Because of the global pandemic and economic recession that took over most of 2020, Navarre Beach, like many tourist destinations, saw its tourism tax revenues plummet in March, April and May as beaches shut down and uncertainty about the coronavirus crippled vacation markets globally.
But curiously, by the end of the year Navarre Beach was bucking the trend seen throughout much of the rest of the Panhandle its tourism tax revenue was up almost 27% in October and 55% in November, a surge that helped soften the downturn seen at the beginning of the pandemic.
“We lost our money in March, April and May, but we still came in at $3.5 million for the whole year, which is only $400,000 less than the year prior,” Santa Rosa County tourism director Julie White said in an interview with the News Journal on Wednesday. “We would have made way over ($3.5 million) if we hadn’t been shut down in March, April and May, so we would have had a record-breaking year, over $4 million