Discover the Palm Beaches presents visitor growth, hotel pipeline and county tourism master plan to council

Representatives of Discover the Palm Beaches briefed the Boca Raton City Council on April 7 about visitation figures for 2024, the hotel development pipeline and a countywide tourism master plan that will include public visioning in June.

Gustav Bridal, senior vice president of research, told the council Boca Raton received about 1.35 million visitors in 2024, a year-over-year increase of just under 4 percent; Palm Beach County overall grew about 4.6 percent. Bridal said the Boca Beach Club’s partial closure for renovation had some impact on local numbers. He reported that the city’s approximately 1,935 hotel rooms increased room nights sold by about 1.2 percent in 2024 and that room revenue rose about 0.5 percent with rates remaining generally steady.

Bridal said Discover the Palm Beaches’ pipeline includes six new hotels coming online in the next four years, with roughly 1,000 rooms in that pipeline. "Depending on the scale of hotel, there's about a half a job to two jobs per room that are generated from this," he said, estimating hotel development could create several hundred to roughly one thousand jobs in Boca Raton over the next few years.

Milton Segarra, president and CEO, emphasized walkability and the destination’s role in economic development: "One of the key components of any major destination in the world is the walkability factor," Segarra said. He described a “vitality wheel” linking destination promotion, return visits and subsequent residential and business investment.

Bridal also described the tourism master-plan process: researchers interviewed more than 200 stakeholders across the county (ten specifically from Boca Raton), compiled city and county planning documents, and prepared an analysis to align regional and local priorities. Discover the Palm Beaches plans a June visioning workshop that will include live polling and public input to identify projects the county and cities should prioritize over the next 10 to 20 years.

Councilmembers thanked the organization for its partnership and for highlighting Boca Raton in county promotional efforts. The organization said it will continue public outreach and share the master plan results with municipalities ahead of the June workshop.