Anyone who has endured Tampa Bay's withering six-month summers has probably asked themselves: Why in the hell would anyone voluntarily come to the Gulf beaches in mid-July, or, perish the thought, August, or even crazier, September? Why would they schedule a vacation, pay hotel and restaurant bills, to frolic around in an inferno?
As it turns out, a lot of those wackos walking the beach in the summer are our wackos — or at least they come from not too far away, from places like Brandon and Kissimmee and Winter Haven.
"On any given summer day, 50 percent of my business is from the Tampa Bay area," says Tony Satterfield, general manager of The Aulden on St. Pete Beach. "And the I-4 corridor to Orlando is a big feeder as well."
Who knew?
"The very simple answer is that it's hot everywhere," says Jack Guy, sales manager at the Sheraton Sand Key on Clearwater Beach. "It's cooler at the beach."
Summer vacationers who live a short car trip away — the "drive market," the industry calls it — are a different breed from the out-of-state tourists who populate the beaches in the spring. Summer visitors' stays are shorter, usually on the weekends and tend to be booked spontaneously.
"Customers know the rates are lower and another big reason is that the kids are out of school," says Sheraton Sand Key GM Russ Kimball. "It's more of a quick getaway kind of thing. No matter the time of year, the beach has an allure."
Summer hotel rates are a moving target, says David Downing, PR director for Visit St. Pete Clearwater, a division of the Pinellas Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB). How business shapes up in the next few weeks will determine what deals are available, but the rule of thumb is that summer prices are 30-50 percent lower than the high season in February, March and April.
Another substantial contingent of summer visitors comes from overseas, mostly the U.K. and Germany (hello, banana hammocks). These folks tend to stay longer but bundle their Gulf beach vacation with a stay at Disney World.
But those aren't the only ones. Case in point: Dr. Jim Heck, a dentist who lives in suburban Indianapolis. He and his wife Margie are the parents of two boys — Christopher, 12 and Alex, 7 — and have been summer regulars at the Sheraton Sand Key for about a dozen years. The Hecks view the beaches as a "second home," and have even become fans of the Bucs and Rays.
"June is probably our favorite month," Dr. Heck said by phone from his office. "It's like our kickoff to summer. We think the weather is ideal. We're pool and beach people. When we leave here, it'll be like 85, and when we get down there in Clearwater, with the Gulf breeze it'll feel cooler than it does in Indiana."
Hmm. Maybe part of the reason June seems so hot to us locals is that we know it's just the beginning of a slog that usually lasts well into October. We scurry from air-conditioned home to air-conditioned car to air-conditioned office, and may well be missing a pretty nice time out on the sand.
While June is more temperate, July is the biggest summer tourism month in Tampa Bay. The kids have been out of school a few weeks; inland the weather is starting to wear on folks; and Independence Day is a big draw.
The tide turns in August and September. Statistics culled from the 5 percent tax levied on accommodations rented for less than six months — the "bed tax" — show that the tourism drops off 25-30 percent from July to August, and then slightly more in September. These are the most active hurricane months, but also when the beloved Gulf breeze feels like a giant dog breathing on your back.
Dr. Heck brought his family one August. "We left early," he says with a reluctant chuckle. "You're dripping wet just sitting there. You get in the water and it barely cools you off. The rains come in the afternoon and two minutes later, it's just as sticky and miserable."
Dr. Heck says it's unlikely he and the family will visit the beaches again in August, but he'll continue to come at other times. He likes the beach's pace during summer, the lack of crowds, the ease with which he can grab dinner with the family. "Vacation for me is about relaxing and feeling at home," he says. "With little ones, the less question marks the better."
The Hecks don't venture off the beach too much; occasionally Margie will run over to International Mall, or they'll take their sons to a movie or a bowling alley. And because Margie is part Greek, they sometimes venture to Tarpon Springs. In the final analysis, though, the Hecks "don't put too many miles on the rental car," Jim says.
The upshot of all this is that Tampa Bay beaches are attracting visitors year round. It's not like resort towns up north where the shops board up after Labor Day. "We've marketed it as a year-round destination," says D.T. Minich, executive director of Visit St. Pete Clearwater. "Twenty, 30 years ago, a lot of the smaller hotels and shops would close for a couple of months in the summer and early fall. That doesn't happen anymore. Air service has developed dramatically over the last 20 years. There used to not be a lot of nonstop, low-cost air service to this market. Now it's easy for a family to jump on a plane and come down for three or four days. Plus, it's a perfect time for Floridians to take advantage of a vacation in their own backyard."
The elephant in the room, of course, is what happens this summer amid a still sagging economy. Last year, the dollar was weak against the Euro, which brought a larger-than-anticipated influx of overseas tourists. This year, the dollar has strengthened somewhat, but Minich says, "It's still a good value."
Industry professionals are reluctant to make predictions. "The numbers we've seen so far have not been that drastically different from what we saw a year ago, which wasn't as bad as we anticipated," says Guy of the Sheraton Sand Key. "I'd say there's a bit of cautious optimism in the business. We're certainly going to be off — and we're sure to take it in the shorts with the rates — but I think we can hold firm."
This article appears in May 20-26, 2009.