Tampa tourism hot streak continues

The numbers are in, and they confirm everything you’ve heard about Florida tourism’s impressive recovery from the pandemic.

In a year that could have been expected to be flat or sluggish, the exact opposite — record-breaking visitation — has occurred, and Tampa Bay’s numbers are emblematic of the rebound. In Hillsborough County, for example, the collection of tourism development taxes, also known as bed taxes — a key metric for measuring tourism’s economic impact — rose by 7.04% between 2020 and 2021.