Driving the economy

Growth at all three spurs economy

Broward’s airport, seaport and tourism all saw growth in the past year, officials said.

Broward County’s international airport, seaport and tourism sector are among the leading drivers of the local economy, and all enjoyed some level of growth in the past year, top industry officials said Friday.

This year, the three sectors see positive trends in spite of marketplace and geopolitical challenges, leaders said during the Port Everglades Association’s 9th Economic Engine Performance Report at the Greater Fort Lauderdale/ Broward County Convention Center.

The annual event draws hundreds of members of the local business community for updates on the sectors’ past performance and a forecast for the current year. In a question and answer session moderated by Steve Bousquet, Tallahassee Bureau Chief for the Tampa Bay Times; Mark Gale, the county’s aviation director; Steven Cernak, Port Everglades’ chief executive and port director; and tourism chief Stacy Ritter gave their takes on their agencies’ prospects.

Some highlights:

Passenger traffic at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood

Following a strong 2016 for passenger traffic, the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport is forecasting 32 million passengers in 2017, a 35 percent increase from the 23.5 million welcomed about five years ago, Gale said.

Last year the airport welcomed 29.2 million passengers.

“We’ve long talked about how busy FLL is getting. It is rocketing forward,” Gale said. “We just had our 36th consecutive month of growth on the international side, and year over year double-digit growth in other sectors.”

Preliminary data for April show it was a standout month with a “staggering” 20 percent increase in passengers from a year ago, he said.

The airport is in the midst of a $2.3 billion expansion and modernization project, which is expected to be completed in 2020. By then, the airport could see 40 million passengers, Gale said.

He acknowledged that the airport faces possible growth obstacles, such as federal travel bans on overseas passengers from selected countries and restrictions against electronic devices.

When asked how the airport was progressing following the shooting tragedy in January that killed five travelers and injured several others, Gale said: “We can’t let the events of one day, as tragic as they were, define or change the course of where we need to be as an airport.”

He said the airport hopes to complete an after-action report around July and seek to address its findings and recommendations.

Port Everglades

The Broward seaport ranks as the third-busiest cruise port in the world behind PortMiami and Port Canaveral. It also remains the leading container port in Florida in terms of volume of containerized cargo, Cernak noted.

Of the port’s outlook, Cernak said he sees more growth, which will be aided by infrastructure projects that are under way or in the pipeline.

Among them is the Port Everglades Navigation Improvements Project, which will deepen and widen the port’s channel’s depth from 42 feet to 50 feet overall. The project is in the pre-construction engineering and design phase. The $389 million project will allow the port to handle wider and bigger ships.

Other port upgrades will include the addition of three new Super Post-Panamax container gantry cranes, with options for three more.

“It’s critical because if we’re going to increase berth capacity, we have to also have cranes to handle that cargo … in today’s world we have to have efficiencies and speed and we have to be able to handle these vessels,” Cernak said.

Tourism

Greater Fort Lauderdale, as Broward is marketed for tourism purposes, is attracting younger visitors and “Millennial tourism is huge for us,” said Ritter, who has led the tourism bureau since June 2016.

Additionally, more well-heeled travelers are opting to vacation here.

Those destination assets include “luxury properties, amazing restaurants and nightlife, and incredible shopping.”

April was a stellar month for tourism in that the county’s average daily room rate was up for this first time in six months, she said.

She said one disturbing factor is the dramatic budget cuts at Visit Florida, the state’s official tourism marketer.