Record-setting Space Coast spring break has Cocoa Beach area buzzing
When COVID-19's emergence torpedoed Cocoa Beach's spring break tourist season in March 2020, the old Bernard’s Surf restaurant property was a vacant lot at Minutemen Causeway and State Road A1A in the heart of the city's downtown.
Fast-forward three years. Now, Area 142, a newly opened two-story restaurant-bar, is drawing throngs of weekend visitors, to play lawn games on its artificial-turf field, sample the fare of on-site food trucks or to listen to concerts on a jumbo outside stage.
It's not just Area 142, though. On any given night, crowds of people— ranging from toddlers to senior citizens — are tooling around downtown Cocoa Beach on foot, bike or electric scooters.
In fact, the Space Coast Office of Tourism predicts March and April will clock in as the Space Coast's all-time-record busiest spring break months, based on tourist-tax revenues from Brevard County's 5% tax on the rental of hotels, vacation rentals and other short-term accommodations.
Nowhere is that more apparent than in a revitalized downtown Cocoa Beach, the heart of Brevard County's tourism industry.
"In the past, Cocoa Beach was dead. It's really coming back, now that people are putting money back into it," Area 142 owner Eddie Rose said on a recent afternoon, sitting in the sunshine at a table on the lawn while patrons played cornhole nearby.
Rose, who grew up in Eau Gallie, opened Area 142 on Dec. 29. Manager Ingrid Llaverias estimated about 2,000 people attended Alter Ego's concert there on St. Patrick's Day. A large portable stage also drew crowds for other bands that weekend.
Heavy foot traffic in the area — partly fueled by the large number of nearby homes converted into vacation rentals — is indicative of a trend of Brevard tourism-industry strength the past two years.
Tourism officials predict that March will be the 24th consecutive month of record-high tourist tax revenue. Tourist tax collection for the first four months of the current budget year that began Oct. 1 is up 24% or about $1.5 million from the same months a year earlier.
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Tourism officials predict the average daily room rates will be $177.50 in March and $163.40 in April ― significantly higher than they were in the past.
Results of a recent search on hotels.com for weekend room rates in Cocoa Beach ranged from $187 at the Motel 6 to $549 a night at the Westgate Cocoa Beach Resort.
AIrbnb cited rates of $68 a night to rent a bedroom with a shared bath in a private home to $1,500 a night to rent a seven-bedroom oceanfront house.
Cocoa Beach Area Hotel and Lodging Association President Tom Williamson said spring break business this year has been stronger than it has ever been ― even with higher prices for accommodations.
"People are pent-up. They want to travel. And they are willing to pay the going rate," said Williamson, who is a partner in Ocean Partners Hospitality, which owns six hotels in Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral. "We're very busy. It's been the busiest March we've ever had. For us, it's been all good," even with increased competition from new hotels opening, plus the proliferation of vacation-rental properties in Cocoa Beach and other areas of the Space Coast.
Another factor, Williamson said, is that many parts of the northern United States have experienced a severe winter, leading a number of people to decide on a spring break escape in Florida.
The Space Coast Office of Tourism is spending $1.6 million on its spring marketing campaign, which is running on a range of digital, social and traditional media platforms from Jan. 16 to April 30. The campaign is funded by revenue from the tourist development tax on hotel rooms and other short-term rentals.
Office of Tourism Marketing Director Charity Stewart said the campaign is targeting Florida markets, as well as Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, plus Canada and the United Kingdom. Among the demographic groups it's zeroing in on are millennial and Generation X adults and families with children; couples without children; and households with incomes of $100,000 to $250,000.
A key message of the campaign is Brevard County's uniqueness. While many tourist destinations have beaches, the Space Coast is "the only beach that doubles as a launchpad," as well as being "Orlando's closest beach" for those who also are visiting the Central Florida theme parks.
The campaign also is aiming to get people who take cruises from Port Canaveral ― which currently ranks as the world's busiest cruise port ― to stay one or more nights at accommodations on the Space Coast before or after their cruises.
'Better than it's ever been'
Right across South Atlantic Avenue from Area 142, Scott Levy recently opened Category 5, a freshly remodeled sports bar featuring walls of television screens, pop-up food trucks and nightlife DJs.
“It's been very, very busy. I mean, it's better than it's ever been," Levy said of spring break. "I've been downtown at my jewelry store over there (Diamond Castle Jewelry & Coin) for 15 years, and traffic-wise, it's been the best I’ve seen it probably ever.
"Since I moved here, the change of downtown has drastically gotten 100% better than it was. Obviously, COVID changed a lot of things. But when we purchased this building five years ago this past February, we knew what we wanted to do in the future. And I knew what the future was going to bring," Levy said.
"The whole idea was to make this a destination, where people go from restaurants to bars to restaurants in the whole downtown area," he said.
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Many tourists drive to the Space Coast. But others fly in to Orlando International Airport, where spring break passenger volume is high.
