Pinellas tourism booster taps a key market amid recovery efforts: Canadians

Pinellas County’s tourism booster has overhauled its seasonal marketing tactics to publicize that the beaches are back.

Officials have spent the last few months focusing its campaign not on the typical Midwest and Northeast cities that drive visitation, but on Canada.

In place of pristine white sand beaches displayed at New York City subway stations is a more sober ad featured in Toronto’s tunnel network depicting the St. Pete Pier, streaked by a glorious sunset and overlaid with the words “still shining.”

Steve Grimes, chief marketing officer for Visit St. Pete-Clearwater, said his agency is betting that its message of resilience will resonate more with Canadians, who represent half of international travel to Pinellas County and 5% of total visitation, with around 600,000 travelers each year.

Canadians experienced fewer distractions this fall and less competition for advertising without Election Day and Thanksgiving, Grimes said. And while domestic visitors might book a last-minute trip, Canadian visitors are booking flights for spring getaways now, he said.

Methods to reach Canadian visitors vary. There are in-person events in Toronto. An invitation to a Canadian travel writer. Billboards along highways and posters in Toronto’s tunnels connecting downtown buildings. Sponsored shout-outs to St. Petersburg’s mild temperatures during local weather segments.

All aim to convince Canadians that the last time they saw Florida in the news — with hurtling winds and banks of sand towering over cars — doesn’t resemble today’s reality.

“We’ve been fighting a little bit the perception that we got completely obliterated by the storms,” Grimes said. “People tend to remember the things they saw on social media.”

The agency estimated last month that 80% of beachside destinations are open, though iconic attractions like The Don CeSar hotel remain closed into March.

So how do Canadians perceive Florida?

Frequent visitors seem largely unperturbed by past hurricanes, said Jim Byers, a travel writer and former editor for the Toronto Star. They often know exactly where they’re going and the extent of the damage months after storms hit.

Meanwhile, Tampa Bay likely benefits from first-time visitors’ vague understanding of hurricanes and their long-term impacts, Byers said.

“I don’t think people drill down and say, ‘it was just north of Fort Myers,’” he said. “To the extent that people are worried or think about hurricanes, it’s really more the state in general.”

Visit St. Pete-Clearwater hosted Paul Gallant, a Toronto-based travel blogger and editor-in-chief of the LGBTQ+ website Pink Ticket Travel, in November. Gallant said the extent of recovery surprised him and he would note lingering storm damage as an afterthought to readers.

Hurricanes aside, some Canadians have other reservations about Florida and Tampa Bay.

President-elect Donald Trump’s return to power — and his public statements belittling Canada’s status as an independent country — have soured perceptions of the U.S. writ large in Canada, Byers said. Statewide, Gallant said, LGBTQ+ and younger Canadian visitors have voiced concerns about Florida’s leadership.

But ideological concerns with Florida haven’t kept Canadians away in practice, Byers said. More of an issue are the rising costs of visiting the state.

For snowbirds — those who spend months at a time in Florida during the winter in long-term vacation rentals and condos — the rising cost of insurance tempts some to leave, said Evan Rachkovsky, director of research and communications for the Canadian Snowbird Association. Of the group’s 115,000 members, around 70% migrate to Florida in the winter. A handful of members reported damaged property after the storms, Rachkovsky said.

All visitors also must grapple with a weak Canadian dollar. One Canadian dollar is worth less than 70 cents in U.S. dollars, the lowest exchange rate since the pandemic.

That discourages those planning high-budget vacations in Florida, such as families at Walt Disney World, Byers said.

Still, he’s optimistic that those barriers to Canadian visitations amount to “a minor blip.”

“Never underestimate the power of a Canadian wanting to get the heck out of winter,” he said.

The most recent figures released by Pinellas County show that bed tax collections — taken from hotel revenue — dipped significantly after hurricanes Helene and Milton. Collections were under $4.3 million in October, compared to nearly $6 million the same month last year. Figures for November haven’t been released yet.

Those declines don’t extend across Tampa Bay. In October, Hillsborough County, aided by those who fled flood zones, recorded its highest-ever monthly hotel revenue and a higher occupancy rate compared to the same month last year.

This year, Grimes said, Visit St. Pete-Clearwater plans a marketing blitz across familiar domestic destinations: New York City, Chicago and Ohio. In advertising, at least, the destination can put once-in-a-century hurricanes in the rearview mirror.