Tourist spending up, visitation down in Sarasota for September

Fewer visitors came to Sarasota in September than the year before, but tourists were spending more, according to the head of tourism for Sarasota County.

There were 117,400 visitors to Sarasota County in September, compared with 122,030 in 2023, says President and CEO of Visit Sarasota County Erin Duggan. That means visitation was down 3.79% since last year. Overall, she says visitation is down by 7.7% this fiscal year.

People are increasingly coming to Sarasota from afar, according to Duggan; visitation from Canada and the United Kingdom was up compared with last fiscal year, she says, and the percentage of visitors who flew to Sarasota in September increased 6% from September 2023.