Officials eye costly tourism expansion

PANAMA CITY BEACH - The benefits to the Beach of a strong year-round tourism trade would be enormous, particularly in sports, but the cost could be huge.
   
Tourism officials hope to convince the community the cost would be worth expanding an $840 million-per-year county industry, especially during troubling economic times.
   
This could include increasing the bed tax paid by tourists by as much as 2 percent, TDC board Chairman Andy Phillips said.
   
"The need for additional funding has been demonstrated," Phillips said.
   
TDC Executive Director Dan Rowe told a combined board meeting of the Bay County Tourist Development Council and Panama City Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau recently that the TDC's strategic road map, basically a five- to seven-year plan, could cost $47 million.
   
"These dollar figures are still estimates," Rowe said. "And it will take a number of years to do it all. Part of the issue is we have to be sure the demand is there."
   
Not only can teams and tournaments help fill rooms during the fall and spring "shoulder" months of the year, Phillips said, but sports tourism highlights kids and families, something the TDC is trying to encourage.
   
"Sports is going to be a good fit for what we have to offer," Phillips said, noting that the beach's white sands help it compete with other sports destinations.
   
"Bringing new people to the beach is key," Phillips said. "We can't survive on what we have coming now. And one of the biggest growth areas is sports."
   
The $7.5 million Frank Brown Park improvements call for developing two "marquee" championship fields with additional seating, dugouts and press boxes. One could be designed for softball and one for baseball.
   
Other additions at Frank Brown Park include developing two additional "pinwheels" of youth/softball baseball fields with appropriate infrastructure.
   
Plans also call for additional spending on beach safety and beautification at a cost of $500,000 that would include landscaping and additional welcome signs and development of an intern program.
   
The largest anticipated cost, at $33 million to $35 million, would be for a Sports Village Complex that would include an indoor field house and as many as 16 baseball and soccer-type fields.
   
"These are things that we have identified that will help us build our business," Rowe said, noting that the current 3-percent bed tax brought in about $6.75 million last year from $209 million in lodging dollars.
   
Most experts agree tourists spend about 25 percent of their dollars on lodging, bringing the amount of tourist dollars spent per year in Bay County to about $840 million, Rowe said.
   
"Ultimately, we have to show the community a compelling way they will benefit from this plan," Rowe said.