TOURISM
6
OKEECHOBEE COUNTY TOURISM
Tourism around the waters of Lake Okeechobee,
which draws many visitors seeking bass, crappie,
bluegill and other types of fish, hit its low point
last spring.
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US #1 and Monterey Road
SABAL PALM PLAZA
US #1 and Virginia Avenue
Freedom Health
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Publix Liquors
1,300 SF
1,008 SF
2,175 SF
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3,780 SF
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DENTAL
2,0 70 SF with pylon
2,000 SF
• 77,000 daily traffic count
• Join First Watch, Pei Wei, Chipotle, WellMed, Blaze Pizza,
Cold Stone Creamery, Five Guys and Boca Tanning Club
• Adjacent to Bonefish Grill, Office Depot, TJ Maxx, Petco,
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• Pylon signage available
• 2270 SF, 1600 SF or 1384 SF Available
• 63,500 daily traffic count
• Join Publix, Staples, Beall’s Outlet, Big Lots, CitiTrends,
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• Ample convenient parking
• Space available in many sizes from 900 SF to 3780 SF
tourism office in the area’s largest county
by population. In St. Lucie for that period,
8,000 people had jobs thanks to spending
by the 1.2 million visitors who came to the
county. That’s an average of one job per
150 visitors.
LOW EBB IN SPRING 2020
Last spring was the ebb for visitors as
determined by collections of the bed
tax, also known as the tourist development
tax. The bed tax is 5% in Martin and
St. Lucie, 4% in Indian River and 3% in
Okeechobee.
April was the first full month of the COVID
crunch when mandatory restrictions
were in place and when many volunteered
to stay at home.
In April, bed tax collections year-overyear
fell 75% in Indian River, 34% in Martin,
50% in Okeechobee, and 35% in St. Lucie.
April was the low point for Indian River
and Okeechobee while St. Lucie’s nadir
was a drop of 51% in March, and Martin’s
biggest drop for collections was May,
down 67%.
Counties decide how to spend the bed
tax revenue within a range of categories
set by state statute. Much of that spending
on the Treasure Coast goes to beach restoration
and maintenance of other natural
resources, promoting attractions that draw
visitors such as convention centers and
museums, and funding facilities that draw
visitors such as sports complexes.
Local tourism officials point to signs of a
recovery in 2021, but they are reluctant to
venture a guess when things will return to
pre-virus normal.
CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC
Jerry Parrish, chief economist for the
Florida Chamber Foundation, said the
Treasure Coast is likely to recover at about
the same pace as the rest of the state. He
said a wider distribution of vaccines will
boost visitor spending appreciably by
June. Also helping will be the release of
pent-up demand from “people who have
been cooped up for a year,” Parrish said.
This will lead to “a strong summer and
winter for tourism in Florida.”
Still, the state’s businesses cannot expect
a return to pre-COVID tourism numbers
until the end of 2022, Parrish said.
Visit Florida, a nonprofit that is Florida’s
official tourism marketing company, said
that final figures for 2018 show an eighth
straight record year for the number of outof
state visitors, a string that preliminary
figures show will extend to a ninth year in
2019, when the winning streak stopped.
In the first three quarters of calendar year
2020, the number of visitors to Florida fell
34% from the same period a year earlier,
including a decline of 60% for the second
quarter and 32% in the third quarter, according
to preliminary figures from Visit Florida.
On the Treasure Coast, the 2020 pace
was “on course for a record year,” until pandemic
concerns arose, said Kirk Funnell,
director of tourism for the Indian River
County Chamber of Commerce.
RECENT SURPRISE UPSWING
The Heskels were able to keep their
small staff working through the months
Island View was shuttered, having them fix >>
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