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Santa Rosa County commissioners back 1-year Paradise marketing contract, eye targeted ad tests after bed-tax review
Summary
At a Sept. 11 tourism development workshop, county staff reviewed bed-tax collections and ad spending trends, members heard public comments from vacation-rental operators about falling bookings, and commissioners agreed to bring back a one-year contract with Paradise Advertising with options for limited household-income targeting tests.
Santa Rosa County commissioners directed staff on Sept. 11 to return to a future agenda with a one-year contract with two one-year renewal options for Paradise Advertising’s tourism-marketing services, following a presentation on bed-tax collections and county advertising returns.
The workshop opened with a briefing on bed-tax collections from 2010 through 2024 and new collection tools the clerk’s office has put in place to capture previously missed revenue and late fees. Julie (TDC staff) and Theresa (clerk’s office representative) walked commissioners through monthly collection trends and how a recently adopted payments system identifies delinquencies and additional fees.
The financial overview showed Santa Rosa County’s 2024 bed-tax revenue at about $6,460,000, with ad spend and agency fees totaling roughly $950,000 — about 14.7 percent of collections. Staff said the county’s ad-spend share has averaged roughly 13–15 percent of bed-tax revenue over the last several years after…
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