Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Trump visits yet to boost tourism
2017 tax revenues see slight decline
Free worldwide publicity from President Donald Trump’s frequent Palm Beach visits so far hasn’t delivered a huuuuge boost in local tourism, according to 2017 tax revenues.
Money from tourist taxes on Beach County hotel stays declined from the prior year by 2 percent to 3 percent during February and March, as Trump made his first few post-inauguration visits to Mar-a-Lago.
That’s about $300,000 less in tax revenues used to pay for everything from advertising local tourist attractions to refurbishing eroded beaches.
“We couldn’t buy that kind of media attention,” Palm Beach County Mayor Paulette Burdick said about the presidential visits. “But time will tell if any true benefits will be measured.”
Palm Beach County hotels have reported a slight uptick in occupancy rates since the start of the year, though the average room prices dipped a bit, according to STR, a Tennessee-based hotel industry tracker.
Part of the reason for the mixed results could be that the army of White House staffers, Secret Service and other government employees who follow the president to Palm Beach are exempt from payPalm ing those taxes on hotel stays.
They sometimes also receive reduced-price, government room rates.
Despite a slow start, local leaders say there should be a longterm tourism boost from the international media attention that Trump’s visits attract.
April hotel data, which wasn’t yet available, could show more signs of improvement, according to the county’s Tourist Development Council.
“It’s a little harder to put a value to it,” Glenn Jergensen, executive director of the Tourist Development Council, said about the effects of presidential publicity. “We might not see the benefits of that for two to three years.”
Trump has made seven trips to Mar-a-Lago since becoming president — attracting a media contingent broadcasting images of Palm Beach County’s beaches, blue skies and golf courses to potential visitors around the world.
The entourage of staffers, Secret Service officers, Air Force One crew members, the media and others who tag along on presidential visits is estimated to use about 250 rooms per night.
During a three- or four-day trip, that can equate to up to 1,000 rooms directly tied to Trump’s visits.
That number was amplified during Trump’s two-day summit at Mar-a-Lago in April with the president of China.
President Xi Jinping brought busloads of government officials and security officers as well as thousands of red-shirt-wearing, flag-waving supporters. Much of the Chinese contingent stayed at the Eau Palm Beach Resort and Spa.
Since the summit, the luxury resort has been inundated with reservation requests from Chinese travelers, said Nick Gold, Eau’s public relations director.
“It did create a sensation for us, in a good way,” Gold said. “Our name was plastered all over the world.”
Yet, Trump’s trips to Mar-aLago came at the peak of Palm Beach County’s tourist season — when many of the hotel rooms filled by the presidential entourage could have otherwise been taken by other travelers.
In February, Palm Beach County lost out on about $258,000 in tourist tax revenues due to hotel guests who qualified for exemptions to the 6 percent tax on hotel stays. That was about $90,000 more than the previous year, according to the Tourist Development Council.
In March, the revenue loss to tourist tax exemptions increased to $264,000, though that was nearly the same as the previous March, according to the Tourist Development Council.
That’s not all due to government employees tagging along on Trump trips, Jergensen said. Government employees and consultants, as well as full-time students, are among those who can qualify for exemptions, which are common throughout the year, he said.
While tourist tax revenues slumped at the beginning of the year, local officials say the number of visitors is on the rise.
During the first three months of the year, Palm Beach County had 2.3 million visitors. That was a 7 percent spike over the same period in 2016, according to Discover the Palm Beaches, the county’s tourism marketing arm.
That includes a 14 percent increase this year in visitors from Washington, D.C. There was also a 24 percent increase in hotel bookings for people from the nation’s capital, according to Discover the Palm Beaches.
Palm Beach County’s almost 84 percent hotel occupancy during the first three months of 2017 was about 1 percent more than the same time last year, according to STR.
Even as occupancy rose, average daily room rates have been down a little so far this year. The county has averaged a $231.66 average daily rate, a less than 1 percent decline.
While declining room rates appeal to travelers, they can be a bad sign for the health of the tourism industry.
One explanation for the “flattening” of Palm Beach County’s room rates is the construction of more hotel rooms, which creates more competition for customers, said David Semadeni, of the Palm Beach County Hotel and Lodging Association.
“If you have more hotels, you can’t push your rates,” Semadeni said.
Even though the county’s average daily room rates have dipped a little this year, they remain among the highest in the state, according to STR.
Though hard to estimate, ongoing publicity from Trump’s visits to Mar-a-Lago could fuel more Palm Beach County tourism, said Jan Freitag, STR senior vice president.
“The ‘Southern White House’ has a certain cachet,” he said.
While that “cachet” could eventually lead to a local tourism boost, hosting the president’s weekend getaways has already increased law enforcement costs for Palm Beach County taxpayers.
Helping provide security during Trump’s visits to Mar-a-Lago since the election has cost about $4.5 million, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office. Local leaders are lobbying for federal reimbursement.
In the town of Palm Beach, where island residents and businesses are the closest to the Trump media spotlight, “it’s still to be determined” if presidential visits will end up being good for business, according to Laurel Baker, Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce executive director.
Security around Mar-a-Lago when Trump was in town blocked traffic that made it harder for customers to get to some Palm Beach shops and restaurants.
At other times, visitors who come to the island for a glimpse at the presidential estate don’t tend to stop and shop or eat at nearby businesses, Baker said.
Also, much of the free publicity from the media following the president to Mar-a-Lago has focused on his luxurious, private club — not the shops, restaurants and cultural attractions Palm Beach has to offer.
“I don’t think, frankly, [Palm Beach] was put in its best light,” Baker said. “It was all tied to Mara-Lago, but there is so much more here.”