Bed tax collections were up this summer in Santa Rosa and Walton counties, but the tourist season was seen as something of a disappointment among some Okaloosa County business owners.
Bed tax collections in Okaloosa County remained flat, alternating between slightly down and slightly up, compared to last year’s record-breaking season.
The summer of 2013 will likely wind up as the busiest on record in Walton and Santa Rosa counties, but Okaloosa County may fall short of last year’s record season.
For May and June in Okaloosa County, $4.06 million in bed taxes were collected. That’s an increase of just 0.2 percent compared to the same period last year when $4.05 million was brought in.
The bed tax numbers for July are expected early this month.
Walton and Santa Rosa counties were more consistent this summer.
In the May/June period, Walton County brought in $5.6 million, up 9.4 percent compared to last year. Santa Rosa County collected $341,599 for the same period, an increase of 4.1 percent from last year.
The Okaloosa County Tourist Development Council is hoping for a stronger fall and has increased its fall advertising budget from $100,000 to $300,000.
And that’s just the start.
The TDC has submitted a proposed advertising budget of $2.6 million for fiscal 2014, an 18 percent increase from this year’s budget of $2.2 million.
“I think what you’re going to find is now that we have a fully constituted TDC, we’re looking for a more robust participation from them on a season-by-season perspective so we’ll be able to get further out in front of all of these issues and we’ll be able to make strategic decisions on the fly about where money needs to be deployed,” said Dan O’Byrne, director of the county’s Tourist Development Department.
Contact Daily News Business Editor Dusty Ricketts at 850-315-4448 or dricketts@nwfdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @DustyRnwfdn.
