Tourism in Collier County slows in 2023

Collier County welcomed about 200,000 fewer visitors in 2023 than 2022, according to a study presented to the tourism Development Council on Feb. 20 by Downs & St. Germain market research firm. 

The $2.6 billion brought to the county by more than 2.7 million visitors in 2023 represented a $200 million decrease from 2022, when 2.9 million tourists spent time in the county and created $2.8 billion in economic impact.  

Despite serving fewer visitors last year, Collier experienced a 24% year-over-year increase in December 2023 with 247,000 tourists. The county was recovering from Hurricane Ian in December 2022, attributing to the jump in numbers at the end of 2023.  

tourism-numbers3.jpg” alt=”Collier County tourism numbers for December 2023″ width=”929″ height=”518″ https://traveltrade.today/category/tourism-news/”>tourism-numbers3.jpg 929w, https://images.traveltrade.today/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Collier-tourism-numbers3-300×167.jpg 300w, https://images.traveltrade.today/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Collier-tourism-numbers3-768×428.jpg 768w, https://images.traveltrade.today/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Collier-tourism-numbers3-750×418.jpg 750w” />Another spike in numbers was seen in European visitors, with 15% of the visitors being international in December 2023 compared to only 9% in December 2022. The international visitor count is slowly making its way back to pre-pandemic trends. In December 2019, 20% of visitors were…