September Bed Tax Numbers up 7% Year Over Year

Looking at the bed tax revenue numbers for August, September’s had been released at the beginning of the month! It’s always super insightful to see where September falls as for many, it’s the last big hooray for the summer tourism season. For many still, October proves a strong month as fall tourism is popular at the beach before November and December drop sharply.

This September didn’t feel as frenzied with the lack of TDC planned events like we had last year, but at Panama City Beach Luxury Properties, we were still sold out each weekend through the month. In addition, most of our larger properties enjoyed strong weekly rentals through the entire month.

For the industry, bed tax revenue collections were over 7% up for September 2012 over September 2011 and rang in at a total of $999,168.09

A close look at the numbers.

September 2012 – $999,168.09 – single point: $199,833.62 – 7.65% up over previous year
September 2011 – $928,161.56 – single point: $185,632.31 – 16.7% up over previous year
September 2010 – $795,301.87 – single point: $159,060.37 – 0.0% neutral over previous year (oil spill year)
September 2009 – $795,698.44 – single point: $159,139.69 – 2.1% up over previous year
September 2008 – $467,386.73 – single point: $155,795.58 – 17.7% up over previous year
September 2007 – $397,000.56 – single point: $132,333.52

When considering gains, it’s always fun to look at where we are in comparison to where we were a few years ago. For example, before the oil spill, many considered the 2008 summer tourism season a good baseline for strong tourism. When compared to that year, 2012 is 25.6% up.

Industry wide in Bay County for September 2012, $19,983,361.80 was generated in reported room-night revenue.

The numbers from the previous months this year

August 2012 – $3,007,148.42 – up 1.52% over previous year
July 2012 – $3,007,148.42 – up 1.52% over previous year
June 2012 – $2,737,780.66 – up 19.88% over previous year
May 2012 – $1,408,512 – up 24.95% over previous year
April 2012 – $1,270,835.84 – up 4.45% over previous year
March 2012 – $1,769,821.69 – up 19.38% over previous year

August Bed Tax Numbers up 15% Year Over Year

Having just realized that I never did a bed tax revenue report for August, I wanted to get this out real quick. August this year seemed strong in our own vacation rental business and that seems to be confirmed with the huge increase in total revenue year over year for the month, in Panama City Beach.

Just a look at perspective, for 2011 we averaged $1524 of total revenue per property for the month here at Panama City Beach Luxury Properties and for 2012 we averaged $3614 of total revenue per property for the month – which as you can see is a 137% increase. Of course, the fact that we have several more higher income properties this year over last year ways heavily on this. 🙂

For the industry, bed tax revenue collections were over 15% up for August 2012 over August 2011 and rang in at a total of $1,253,350.77

A close look at the numbers.

August 2012 – $1,253,350.77 – single point: $250,670.15 – 15.35% up over previous year
August 2011 – $1,086,541.59 – single point: $217,308.32 – 34.5% up over previous year
August 2010 – $807,936.59 – single point: $161,587.32 – 14.7% DOWN over previous year
August 2009 – $807,936.59 – single point: $189,519.23 – 2.5% up over previous year
August 2008 – $554,578.90 – single point: $184,859.63 – 4.2% up over previous year
August 2007 – $532,047.94 – single point: $177,349.31

Industry wide in Bay County for August 2012, $25,067,015.40 was generated in reported room-night revenue.

The numbers from the previous months this year

July 2012 – $3,007,148.42 – up 1.52% over previous year
June 2012 – $2,737,780.66 – up 19.88% over previous year
May 2012 – $1,408,512 – up 24.95% over previous year
April 2012 – $1,270,835.84 – up 4.45% over previous year
March 2012 – $1,769,821.69 – up 19.38% over previous year

Welcome Winter Guests – Pick up your SunCard

Jack Frost is here, and winter has been fiercely nipping at our heels the last couple days. With literally freezing temperatures the last few nights, it’s been rather unpleasant and just flat cold. But, this time of year doesn’t typically lend itself to this type of weather. Normally it’s a warm upper 50’s during the day with clear blue skies, crystal clear water and (as always) crystal white sand.

