• By Andrew Warfield
• | 5:00 a.m. December 18, 2025

For those working in the tourism marketing industry, forecasting is akin to gazing into a cloudy crystal ball. 

Certainly there are expectations given scheduled corporate meetings at hotels, sports events planned for the region’s athletic facilities, advance bookings for accommodates and more. Still, a single global or weather event can disrupt even the best laid plans. 

No one could have predicted, for example, that the pandemic years of 2020 through 2022 would bring the crush of tourists and relocations of those seeking a less-restrictive lifestyle. Nor could they have anticipated back-to-back-to-back tropical weather systems would cost an entire season of vacationers in 2024 and reluctant travel for a large portion of 2025.

Still, the work of Visit Sarasota County continues through it all, and even though factors such as the post-pandemic return to global travel and the 2024 hurricane season have resulted in fewer visitors in the inequitable comparisons to the Covid peak, those fewer visitors are spending more. And given the value the 6% accommodations tax, or bed tax, brings to the community, that’s the mission.

“We talk a lot about quality over quantity. We're residents, too. We would rather have fewer visitors spending more money than more visitors spending less money,” said Erin Duggan, the president and CEO of Visit Sarasota County, the county’s official tourism bureau. “We're not just resting on our laurels and getting who we get. We're being very strategic about who we're going after.”

To pursue those targeted markets, for fiscal year 2026 Visit Sarasota County received from the county about 13% of the projected accommodations tax revenue, or $8.1 million, of which $6.9 million is dedicated to promotions and nearly $1.2 million to recruiting sports competitions.

In return, VSC is credited with directly bringing about one-third of the county’s tourism plus a non-quantifiable number of visitors through ancillary awareness and repeat visitors. “But those meetings and those sports tournaments, they wouldn't be here but for us.” Duggan said.

Nor would they be here but for the hotels to accommodate them. Growth in that sector — even with the recent losses of the Hyatt Regency in downtown and the Sand Castle Resort on Lido Beach — Duggan said she expects a “flat” 2026 in terms of visitors, a welcomed trend from the declines of the prior to years.

That’s just fine with Art Ovation Hotel General Manager Wes Santos, who arrived here in 2021 with the Hyatt Regency.

“I came here just when things were getting crazy that summer,” said Santos, adding more hotels in the city’s inventory has helped boost visits and revenue. Both the downtown Embassy Suites and Art Ovation were opened in 2018, just in time for the pandemic rush.

“There's just so much more development in those four years happening downtown,” Santos said. “I look from our rooftop here and there's at least six cranes, so there is a confidence level that folks are continuing to come to the area.”

The opening of the St. Regis on Longboat Key, Duggan said, has boosted the bed tax revenue with its rates. A recent search of the hotel's website showed prices ranging from $1,137 per night for a guest room to $7,106 per night for a suite, 6% of that tourism tax revenue.

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Water in 11-month-old Midnight Pass runs deeper, extends farther and flows through in greater volume these days than it has since October's Hurricane Milton finished the job September's Helene started by reopening the south Siesta Key waterway. 

Now, more than 40 years since Midnight Pass closed the last time, Sarasota County leaders are devising plans to not only keep it open in the short term but also for the foreseeable future.

Less than three weeks after the Pass was torn all the way open by wind and waves on Oct. 10, 2024, survey teams began weekly measurements of its area, depth and flow at a consistent location. Those measurements indicate Midnight Pass might just stick around past infancy.

Among the most telling:

• Since late April, a key segment of Midnight Pass has never measured less than 1,000 square feet in area and upward of 1,400 square feet throughout the summer. It was less than half that upon initial examinations.
• Also, since late April and at the same location, water depth has never been shallower than around 11 feet, reaching around 15 feet throughout the summer and as deep as 17 feet. It had been as shallow as 7 feet earlier.
• Water flow between the Gulf and Little Sarasota Bay through the Pass increased to a rate in July sufficient to fill two Olympic-sized swimming pools in a minute, compared with half that rate in April.
• The center point of the Pass, while wobbling north and south from time to time, has remained essentially within about 100 feet.

Although quick to caution about Midnight Pass’ young age and the natural fluctuations that come with coastal features of that age, evidence points to a relatively consistent, naturally made waterway, said Mike Jenkins, a senior principal engineer with ATM Geosyntech, a coastal management company hired by Sarasota County to keep tabs on Midnight Pass.

