PETER CRANIS: August Brevard County Tourist Development Tax Comes in at Record-Setting $1.823 Million

Year to date collections $21.74 million

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – August Tourist Development Tax (TDT) has come in at $1.823 million – a record for the month of August, making it the 17th consecutive month of “best month for that given month” results.

This is 31% ahead of the previous high in August, which was $1.39 million last year. August is the last month of summer, so it is an important month when measuring our overall summer performance.

In fact, we ended the summer with a collection of $6.14 million, which is 14% better than our previous best summer – $5.38 million last year.

Year to date, we are at $21.74 million, well beyond our total collection in 2020-21 of $16.94 million, compared to $15.56 million the prior year (up 40%) and $15.1 million in 2018/19.

This makes it the strongest 11 months in any year by over $6 million and the strongest first eight months of the calendar year we have ever had – $17.35 million compared to $13 million last year.

Looking at TDT by type, hotels represented 69% of the total for the month, and vacation rentals were 30% of TDT, which has dropped a little versus the average 32% for the year.

In terms of hotel/motel revenue by city, Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral (34%) were, as usual, ahead of Melbourne and the Beaches (28%) as a percentage of the total.

This shows a slight upward trend for Cocoa Beach/Cape Canaveral, which could be due to the stronger numbers of cruise passengers going out of Port Canaveral.

Looking ahead to September, we believe that will be another record month, closing out our fiscal year with every month being a “best ever” month.

While September has traditionally been the lowest month of the year, this has not been the case the last two years, and if we exceed last September’s $1.38 million, we will hit $23.1 million in total TDT for the year.

– Peter Cranis, Space Coast Office of Tourism Executive Director

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