Here’s Some Great Economic News For St. Johns County Residents

 

Charles Cox, VCB Board Chairman

Visitors Spent over $711 million in Our County Last Year…

St. Johns County is a great place to live, home to the Nation’s Oldest City, wonderful beaches and lush golf courses.  It takes a great deal of money to maintain this quality of life we all enjoy.  Re-nourishing and cleaning our beaches,  building walkways over the dunes, parks and parking areas along the coast from Ponte Vedra Beach to Summer Haven, maintaining fishing piers and boat ramps, all paid for by people that visit our county and pay Tourist Development Tax funds, otherwise known as the “Bed Tax”. 

This money also helps local charities and funds cultural programs.  Many of the things we take for granted are paid for by our visitors.  Without the tourism industry many of the things we enjoy would simply go away from lack of funding. 

That’s almost $6,000 for every man, woman and child living in St. Johns County… 

It goes way beyond the $5 million St. Johns County collects annually in bed taxes from our guests.  The $711 million spent by them while they are here supports over 12,000 jobs for county residents, who in turn spend their money here supporting another 22,000 jobs according to a recent study performed by the University of Florida.

Last year, visitors paid $42.7 million in sales tax revenue.  That’s money that doesn’t have to come from our residents… 

Sales tax is one of the primary sources of revenue for state and local governments.  In addition to the $711 million our guests spend here for goods and services, they paid another $42.7 million in sales taxes that are used for residential services and improvements that make living here even more enjoyable. 

 All destinations are competing for these dollars… 

Many other Florida communities are faced with the same economies; they are choosing to spend more money to invite guests to their area.  They realize the positive impact of strong tourism.  Our visitors have many choices on where to spend their time and money.  St. John’s County residents cannot afford to have a significant reduction in tourism.  We need to better understand what makes St. Johns County such a wonderful place to live.

Charles Cox is the current chairman of the St. Johns County, Ponte Vedra and The Beaches Visitors & Convention Bureau. He has lived in St. Johns County for 13 years operating the San Sebastian Winery. He is vice president of Seavin, Inc., doing business as San Sebastian Winery, Lakeridge Winery & Vineyards and Prosperity Vineyards. He is a past board member of the St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce, past president of the Attractions Association, and a current member of the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum board of trustees.