector’s Office from its hosts through May has added up to $5,193,728.76. That figure marks an uptick of approximately 5.4%, compared to the $4,926,638.15 tally through May 2023.
Altogether, the latest reports note, rentals of accommodations through all online platforms — including those of TripAdvisor and HomeAway, as well as all of their subsidiaries — accounted for 21.28% of the total TDT revenue collected through May. The comparable figure in May 2023 was 20.36%.
On a related point, the City of Sarasota and Siesta Key wage an annual battle, so to speak, to see which can account for the largest amount of TDT revenue collected by hosts within its territory. The city won the past couple of fiscal years.
Through May, Siesta Key was ahead, with 26.6% of the total. The city’s hosts had collected 25.12% of the funds, that report says.
Through May 2023, the city was in the lead, with 26.74% of the revenue, compared to 24.71% for Siesta.
Among other details, the new reports also show that the collections for each month before May have risen. As Ford-Coates and her staff have explained, audits and other enforcement action can lead to changes in the totals from month-to-month.
Both Ford-Coates and Chief Deputy Tax Collector Sherri Smith have noted, as well, that the department’s staff members charged with handling the TDT revenue constantly are searching for hosts of accommodations who are not paying the bed tax revenue. They welcome tips from county residents to aid those searches, Smith and Ford-Coates have pointed out.
In the previous reports, the January figure was noted as being down $255,702.74, compared to the amount collected in January 2023. The latest data show that deficit to have fallen to $250,925.42.
For another example, in February, the latest reports put the month-over-month increase at $49,283.46. That amount is about 24% higher than the uptick noted in the previous reports: $39,493.53.
Further, the month-over-month deficit for April was shown in the previous reports as $676,447.33. The month-over-month decline for April as noted in the new reports, is $17,424.87 lower, at $659,022.46.
Along with the monthly reports from the Tax Collector’s Office, Visit Sarasota County releases updates from a Tallahassee firms, Downs & St. Germain Research, which provide other details.
The report for May shows that the number of visitors to the county in was down 13.9% — from 140,610 in May 2023 to 121,000 this May.
Further, the tourists’ direct expenditures fell 10.4%, month-over-month. The figure for May 2023 was $156,037,800. That compares to $139,761,100 this May.
The Downs & St. Germain report for May includes the following data, as well:
- The occupancy rate was 62.3%, down 5.7% from the May 2023 figure of 66.1%.
- The average room rate was higher by about 0.1%, however: $251.37 this May, compared to $251.17 in May 2023.
- The number of room nights sold was lower by 4.1% this May: 265,200. The May 2023 tally was 276,400.
The report did explain, “A longer length of stay and a smaller travel party size resulted in the decrease in visitors being greater than the decrease in room nights.”
Each Downs & St. Germain report also features an outlook on the next three months of tourism in the county. In May, it says, “Property managers had mixed views” about the next quarter, with 29% of general managers reporting increased demand, compared to what they observed last year; 57% expected similar demand; and 14% reported reduced demand.
The report did note that one in four May visitors were making their first trips to Sarasota. Further, it said, the year-to-date data regarding visitors from Canada “remains elevated when compared to 2023 …” The figure was up 5.6%.