Panama City Beach sees record tourism numbers in March

PANAMA Town BEACH — Soon after achieving a current milestone, Dan Rowe, president and CEO of Check out Panama Metropolis Beach, said the town is without having a doubt an “all-American beach town.”
According to Rowe, March of this yr was the busiest March in the tourism historical past of Panama Metropolis Seaside, generating just about $2.9 million in tourism growth tax earnings. That is about $400,000 extra than March 2021, which previously held the title.
It must be pointed out that 2021 was the Beach’s busiest yr at any time, bringing in about $36.75 million in tourism tax collections.
“This 12 months, we understood that we have been going to maintain on to most of the business we obtained last 12 months simply because the fundamentals of our neighborhood are potent, (but) we did not know if we would exceed past year’s (quantities) because we were being anticipating a industry correction (after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020),” Rowe reported. “We have been thrilled that the success of March came in wherever they had been.
“… It truly goes to display the great importance of that good quality beach front experience in people’s life.”
The city also was able to break the document without the need of relying on crowds of spring breakers to strengthen its economy in March — something PCB counted on before 2015, when massive crowds of party hungry, faculty-aged vacationers would flock to the place each 12 months.
PCB much tamer:But police continue to battling Spring Split seashore booze. This is the scoop.
Shipwreck Island:Waterpark creating massive splash after shifting to 7-working day plan for summertime
It was in 2015 that fed-up officials authorized a list of ordinances specially qualified to halt the Spring Break madness that when plagued the metropolis and gave it the title as the Spring Split cash of the United States.
“There was a emotion at 1 position in time that we had to have Spring Crack (tourism) to be thriving as a seashore desired destination, (but) we have verified that to be not correct,” Rowe said.
In addition to a enhance in bed tax collections this March, passenger site visitors for the month at Northwest Florida Beach locations International Airport (ECP) was up a lot more than 5% in excess of March 2021.
More than 136,000 men and women visited the airport this March even though about 129,000 visited in 2021. The facility is found off Condition 79 in unincorporated Bay County, just north of Panama City Beach front.
ECP also experienced a file-breaking year in 2021.
“March of 2021 commenced our authentic expansion period,” mentioned Parker McClellan, government director of ECP. “As we appear at March 2022, it ongoing that 12-thirty day period trend, and when you have (far more than 5% advancement) that’s a actual constructive.”