DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Volusia’s tourism numbers took a dip in 2023 after two record-setting years before.
Area tourism experts said the industry is not taking a hit, though.
“This year was our fifth anniversary, so it’s been a short but long five years,” said Androse Bell, General Manager of the Hard Rock Hotel.
In the five years the Hard Rock Hotel on A1A in Daytona Beach has been open, the staff has been hit with a pandemic, two major hurricanes, and major events coming to town.
Compared to 2021 and 2022 when those events happened, though, Bell said their numbers weren’t as high in 2023.
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“We aren’t where we were in (2021) and (2022), but if you look at the historical for this market — 2019, 2018 — historically, Daytona Beach has been 68, 67% occupancy in market. We’re pushing 70 now,” he said.
Across all of Volusia County, the tourism tax collection numbers this year dropped 3.5% compared to last fiscal year. In the area where Daytona Beach is, they dropped 5%.
The tourism leaders all told News 6 they wanted to make one message clear, though: these numbers are actually a sign tourism here is returning to normal.
“The numbers were normalizing in 2023, so we had a couple of stellar years following COVID. The state was open, Volusia county was open,” said Lori Campbell-Baker, Executive Director of the Daytona Beach Area Convention and Visitor’s Bureau.
Campbell-Baker and Daytona Beach said another growth in 2023 they’re seeing is the market evening out with more events coming to town and booking out hotels —not only seeing those sell-out spikes during major events like Bike Week.
“We have a whole system of finding those events, bringing them up and trying to grow them into something that the community loves but visitors would come and spend an overnight with us,” Campbell-Baker said.
Back at the Hard Rock, Bell is already looking to 2024′s goals, focusing on a trend of seeing people return to in-person work and booking work trips.
“There’s a high expectation that a lot of that corporate group travel will be back in 2024 and that’s the norm for us. To get that group to come back to the market,” said Bell.
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