The aforementioned description is why our northern friends flock to the beaches in the winter. When it’s a cool (by our standards) 50’s here, in many cases it’s a frigid single digit number where our guests call summertime home. Our moderate temperatures bring them down here in droves, and they help keep our area alive during what some may call the “off-season”.

Continue reading “Welcome Winter Guests – Pick up your SunCard” →

The Secret of Marketing Panama City Beach – Susan Estler

This is an interview with Susan Estler, the Vice President of Marketing for the Panama City Beach Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. Keeping consistent with our Optimism in PCB article series, we wanted to share with you some of the marketing genius that is behind putting Panama City Beach on the map. Susan has been with the PCB CVB almost as long as we’ve been blogging about Panama City Beach. We at PCBDaily have seen her help develop the marketing efforts from a tattered, inherited mess, to a decisive, calculated masterpiece. She’s done a great job with the CVB team and we’d like to offer her a warm welcome to the pages of PCBDaily.com.

Continue reading “The Secret of Marketing Panama City Beach – Susan Estler” →

Panama City Beach CVB Targets Spring-Breakers with New Online Planning Guides

It’s right around the corner – and this Spring Break, the Panama City Beach Convention & Visitor’s Bureau has taken a slightly different approach. Aimed at sending a serious message in a fun way, the CVB has created new online guides for the thousands of college students heading to Panama City Beach and its warmer temperatures, beautiful beaches, and action-packed nightlife. Continue reading “Panama City Beach CVB Targets Spring-Breakers with New Online Planning Guides” →

Agenda: CVB Marketing Committee Meeting: Fall/Winter Marketing

Panama City Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau’s marketing committee will be meeting on Tuesday to begin discussions on Fall and Winter marketing efforts. Recently, 1.5 million dollars have and will be spent on Summer marketing. This meeting should address the remaining budget as well as how those dollars will be spent for the fall and winter seasons.

AGENDA

MARKETING COMMITTEE MEETING

Panama City Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau, Inc.

Panama City Beach

Tuesday, June 9, 2009 9:00 a.m. – Board Room, Visitor Information Center

I. CALL MEETING TO ORDER

II. ROLL CALL

III. REQUESTS TO ADDRESS THE COMMITTEE ON AGENDA ITEMS (3 Minutes)

IV. DISCUSS FALL/WINTER MARKETING PROGRAM, Mr. Dan Rowe, President

V. AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION

VI. ADJOURNMENT

To download this agenda click here.

5 Questions for Bed Tax Collectors

Not for BTCs to answer, but to ask the CVB.

1. We are in the second year of conducting professional marketing research through the Klages Group. Where can we easily access that information? Have the staff put together any kind of comprehensive results from this research? We need to know this so we can better spend our own advertising dollars.

2. What is the cost to date for this research from the Klages Group?

3. In the spring of 2009, Jennifer Barbee implemented proper Search Marketing into the CVB site, data started being gathered that can help us today with our own online marketing. Assuming that we’re all equally benefiting from the TDC tax dollars, we should have real-time access to web stats. We should be able to access the CVB’s Google Analytics reports so we can compare them to our own reports, and likewise for Google Adwords and any other search engine marketing reports attached to the CVB’s efforts.

How do we get access to these common Google reports, as well as your more advanced measurement reports?

4. The extra tax passed. It has been confirmed at the recent TDC meeting that the new money would be going to the ad campaigns. Where can we access the full marketing, advertising and budgeting plans for this year?

5. Spring Break 2009 campaign included several new marketing tactics, including implementation of social network sites Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and text messages via a “PCB Insider” campaign. Facebook shows a respectable 5900 “friends” of PCB/CVB. How many people signed up for “PCB Insiders”? What was the overall result of our first “texting” campaign? What could you share with us about the results of the efforts in social network marketing? And what was the cost per lead for the efforts in this initial campaign?