Tourism up despite difficult year The Apalachicola Times The weather might have gotten a little colder lately, but there’s one thing that’s still hot. Tourism. A report provided by John Solomon, director of the Tourist Development Council, Tuesday morning, indicated that after a sudden COVID-19 drop in the spring that wreaked havoc on the industry, the county’s tourist effort has roared back, with record-setting months in July, August and September to close out the 2019-20 fiscal year with a modest, but highly symbolic, increase of 2.17 percent over last year. The 2 percent lodging ta brought in a record-setting $1.43 million, about $30,000 more than last year’s $1.4 million.