Tourism tax collections top $7M in Hillsborough for second time ever

Tourism continues to boom in Hillsborough County. And the numbers, officials say, prove it.

According to a report released Wednesday by Visit Tampa Bay, tourist development tax collections jumped 7.3% to $7.28 million in February when compared with last year and 21% when compared with 2022.

That is the second highest month in the history of the county, the tourism group says in the statement. The previous high was March 2023 when $7.79 million was collected.

“These are the only two months in our history over $7 million,” Mary Haban, Visit Tampa Bay’s vice president of global communications, wrote in an email.

Overall, collections for this fiscal year — which runs from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30 — have reached $32 million.

The tourist development tax is a 6% tax on “the total rental amount collected from any person or other party who rents, leases, or lets for consideration” a hotel, condo or other quarters for less than six months, the county says.

Driving the tax collections are hotels that generated $121.5 million in taxable revenue in February, a 7.2% increase over last year.

And it looks like March is going to keep that momentum going.

Visit Tampa Bay reports the occupancy rate in Hillsborough was 81.5% in March with the average daily rate hitting $193.96 and revenue per available room coming in at $158.12.

CoStar’s most recent hotel report issued April 25 found that for the week ending April 20, occupancy nationwide was 66.8%, the average daily rate was $158.60 and revenue per available room (RevPar) was $105.94.

Visit Tampa Bay is the city and county's visitors and conventions organization.

When it publicly reports monthly collection numbers, it refers to two months — the one in which the hotel generated the taxes and the one in which the hotel submitted the taxes. For example, in this report, the hotels collected in February and submitted in March.