LARGO – Pinellas County saw a surge in tourism over Memorial Day weekend, another sign that the tourism industry is recovering from a brutal 2020.
The area had a occupancy rate of over 95.9% on Saturday, May 29, according to Visit St. That is coupled with the average daily rate for hotel rooms, which rose to $ 242.26 per night on Saturday.
Occupancy is the same as Memorial Day weekend 2019, but room rates were 28.6% higher than in 2019, according to the tourism company.
Memorial Day weekend news comes soon after bed tax collections were reported in March.
According to the county’s tax collector, $ 9.67 million was collected in March, almost double the $ 4.9 million in 2020 and 1% more than the $ 9.57 million in 2019 .
Year-to-date collections are $ 19.6 million, up 5.6%.
“The April collections haven’t arrived yet,” says Visit St. Pete / Clearwater, “but they are expected to overshadow 2019 and be record breaking.”
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