Lee County Visitor and Conventions Bureau Executive Director Tamara Pigott has reported that $2.167 million dollars in bed tax money was collected in October, that’s up from $1.839 million in September and up from $2.105 million in October of 2019. A big part of the increase was attributed to strong vacation rentals in the county.
A total of $38.266 million in bed tax money was collected between October of 2019 and September 2020. That’s about $4 million less than the prior year. Before the decline, due to the pandemic, bed tax money has steadily increased over the past three years.
The Tourist Development Tax Collection fiscal year begins in October
417,305 people traveled through Southwest Florida International Airport in October, a decrease of over 34% from October 2019. So far in 2020 4.8 million people have traveled through the airport, a decrease of over 41% from the same months one year ago. At the end of 2019, 10.225 million people traveled though RSW.