Economic forecast 2020: Tourism & Hospitality

COMPANY: Tampa-based Mainsail Lodging & Development is one busy hospitality firm. Celebrating 20 years in business in 2019, it develops and operates boutique hotel and resort properties, event centers and restaurants throughout Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and the British Virgin Islands. In 2019, it also signed a deal to manage the new Karol Hotel in the bustling Feather Sound business district between St. Petersburg and Clearwater. Its portfolio on the Gulf Coast includes properties in Tampa, Anna Maria Island, Dunedin, Fort Myers, Naples and Wesley Chapel. President Joe Collier — who, in 2018, was named the Gonzmart Family Tourism Ambassador of the Year by Visit Tampa Bay — says 2019 was a “game changer” for the company, citing not only the Karol Hotel deal, but also the expansion of Mainsail’s food-focused Epicurean Hotel brand into Atlanta. “That’s an exciting one for us.”