Tourism in Palm Beach County: numbers are off the charts

From Jennifer Sorentrue at the Palm Beach Post we have a very interesting article about tourism in Palm Beach County (PBC). Some of the numbers reported is information I never knew before. When you read the article you can see how our little City of Lake Worth can take advantage of an obvious need in PBC—vis-à-vis hotel rooms.

Many people visiting PBC are going to like what they see. Don't forget the last estimate as reported on this blog: 800 people per day are moving to Florida to live—permanently or seasonally. For some perspective, that's the City of Lake Worth population every 43 days.

From the article by Jennifer Sorentrue:

     The hotel occupancy rate in Palm Beach County reached 81.9 percent in January [emphasis added], and tourism leaders say that number is expected to climb higher this month as frigid weather continues to cripple much of the country.
     In January, there were roughly 491,000 nightly bookings available at rooms in the county’s 165 hotels and motels, according to the Palm Beach County Tourist Development Council. Roughly 402,000 of those nightly bookings were sold to out-of-town travelers and other guests, the council said.
     Industry leaders say February is also expected to be a banner month. Hotel occupancy soared to 97 percent on Valentine’s Day and many area hotels have little room for guests weary of the winter weather up north.

[and...]

     Donald Dufresne, a member of the county’s Tourist Development Council, said new hotel rooms are needed to help meet the growing demand.
     There are 15,849 hotel rooms in Palm Beach County. Hundreds of new rooms are expected to be added to that inventory over the next 18 months with the opening of several new hotels.
     “Sometimes it is not enough inventory to accommodate the demand,” Dufresne said. “The good news is that we have a lot of inventory being constructed right now."