“To date, this pass has remained open post-Milton and is exhibiting behavior consistent with an evolving, unstabilized coastal inlet,’’ he said, explaining that only passes that have been engineered with jetties or dredging can be considered stabilized. “So, it is open as of post-Milton.''

The Sarasota County Commission heard Jenkins’ presentation on Tuesday as a portion of discussion on their role in keeping the Pass open. Inlet management is one of the most regulated segments of coastal engineering, commissioners were told, involving multiple state, local and even federal jurisdictions, they were told.

Permits can take years for full-scale dredging or structure building, Jenkins said. But the ongoing data collection, paid for with a state grant, is key to not only justifying potential efforts to keep the Pass open but also to signal when emergency action might be needed, action that is far more streamlined and without the same regulatory requirements.

Jenkins said the weekly surveys will allow experts to “raise our hands” if signs point to impending trouble.

• By S.T. Cardinal
• | 8:00 a.m. December 4, 2025

After an overly eventful 2024 hurricane season, 2025 came and went quietly for Florida.

The Atlantic hurricane season was from June 1 to Nov. 30. The number of named storms was 13, within the lower range of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s predictions for the season in May. Thankfully, no hurricanes hit the continental United States. Tropical Storm Chantal, however, made landfall in the Carolinas.

The severity of the storms that did form was unique, with three Category 5 hurricanes: Erin, Humberto and Melissa. That is the second most since tracking began for the number of Category 5 storms in a single season. In 2005, there were four Category 5 storms.

Although the United States mostly escaped harm, Hurricane Melissa battered Jamaica with winds reaching 185 mph, tying for the second-highest wind speeds ever recorded in an Atlantic hurricane.

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• By Eric Garwood
• | 12:00 p.m. November 21, 2025

In 2025, more sea turtle nests were recorded on beaches from Longboat Key to Venice than Mote Marine Laboratory had ever noted in its decades of study, but the news was not all good for the region’s shoreline visitors.

A record number of turtle disorientations was also on record, raising concerns about humans’ effect on the nesting animals.

“It’s more important than ever for our community to turn off or shield beachfront lights, remove beach furniture at night, and keep nesting areas clear to give every hatchling the best possible chance at survival,’’ said Dr. Jake Lasala, Manager of Mote’s Sea Turtle Conservation and Research Program.

Disorientations take place when such distractions as artificial light on beachfronts misleads hatchlings or females attempting to return to the sea into heading the wrong direction. Such cases can lead to death, Mote said in a news release.

Mote documented 716 such events in 2025, the most in the organization’s 43 years of data gathering.

But, 5,735 turtle nests are documented over the same time span, breaking the 2024 mark of 4,369.

Loggerheads made up the bulk of the nesting turtles, but 351 green sea turtles also nested in the area monitored by Mote. Rare leatherback and Kemp’s ridley turtles sometimes come ashore in the area, but not in 2025, Mote said.

Data from Mote’s study — one of the longest running such endeavors in the United States — is used to help form coastal policy by local, state and federal authorities.

“This year’s record numbers show that Mote’s conservation measures are working,’’ Lasala said. “However, we’re seeing new challenges emerge, such as the rise in disorientations.’’

More than 300 volunteers, interns and staff, working under Mote’s permits and authority, walk beaches daily from April 15 through October, charting turtle data. Mote said some nests were uncommonly still incubating into November.

Beach2024 nests2025 nestsChange/Pct.Longboat Key1,2591,473214 16.9%Lido Key198186-12 (6%)Siesta Key502662160 31.9%Casey Key1,8302,727897 49%Venice58768497 16.5%Totals4,3765,7321,356 30.9%Source: Mote Marine Institute 

Local real estate investor Chris Brown added to his Sarasota portfolio with the purchase of The Boatyard on the mainland of the Intracoastal Waterway next to the south Siesta Key bridge, according to a Friday news release from the brokerage that negotiated the sale.

The 2.03-acre property at 1538 Stickney Point Road includes "deeded canal-front access" to Sarasota Bay, Little Sarasota Bay and the Intracoastal Waterway.

Kevin Robbins and Troy Robbins, both of Sarasota-based Harry E. Robbins Associates Inc., facilitated the transaction.

The sales price for the Boatyard property was not disclosed. The deed had not yet been recorded with the Sarasota County Clerk of the Court.

“The Boatyard is an iconic property. This is a generational asset for someone to own and develop. There are not many opportunities to secure this kind of commercial property with frontage on the water, let alone a deeded canal access. The buyer is a well-established hospitality/restaurant operator with multiple locations,” Kevin Robbins said. “We are excited to see how this project will be improved and enhanced to benefit the community.”

