Moving Up The Coast

By Business Observer Staff
| 6:00 p.m. May 11, 2007

Entrepreneurs

Moving Up The Coast

TOURISM by Janet Leiser | Senior Editor

D.T. Minich, a veteran of tourism promotion on the Gulf Coast, has moved from the Lee County position to Pinellas County, a community with a different set of challenges.

Life's a beach for D.T. Minich.

At least it has been for about 15 years, since Minich joined Lee County's tourism department.

The 43-year-old has made a living since the early 1990s promoting tourism for Sanibel Island and Fort Myers Beach. At the end of April, he became the tourism chief for Pinellas County, which lays claim to being "home of America's No. 1 Beach."

Densely populated Pinellas, with a population of about 924,000 and 280 square miles, is about 150 miles north of Lee, which has a population of about 571,000 and more than twice as much land with 803 square miles, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates for 2006. In fact, Pinellas County is Florida's most densely populated county.

But both coastal counties have at least one thing in common, other than being located on Florida's Gulf Coast. They have beaches that are touted as the world's best.

Lee has Sanibel Island and Barefoot Beach Park in Bonita Springs. Pinellas has North Beach at Fort DeSoto and Caladesi Island in Dunedin.

Fort DeSoto was retired from Dr. Beach's list of the nation's top 10 beaches in 2005 after it took the No. 1 spot. Last year, Caladesi in Pinellas was second only to Fleming Beach Park in Maui, Hawaii, while Barefoot in Bonita Springs was No. 10.

Whatever spot Caladesi and Barefoot land on Dr. Beach's list this year, Minich's job now is to promote Pinellas, which has seen two of its beaches at the top of the list. (Florida International University professor Stephen Leatherman, also known as Dr. Beach, will release the best beaches of 2007 later this month.)

On a recent Monday, Minich attended a Pinellas County Commission meeting where land owners pleaded with the county to increase hotel densities by as much as 1.5 to 2.5 times the number of permitted rooms so more hotels will be built on the beaches to replace those lost to condo conversions.

Minich contends he has much to learn about the tourism issues facing Pinellas, but he favors increased density in the built-out county.

"I think we definitely need more density to help spawn hotel development," he says. "To attract the kind of properties we want here, it's going to take higher density. They have to have so many units per acre to make money."

Pinellas beachfront property, if available, is selling for as much as $18 million an acre, according to figures thrown around at the commission meeting.

Tourism is doing well in Pinellas, Minich says, but there's always room for improvement.

There were 13,880,355 visitors to Pinellas in 2006, a slight increase over the previous year, according to St. Petersburg/Clearwater Visitors & Convention Bureau statistics. Still, full-time tourism employment in the county dropped to 83,539, from 85,395 a year earlier, while visitor-generated wages, direct and indirect, increased to $2.9 billion.

The lodging occupancy rate also dropped from 74% to 72.6% in the same time while the county lost about 5,000 of its 40,000 hotel rooms to redevelopment.

Good news for hotel owners is the average room rate increased to $93.18, from $84.32.

Minich is spending most of his first few weeks meeting officials with the chambers, airports and county.

"I have to find out what's facing the industry - good, bad and ugly," he says. "It's really getting to know all the issues out there."

He's unable to say initially what his biggest challenges are, he says, adding, "My biggest short-term challenge is getting around and meeting all the players as far as tourism, elected officials and staff."

BY THE NUMBERS

Two-year Snapshot of Pinellas Tourism

2005 2006

Total Visitors 13,618,765 13,880,355

Overnight Visitors 5,212,435 5,254,255

Lodging Occupancy 74% 72.6%

Average Room Rate $84.32 $93.18

Length of Stay 6.7 days 6.5 days

Average Party Size 2.9 2.8

Air Travel 71.9% 70.4%

Auto Travel 26.4% 28.2%

Annual Spending* $6,145,838,164. $6,415,551,365.