ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla — "This year’s been a little bit of a rollercoaster," Troy Blevins said Wednesday. He works with Jalaram Hotels. It has nine hotels in St. Augustine and three in Jacksonville.
When it comes to business for hotels this year, "it’s been up and down."
The early part of the fiscal year was very strong. The amount of bed tax (the taxes guests pay at hotels) collected spiked in January 2023 in St. Johns County. The jump was 27 percent compared to January 2022, according to the St. Johns County Visitors and Convention Bureau. February 2023 bed tax numbers were up seven percent year over year.
But then, "It just fell off in May," Blevins said
"Starting in late April, we started seeing a decline in travel," Susan Phillips, the President of St. Johns County Visitors and Convention Bureau said.
However, even with that slump, business increased year over year.
"We just received our bed tax report, and this goes through September, and we’re up 4 percent year over year," Phillips told First Coast News Tuesday.
Why the dip in the spring and summer?
Blevins said, "We’re not really sure what it was. There might be a state wide saturation of people coming to Florida because the whole state of Florida’s been low."
It seems the early part of the last fiscal year was strong enough to keep the numbers up.
And now Nights of Lights has started, which is an economic engine for St. Augustine.
"The demand it back at least for this holiday season," Phillips noted.
"What this means is they (hoteliers) will have properties sthat will hopefully be close to full, if not 100 percent full," Phillips said. "They will be able to take care of their employees over the holidays."
Blevins said, "The trend has been always during Nights of Lights, it’s our best month. December is our best month."