The vice chair of the St. Johns County Tourism and Development Council warned of an economic downturn Monday, urging local officials to brace for financial turbulence in the coming year.
Irving Kass, owner of the St. George Inn and longstanding member of the TDC, broached the possibility of a recession at a TDC meeting and called for fiscal caution moving forward.
Speaking concurrently with Monday’s stomach-churning Wall Street sell-off, Kass said the local tourism industry would be “lucky” to keep pace with prior gains in the near future.
The county’s fiscal year 2024 bed tax revenue — collected from short-term accommodations like hotel stays — was flat when compared to fiscal year 2023.
Fiscal year 2023 bed tax revenue represented a 4% increase from fiscal year 2022, according to data presented to the TDC.
“Morgan Stanley and a few of the other banks now are putting a recession at about a 30% probability,” he said after reporting the day’s stock losses. “I think we have to start thinking that we are going to be lucky to be flat. So, as we’re looking at budgets and spending, we’re going to have to be really smart to leverage our money as best we can. So, I want to change the concept of how we approach things.”
Kass counseled the TDC to closely monitor all tourism sectors for signs of weakness in the event of a slowdown.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 890 points, or 2.1%, to 41,911.71, while the Nasdaq composite sank 727.90 points, or 4%, to 17,468.32.
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One Response
And somehow Blonder wants to cut Nights of Lights so the area has even worse tourism numbers…