Report: Tampa Bay spring break travel is up this year

Despite spiking gas prices and busier-than-normal airports, spring break tourism in the greater Tampa Bay region is up from last year and approaching 2024 figures.

Visit St. Pete-Clearwater projects hotel revenue in March and April to be 23% higher than last year.

Ahead of spring break, visitor numbers were up by 18% in Jan. and about 6% in Feb. from last year.

During a meeting of the Pinellas County Tourist Development Council last week, VSPC director of data and digital Eddie Kirsch explained that this year’s statistics could be similar to 2024’s numbers, but there’s still room for improvement.

“The hotel revenue sample is very close to fiscal year 2024 in March, and it’s above the previous two years in April, May and June,” he said. “As we note that the booking window has shortened, there’s still some opportunities that those numbers could actually be a little bit above the previous two years when we’re looking at this in the rear view.”

But officials said revenue numbers are mixed across the county.

Tampa Bay Beaches Chamber of Commerce CEO Charlie Justice said some of that has to do with some Pinellas County hotels still being closed following 2024’s hurricanes.

“If you go to the north beaches, Clearwater Beach is up, downtown St. Pete proper is up,” he said. “But you get on to our south beaches, and the total numbers are down considerably because we still have a significant number of properties that are not fully back or not back at all.”

The local surge is in spite of travel issues elsewhere.

At airports like Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta and George Bush Intercontinental in Houston, Transportation Security Administration wait times have soared amid a government standoff that has left workers unpaid for a full paycheck period.

“I think some of the shutdown news stories were towards the tail end of our peak, so there was a delay in that,” Justice said. “And if you’re at the airport, you’re coming. So I think some people just hunker down and get through it.”

Soaring gas prices have also factored in people’s spring break travel plans.

But to Justice, as much as that can hurt in-state tourism, it can also be beneficial.

“I don’t think you can say it won’t have an impact,” he said. “On the other hand, someone who lives in Gainesville, if they were thinking about driving to Miami or further out of state, maybe they change their mind and drive just over here to St. Pete Beach and Clearwater Beach, so maybe we benefit from that part of it.”

Beyond spring break, VSPC officials anticipate travel figures will continue to improve over last year.

Ricardo Cuomo is a news intern at WUSF, Tampa Bay’s NPR afilliate.