TOURISM TALK: Brevard Tourist Development Tax Collection Numbers Set Record in August
By Space Coast Daily // October 17, 2021
PETER CRANIS: Year to date, TDT this year is at $15.56 million compared to $12.17 million in 2020
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – We now have our August Tourist Development Tax numbers. The final number was $1.39 million – a 61% improvement over August, 2020 and a 15.6% improvement over August, 2019, making it the best August in history.
Year to date, TDT this year is at $15.56 million compared to $12.17 million in 2020.
We have now exceeded the $15.12 million in 2019 and well over the $14.6 million in 2018. Since the recovery began starting in March, our March to August period was at $10.68 million and just the summer (June – August) was $5.38 million.
This is compared to $9.2 million for March – August in 2019 and $4.32 million for summer of 2019, making it our best March – August and Summer season in history.
Hotels represented 68% of the total for the month and 64% year to date. Looking at TDT by type, vacation rentals are at 30% of TDT for the month and 34% of TDT year to date.
A recent breakdown of where vacation rental units are show approximately 4,000 total units with about 7,500 rooms. Cocoa Beach (29%), Melbourne (17%), Cape Canaveral (16%), and Palm Bay (12%) represent the cities with the most units.
In terms of hotel/motel revenue by city, Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral (31.6%) are still exceeding Melbourne and the Beaches (29.2%) as a percentage of the total.
With only September remaining, I believe we will easily finish out the year above the 2019 total of $16 million – landing somewhere around $16.4 – $16.5 million.
Having the best year ever in spite of a long recovery from COVID is pretty amazing. And most of that occurred without cruising. I continue to think we will have a strong 2022, but as always will continue to monitor things on a monthly basis.