PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — The highest concentration of red tide in more than 20 years to hit Pinellas County beaches in March, during spring break, did not negatively affect occupancy rates, according to new data released by Visit St. Pete/Clearwater.

“It was very unusual to have red tide in March,” said Clyde Smith, Bilmar Beach Resort general manager. “We had just a few days that you could tell.”

According to Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission maps, which date back to 2000, the last red tide bloom to hit Pinellas beaches during March was in 2017 and it only affected the southern half of the county. The only other times red tide washed ashore in March was in 2005 and 2004. It was a low bloom, which only affected the St. Pete Beach and Fort De Soto areas.

Smith said the Bilmar did not have many cancellations due to this year’s red tide bloom, which had been plaguing the Gulf coast since October, after Hurricane Ian devastated Fort Myers.

According to Visit St. Pete/Clearwater (VSPC), the occupancy rate for Pinellas County hotels and vacation rentals was 84 percent for March, up .08 percent from last year.

“Occupancy was flat to 2022, but that’s not a bad thing because there’s a lot of markets that are open now, cruise lines, the Caribbean,” said Smith, who’s also a Tourist Development Council (TDC) member. “So, we’ve had more competition than we’ve had over the last couple years.” 

Pinellas County saw record breaking tourism numbers in 2021 and 2022.

“We didn’t think we could break ‘21’s records and we did,” said Smith. “That was exciting, but we expected it to level out.”

According to a breakdown of the March data, the occupancy rate for the beach was down 1 percent but was up 2 percent for inland, which is any property east of the intracoastal. Smith believes it’s due to business meeting travel coming back.

“You’re getting more meetings that are going to your city center,” said Smith. “The downtown St. Petersburg.”

For some Pinellas beach businesses, spring break was not as profitable as expected.

During a special Clearwater city council meeting on March 27, the owner of the Beachcomber restaurant, Sheri Heilman, said it had been the toughest spring break in decades while voicing her support for Brian Aungst as the next mayor.

“This has been the most challenging spring break on Clearwater Beach in our 75 years of being in business on the beach,” said Heilman. “Brian is credited for being the catalyst in attracting economic development to a once dormant Clearwater.”

At the TDC meeting on April 19, member Phil Henderson, who’s also the StarLite Cruises President and CEO, said there were fewer visitors on his boats in March.

“We’re behind pace. I look at it with my own business and for instance I’ll share this with you. I was two and a half percent down for March in actual passengers but I was five and a half percent up on revenue,” he said. “That’s great for revenue, but guess what? My expenses are up.” 

Henderson also said he was concerned about softening summer projections and urged VSPC to spend more money on marketing. The occupancy rate is expected to be down 11 percent for May, June and July, according to VSPC.

Smith said he’s concentrating on drawing more Floridians to boost the summer travel numbers.

“We’re actually going to take advantage now and really go after the staycation market because we’ve outpriced that drive-in market a little bit over the last few years,” he said. “We’re in a position now to say ‘OK, it’s your turn’ and so let’s bring Lakeland, let’s bring Orlando over to the beach.” 

According to VSPC, high travel prices are factoring into those summer projections with a more than 35 percent increase from March 2021. The largest component of that sharp increase has been hotel and airfare prices with no real sign of softening.