DAYTONA BEACH ― Volusia County attracted 4.5 million visitors in 2024, a figure that’s down more than 50% from the 10.1 million reported in 2023, according to figures from the Daytona Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.
While that appears to be a startling decline, the reality is that the difference is due to new methodology used by Downs & St. Germain Research, a Tallahassee-based tourism market research firm now calculating the annual totals, said Lori Campbell Baker, executive director of the Daytona Beach Area CVB.
“They do a lot of quality work throughout the state of Florida and beyond,” Baker said in remarks at a Travel & Tourism Week celebration event Wednesday at Hard Rock Hotel. “They have put different metrics together for counting the value of tourism.”
Downs & St. Germain this past year replaced Daytona Beach-based Mid-Florida Marketing & Research, a firm that had handled destination marketing research for the CVB for many years, if not decades.
The new visitor total includes only those who intentionally spent time in the area, not pass-through travelers, according to the CVB.
Although the year-over-year raw visitor estimates differ widely, Baker praised the Tallahassee firm for its overview of the broad impact of tourism on a destination.
“For us, what we do in terms of bringing folks into the community is really all about what they do for our community,” Baker told a crowd of hoteliers, tourism leaders and county officials. “How much are they spending in our local businesses? How are they leaving this community better than when they arrived?”
Statewide, Florida welcomed a record-breaking 142.9 million visitors in 2024, a 1.6% increase over 2023.
Volusia visitors add $5.5 billion in economic impact, according to CVB
According to the firm’s estimates, visitors to Volusia County spent $3.3 billion in 2024, Baker said, contributing to a total economic impact of $5.5 billion, a broader estimate of the industry’s effect on tax revenue and the impact of tourist-related businesses on the local economy.
Volusia’s lodging and hospitality industry employs 39,900 workers, with a payroll of $1.01 billion. Visitors also pay 31% of the local sales tax.
“The industry is creating economic impact, so the results are still there,” Baker said after the meeting. The visitor total “is a snapshot, a point of view. It (counting visitors) is not a ticketed event.”
Downs & St. Germain offers new approach to tracking Volusia tourism
Changes to research methods by the Tallahassee firm include the use of in-market “intercepts” to personally interview visitors during their stay, rather Mid-Florida’s process of conducting phone interviews afterward, Baker said.
The estimate of travel party size has been scaled back from five in previous research to three, and the percentage estimate of visitors staying with friends and family has been reduced from 50% to 27.7%, Baker said.
Also, a new company, Santa Rosa Beach-based Key Data, has been enlisted to track the impact of short-term rentals.
“This research is more in-line with the systems that other destinations our size are using,” Baker said. “It’s a different way of looking at the numbers.”
Based on county bed-tax collections, tourism has remained basically flat over the past two years. Countywide, the $16,107,378 total for the 2023-24 fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 was down 0.13% compared with the previous year’s total collections of $16,192,912.
For the Halifax area, which includes Daytona Beach, collections over that same period increased by 0.3%, from $11,893,789 to $11,897,878.
Through the first six months of the 2024-25 fiscal year, overall collections are up year-over-year by 5.8%, according to county figures. In March, however, collections were down countywide by 0.56% despite the presence of one of the year’s biggest special events, Bike Week.
The county collects a 6% tourism tax on hotels and lodges with half of the revenues going to fund the county-run Ocean Center convention complex in Daytona Beach.
The other half goes to the county’s three tourism ad authorities to market their respective areas — the Daytona Beach/Halifax area, Southeast Volusia and West Volusia — as tourist and special event destinations.
Volusia hotel leader Bob Davis warns of ‘serious challenge’ for tourism
At Wednesday’s event, tourism leaders representing the county-run Ocean Center, Daytona Beach International Airport, the Halifax and West Volusia tourism advertising authorities and the Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce offered optimistic updates.
Volusia County Council Vice-Chair Matt Reinhart, on hand to deliver a county proclamation, also saluted the industry.
“I’ve seen a lot of good things happen and I continue to see good things happen,” he said.
At the same time, the tourism impact of international trade wars with allies such as Canada and efforts by the Florida legislature to re-direct tourist development tax funds require continued vigilance, said Bob Davis, president and CEO of the Lodging & Hospitality Association of Volusia County.
“We have a very, very serious challenge,” Davis said, quoting New York Yankees legend Yogi Berra that “it ain’t over until it’s over. The Florida legislature wants to steal our precious bed tax. We all must persevere.”
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Volusia visitor total of 4.5M reflects new way of counting, according to Daytona Beach CVB
Reporting by Jim Abbott, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
