Gulf Shores And Orange Beach Release Tourism Numbers

GULF SHORES, ORANGE BEACH, Ala — Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism has released partial-year tourism figures for 2022, reporting “very solid” numbers through August so far. President and CEO Beth Gendler said the numbers are a testament to the area continuing to synchronize with key travel trends—road trip destinations with a variety of outdoor activities—and a return of the meetings business. “We saw a huge increase in meeting room nights this year,” explained Gendler. “This segment is up 47.4%, and we have worked with our hotel partners, at their request, to push meeting business to our shoulder seasons—a strategy that has obviously worked very well for our area.” Taxable lodging revenues for Alabama’s beaches through August beat last year’s all-time high for the same timeframe: $747 million this year, compared to $668 million through August 2021. This amount is higher than the total for all of 2019, the previous pre-pandemic record year. Taxable retail sales through August hit $1.1 billion for the first time, the second consecutive year this category has topped $1 billion before the end of the year. For most of this year, occupancy levels for both hotels and vacation rentals have hovered between pre-pandemic levels and 2021 record-setting levels.