Sept. 18–TAMPA — News coming out of Tampa’s tourism office is nothing less than sunny, with little chance of rain for the remainder of the fiscal year. The county collected a record amount in bed taxes as of August, contributing some $21.9 million to the county tourism development fund.

That is $2 million above bed tax receipts at the same time last year and there is still another month to go before the fiscal year ends. The previous historic peak occurred in 2007 when the county collected $21.8 million in bed taxes.

The 5 percent tax on hotel and motel room rentals funds the county’s tourism efforts, sports facilities, arts and cultural venues and more.

Visit Tampa Bay, the county’s official tourism development arm, reports this as one of the busiest and most productive years in Tampa Bay tourism.

“I’m not surprised. We’ve been watching the numbers come in all year long, watching occupancy continue to rise and (room) rates continuing to rise,” said Visit Tampa Bay President and CEO Santiago Corrada. “They have all indicated the kind of year we’ve been projecting.”

“We’ve just had consistent business,” Corrada said. “On the heels of IIFA (International Indian Film Academy Awards, produced and filmed in Tampa) we just kept rolling. It’s been one group after the other. Our partners have been fabulous, our hotel and industry partners.

“It’s a feel-good story all around,” Corrada said. “We have not sacrificed on price but still seen the market perform very, very well. I’m optimistic this trend will continue for some time. August was strong and September has started out strong, as well.”

Visit Tampa Bay’s summer ad campaign was especially successful, according to an analysis presented to its board on Thursday. The area was marketed in four Florida regions and the ads were considered “appealing and particularly effective at positioning Tampa Bay as a quick and easy getaway,” according to the consultants.

“Overall, their summer campaign was one of the most efficient we’ve ever measured,” said Jerry Henry of H2R Market Research.

The summer campaign, which at $123,000 was the least expensive of the three ad campaigns for this year, brought in the most tourists. The campaign was built around the “Summer Play list,” concept, allowing travelers to mix and match destinations just as they would to create a music play list.

The winter ad campaign, also considered a success, focused on large cities including Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. It played off the chilling “polar vortex” phenomenon that swept the country this year. The campaign cost $467,129, included billboards that showed the current temperature in Tampa.

The least successful effort was the arts and culture ad campaign, which cost Visit Tampa Bay $170,000, but didn’t bring in as many people as expected. That effort targeted Orlando, Gainesville and Fort Myers playing up events like the Straz’s Broadway lineup. “We need to look at that one again,” Corrada said, adding that Visit Tampa Bay may find other areas it can target more successfully.

“We’ve had three years of hitting amazing goals,” he said. “We had a goal to book 450,000 rooms this year for future years” and he expects to reach that goal. Next year’s goal will be to book 480,000 rooms in 2015 for use in future years. Those bookings are almost all for conventions and meetings being planned well in advance.

“We will continue to raise the bar,” Corrada said. “There is lots of potential in this destination for growth.”

Corrada said his sales team is promoting the area worldwide and recently took a trip to three cities in India, a country whose people couldn’t even find Tampa on a map not long ago. Because of the attention IIFA brought to this area, Indians now recognize Tampa. “They’ve seen Tampa, know where it is and they want to come here.”

Some 455 tour and travel agents from Central and South America were here just this week, visiting area attractions, Corrada said, and they appear eager to market this area for vacations.

“My goal is to hit $30 million” in bed tax receipts, he said. “At 10 percent growth a year, we could do it in a few years.”

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