April’s tourist development tax dollars dropped nearly 10% compared with April 2023’s collection in Manatee County.
The 2023 collection was $3,227,222 compared with the $2,915,794 collected this April.
High season for tourism usually coincides with spring break from area schools and Easter, both of which arrived this year in March, when tax revenues topped $5.3 million.
The tourist tax, also known as the bed tax, is the 5% tax collected on overnight rentals of six months or less. Manatee County is considering raising the tax to 6%.
The April tax revenues were gathered by the county tax collector’s office from accommodations agents throughout May and then reported June 4.
Some details for April:
- Holmes Beach’s accommodations generated $800,053 or 27.44%;
- Anna Maria’s generated $419,643 or 14.39%;
- Bradenton Beach’s generated $136,217 or 4.67%;
- Longboat Key, $248,464 or 8.52%;
- Bradenton, $222,330 or 7.62%;
- Palmetto, $6,556 or 0.22%.
Unincorporated Manatee County accommodations generated the largest share of the tax revenues — $1,082,631 or 37.13%.
After the tax collector’s 3% administrative fee, the county’s net revenue for April was $2,828,417.
Later this summer, the opening of a 200-plus room Marriott hotel near the Bradenton Area Convention Center is expected to boost the tax dollars generated in Palmetto, which has long generated the lowest amount of TDT revenues.
The revenues, however, do not go back to the cities where they were generated but instead are spent at the county level.
The county’s tourist development council is the advisory board that recommends how to spend the revenue and the elected county commission decides the expenditures.
Revenue must be used to bolster tourism, according to state law.
Tourism-related institutions that receive resort tax funding include the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Bradenton Area Convention Center, the Pittsburgh Pirates and Realize Bradenton, a nonprofit dedicated to developing downtown Bradenton.
Tourism-related projects that have been funded by the tax include island beach renourishment and the construction of the new Anna Maria City Pier.
May bed tax revenue data will be released in early July.
The TDC was set to meet in Anna Maria June 10, the day The Islander went to press.
April tourist tax collections:
April 2019: $1,490,454
April 2020: $449,905
April 2021: $2,423,608
April 2022: $3,108,553
April 2023: $3,227,222
April 2024: $2,915,794
Source: Manatee County Tax Collector