Collier County tourism in decline amid surging gas prices, inflation

A dip in a big source of income for Southwest Florida, tourism, is down in Collier County for the last few months.

Due to a variety of reasons people suddenly have less money, and Paul Beirnes knows this. “Index jumps, gas prices, you know, everything from the price of milk to consumer sentiment in general,” Beirnes said. He’s the executive director of the Convention & Visitors Bureau.

As an expert in tourism, Beirnes saw the record-breaking jump in Collier County in 2021. But, he figured the spike couldn’t and wouldn’t last forever.

The latest tourism numbers show bookings are down as much as 8%. One explanation could be that Florida is no longer the only hot spot open for business, giving tourists options.

But, the area general manager of the Ritz Carlton, Mark Ferland, has other thoughts. “We’re also going to see a lot of that international travel come back into the United States,” Ferland said. “So, yes, there will be some that go back out to experience some of those other destinations, but we’ll also see a lot coming in.”

Other people who run hotels on Fort Myers Beach and in Naples say they’re not seeing too much of a dip just yet. Although, at the airport, the usual fall-off in traffic is more than usual.

“We went through the winter season, huge pent-up demand surge and visitation, the average daily weight rate went through the roof, that was not a sustainable number,” Beirnes said. “Things normalize over time.”

It’s the middle class that’s cutting back on travel. The number of people flying in and out of Southwest Florida International depicts that. After a record-high 1.5M passengers in March, that number dipped to 836K in May.