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Tourism office projects visitor growth, asks county to fund new manager role from bed-tax revenues
Summary
Tourism staff reported rising visitor counts, proposed consolidating tourism and Agri‑Civic Center management into one manager position funded from bed-tax revenue, and discussed Airbnb collections, short‑term rental identification and the tourism reserve.
Denise (tourism staff) told the Okeechobee County Board of County Commissioners that calendar-year visitor counts have climbed from about 5.9 million in 2022 to 7.1 million in 2024 and that the first five months of 2025 show about 3.2 million visitors.
"So we are on target for another, high level visitor year," Denise said, adding that tourism is funded from the local tourism revenue (bed) tax and not general-tax dollars. She presented a fiscal 2025–26 tourism special-revenue fund request of $511,905, noting personnel is budgeted at $203,663 (an increase…
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