PANAMA CITY BEACH — When you look at the numbers, it’s easy to see that the Bay County Tourist Development Council (TDC) is doing something right.
During the 2013 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, the agency collected $15.7 million in revenue, marking a third straight record-breaking year.
The agency collects revenue through the county-levied tourist development tax, or bed tax. Under the tax, five pennies of every dollar spent on short-term accommodations within the special taxing district in Panama City Beach are directed into the TDC budget.
Of the five pennies collected on every $1, 1 cent is set aside for beach nourishment projects and about a half-cent goes toward beach maintenance and roadway landscaping projects.
The remainder of the tax, about 3½ cents, goes to the Panama City Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau for tourism promotion, with one of the pennies specified for promoting low-budget airline travel in the area.
TDC Director Dan Rowe said the monthly bed tax collections are the best measure of success the agency has, because they represent the volume of visitors staying overnight in the destination.
“If tourist development taxes are up 8 percent, that means the amount that the visitors spent on lodging that went into the business owners’ pockets as revenue has also gone up,” Rowe said. “There is a direct correlation between the increase in tax collections and the increase in lodging revenue.”