Gulf County TDC posts record year
Despite a steep slowdown in September, the Gulf County Tourist Development Council has posted another record year for lodging tax revenues, collecting nearly $4.78 million.
The annual total is a little more than $36,500 over last year’s $4.74 million collections, and represents a tad better than a three-quarters of 1 percent increase.
The record setting year, which is more than double the $2.33 million total collected in 2019-20, came despite a lackluster performance in September, the last month of the 2023-24 fiscal year for collections.
During September, collection of the five-cent lodging tax was just a tad shy of $271,000, representing nearly 62 percent less than the more than $709,000 collected in September 2023. It was the lowest collection total for September over the past four years.
“They came in much lower than I expected, so I imagine we saw impacts from that hurricane and there may have also been some late reporting,” said Silvia Williams, director of the Gulf County TDC. “I think we’ll have a clearer picture once we get October numbers.”
The four months preceding September, which encompassed the summer, all saw strong totals, with August’s better than $412,000 total more than 27 percent more than the year prior. Still it was lower than in 2021 and 2022, which are generally thought to be part of a post-Covid rebound.
July’s nearly $975,000 total was a record for that month, and was about 19 percent better than July 2023.
June’s more than $1.03 million total was the first month ever to eclipse the million-dollar mark, and was more than 23 percent better than the year prior.
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.