Boulevard work impact may be less on visitors
Visitor impact should not be as heavy as the impact on residents and business personnel during all facets of upcoming road construction work on Estero Boulevard on Fort Myers Beach.
That is the belief of Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau Executive Director Tamara Pigott, who addressed the Greater Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce at a business luncheon at Charley’s Boat House Grill Thursday. She stated she has already started to converse with potential international guests about the improvements project that will tear up the road, replace or add utilities underground and resurface it with better sidewalk and drainage facilities.
“We certainly know that it will impact what we are doing here. There is no way a project like that couldn’t impact businesses,” she said. “I think our visitors are going to be more patient than you and I are.”
Project website www.reFRESHFMBeach.com will be a great information source, says Pigott. The informational website will allow everyone to gauge a particular timeline when work should happen on a regular basis. Like the Beach Chamber, the VCB office also plans to help out.
“There are going to be delays,” she said. “We will make sure that our hotel partners have the latest information and are able to provide that to their guests. We will communicate as appropriate to the best of our abilities.”
FMB Chamber Chairman David Anderson encouraged all business members to stay engaged by attending meetings and asking questions relating to road repair.
“You need to please pay attention when there are meetings,” he said. “The next five to six years are going to be very tough. The nest 18 months in particular are going to be very tough. The more information you have and the better prepared you are, the better you are going to be able to survive it in a decent fashion.”
Work begins July 2015 to replace water mains on Estero Boulevard between Times Square and Lovers Lane. Crews are expected to work during the daytime hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., but some night and weekend work can be expected. Officials say motorists should expect lane closures on the boulevard. Businesses and residents along Estero Boulevard in the first section should be prepared for water shut-offs. While affected parties will be notified via flyers, it’s always a good practice during waterline construction to keep extra water and ice on hand for emergency shut-offs. A precautionary boil water period of approximately three days typically follows a water shut-off.
Boil water advisory information can be found at lee.floridahealth.gov/programs-and-services/environmental-health/drinking-water/boil-water-advisory.html . Guidelines for Food Service Establishments can also be found on this link.
“Restaurants, hotels and such should please do a little bit of forecasting as to what your water usage is so that you can get the information to us so that we can forecast how many 5-gallon bottles of potable water and ice we can keep on hand for emergency purposes in case of boil water alerts,” said Anderson. “We are finding that your coffee machines and ice makers are tied to the water lines. That means when there is a boil water alert, you will not be able to use them.”
The Beaches of Fort Myers and Sanibel promotions overseer gave her tourism report to Beach business officials at the luncheon. Simply put, it’s all about ‘heads in beds.’
“We are responsible for enticing people to come to this area by showing them how beautiful it is, by opportunities for them to have meetings here and business opportunities within the community and to have a fabulous vacation and enjoy our beautiful beaches and coastal environment.”
The Lee VCB visitor profile and occupancy analysis report shows that beaches are the No. 1 reason for visiting the area (81 percent), followed by the Fort Myers Beach Pier (41 percent) in second.
All numbers in 2014 are up from the previous year. More than 5 million visitors came to Lee County in 2014, while close to 3 million of them stayed in paid accommodations and the remaining 2 million stayed with friends and family. These visitors spent $2.9 billion dollars last year, a 3.5 percent increase. In all, $33.3 million was collected from bed taxes.
“It is a huge economic engine for our community and means a great deal to our area,” Pigott said. “Tourism has been really strong the last few years. In fact, we are in the fifth year of five straight increases.”
A yearly breakdown in tourism numbers shows a leveling off in the four seasonal categories: winter 2015= 1,397,956 visitors; spring 2014= 1,365,611; summer 2014= 1,097,509; and fall 2014= 1,120,452.
“That significant change we all feel in the high season is really the seasonal residents,” Pigott said.
Visitors do return. Nearly 70 percent of them come back the next year.
“That tells me that the businesses and the hotel community are really delivering a great experience to them
Summer season has VCB officials promoting within the state of Florida to metropolitan areas of Miami, Tampa, Key Largo and Sarasota. Staycations are being pushed.
“We primarily market to people in other very warm destinations this time of year,” Pigott said.
The next big push is the slow time of the fall. Island Hopper Songwriter Fest comes to the area during the timeframe of Sept. 17-27 with stops in Captiva, Fort Myers and Fort Myers Beach (Sept 25-27 weekend). More than 40 artists have been scheduled so far.