The news release from the real estate firm also noted Brown will "enjoy ample opportunities for an upgraded, mixed-use waterfront development."

Tenants at the property include The Boatyard Waterfront Bar and Grill and Siesta Key Watersports.

"Brown and his team are finalizing plans to upgrade the complex and promote a more customer-friendly environment to benefit new and existing tenants," the news release said.

The redevelopment plan was not immediately available on Friday, but "full plans for renovation and tenant mix will be released soon."

 “As a highly visible waterfront parcel so close to Siesta Key, this is obviously a very, very sought-after location. We fielded hundreds of requests for information on this listing, and we received multiple offers within a single week,” said Troy Robbins. “We only had three weeks to field offers, and we hosted multiple site visits with the buyers and the seller. Ultimately, we were able to put together a package offer that was acceptable for all parties — and all within that three-week window.” 

 Derek Gilliam 

 Father and son rescue man on Siesta Beach 

On the Monday evening of the long Labor Day holiday weekend, Jackie and Rob Eberley, who live on Midnight Pass, went to Siesta Beach with their 27-year-old son Gray who was visiting from New York City with his girlfriend. The group decided to take a quick early evening swim.

Jackie decided to stay on the beach. Rob and Gray went into the water for a swim.

Lifeguards had ended their patrol day at 5:00 p.m. and had left the beach.

The water, both Rob and Gray recalled, was choppy and conditions were windy. Rob, a marathon swimmer and member of the Siesta Beach open water swimming group “Meet Me at Blue,” named for the blue lifeguard chair on Siesta Beach, began swimming toward his son.

Suddenly, Rob heard a man yelling and flailing his arms in the air. “I quickly realized that he was in trouble and going under. The water was not clear, and it was hard to see.”

By the time Rob reached the man, whom both father and son believed to be in his 20’s or 30’s, he was, according to Rob’s estimation, about three feet under the water. “He was dead weight and in deep water” said Rob, who was not able to stand in the water himself.  “I pulled him up in a cross arm carry and started swimming to shore. He wasn’t breathing.”

Gray, a certified rescue diver, looked over and saw that his father was making his way back to shore with a swimmer in distress. He quickly swam to his side.

“I thought to myself, that guy isn’t fooling around,” said Gray. “When I got to them they were both just about at standing level in the water. The swimmer’s head was rolled back, and his eyes were open. My dad kept telling him stay with me, stay with me.” 

Without hesitation, Gray began to give the swimmer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. “He came back to life after I gave him the rescue breath,” said Gray. “He spit up water.”

Still shaken days after the incident, Rob recalled his days as a lifeguard and said, “I never had to give anyone mouth-to-mouth. Gray saved his life.”

“It was all my dad,” Gray said. “He saw the guy first. Then, I saw him make a bee line for him. When we got to the edge of the beach, the guy tried to walk out of the water, but then he collapsed.”

“The lifeguards came with the paramedics on a Polaris, a beach ATV. They gathered around him, checked his pulse, and then took him away.” It happened so rapidly that both men as well as Jackie who was watching the event unfold, agreed that the lifeguards appeared in what seemed like moments.

“We were so relieved to see those lifeguards. They got there so quickly,” said Rob.

Jackie recalled seeing two young men on the beach as the event unfolded but it is unclear who called 911 for help.

According to a statement released by Sarasota County, “Sarasota County Fire Department personnel responded to a medical emergency on Siesta Beach around 5:42 p.m. on Sept. 2. One patient was transported to Sarasota Memorial Hospital.”

The next day, Jackie, who grew up on Siesta Key, returned to the beach and asked the lifeguard on duty at the blue chair if there was any news about the young man’s condition. She was told that due to privacy regulations, the lifeguards could not discuss his status. “Everything in life is just about the moment,” said Jackie. “We all got to the beach at just the right moment.”

Swimmers, Rob said, call rough water conditions like that Labor Day Monday evening a “washing machine.”  Looking back, he recalled that although there were not rip tide conditions, the current was what he called “decent.” He said that it’s easy to understand how a less than strong swimmer could get scared and panic. “I recommend that bigger signs announcing the hours when there are no lifeguards on duty be posted,” he said.

“Be really aware,” Rob said, “no one’s strong forever. It’s important to respect the power of water.”

A week after the incident, Gray looked back on that day. Echoing his mother’s thoughts, he said, “God saved that man. It was just an impromptu visit to the beach, and we were all in the right place at the right time.”