Greater Orlando Aviation Authority officials estimate more than 7.2 million passengers will fly through Orlando International during a 46-day spring break travel period, which the airport classifies as kicking off March 4 and lasting through April 18. That’s nearly 1 million more passengers than last year.
Thus far, the Orlando airport has logged its two busiest days in history, handling 95,282 departing passengers on March 11 and 93,801 departing passengers on March 18. In a news release, airport officials attributed the spring-break traffic increase in part to service by low-cost carriers Lynx, Breeze, Avelo, Southwest and Spirit Airlines.
Melbourne Orlando International Airport, which offers far fewer airlines and flights, generally has full or nearly full planes to start with, airport spokesperson Keely Leggett said.
"Our airlines have not adjusted capacity for spring break by adding additional flights, so we’ve been steady in terms of traffic. Obviously we are going to see a big uptick in international service now that TUI is operation again, but that isn’t specifically spring break travel," Leggett said referring to a British travel company that operates charter flights to Melbourne..
Booked to capacity
Just south of Cocoa Beach city limits, away from the bustling Minutemen Causeway crowds, South Beach Inn is a 1961-vintage motel that operates as a 19-room oceanfront resort. Front desk manager Sherri Burton said the inn has been booked to capacity the past few weeks.
There was a slight lull in mid-March, but now it's booked solid through April. Of note: The Cocoa Beach Air Show, featuring the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, should draw huge crowds on April 15 and 16.
"Crazy. Busy," Burton said of this spring break season, standing behind the front desk.
"Some people like the quietness down here. They like to get away from that," Burton said of Cocoa Beach's downtown crowds.
Fran Burroughs of Belleville, Ontario, sunbathed with a book Monday in a blue chair on the South Beach Inn lawn. She said she preferred the "retro" resort to a vacation rental because it was cheaper: She is staying from Feb. 27 through this past week. Also, she would like to return with her dogs, Buster and Zoe, who would be banned by many vacation rentals.
But many others are choosing to stay in the freshly painted vacation rentals that have popped up seemingly like mushrooms across neighborhoods bordering downtown Cocoa Beach over the past year.
Rose said he "absolutely" notices Airbnb and Vrbo visitors at Area 142 because they tend to stay "a day or two, and they're gone." Llaverias even said one of their former employees had to move away because her landlord converted her apartment into a vacation rental.
Butch and Debi Stearns of Davison, Michigan, booked an Airbnb room on the beach end of Minutemen Causeway to bookend their eight-night Caribbean cruise aboard Carnival Magic from Port Canaveral. On a recent Monday morning, they took a 1-mile walk north through nearby residential streets — and he took a few photos of signs posted outside vacation rentals to save contact information for future trips.
"Some of them are homes. Some of them are four-unit or two-unit places," Stearns said, lounging in a chair watching passing pedestrians outside his Airbnb unit.
"That's great food," he said, pointing at nearby Coconuts on the Beach. "We used to like going to Fort Myers Beach — but since the hurricane, we're like, 'Well, there's no sense going there right now,' " he said.
Brevard County Communications Director Don Walker said he believes 2022 hurricane damage along some of the beach areas in Volusia and Indian River counties also may be contributing to the influx of tourists to the Space Coast beaches.
Visitor gains at local attractions
Brevard County's hotels, restaurants and retailers aren't the only ones seeing a boost in business this year. So are the local tourist attractions.
The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex ― Brevard County's most popular paid tourist venue ― is returning to pre-COVID 19 attendance levels, according to Howard Schwartz, the complex's senior director of marketing, sales and education.
"We're seeing good numbers this year," Schwartz said, adding that early attendance for spring break is strong.
Brevard Zoo Executive Director Keith Winsten said January and February both were record months for the zoo, and those trends continued into March.
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Winsten sees this trend of spring break visitors coming to the Viera zoo when there is an increase in the percentage of one-day admission tickets, in comparison with the number of local residents with annual memberships coming to the zoo. Also, the zoo had one of its best daily attendance figures ― more than 4,000 ― on a recent Tuesday, typically a relatively slow day at the zoo.
Another popular stop for tourists is Ron Jon Surf Shop's flagship store along State Road A1A in Cocoa Beach.
University of North Florida freshmen Brady Williams and Ellie Carter dropped by Ron Jon Surf Shop during a spring break day trip. Both 19-year-olds bought the shop’s spring-break-themed T-shirts — and Carter also bought bracelets and a bikini — before the couple departed town to visit Lake Mary.
“It was great. I've been there before. It was just very, very busy with all the tourists and stuff,” Williams said of Cocoa Beach.
“It's like that everywhere right now. It was just very busy in the store,” said Williams, who plans to visit Cocoa Beach again with Carter because she says the town is “good for aesthetic pictures.”
Cautious optimism for what's ahead
The Office of Tourism officials are upbeat about the recent trends ― which includes a 15.8% increase in the demand for rooms by tourists in 2022, hitting a record 2.68 million room nights of rentals in 2022.
But they are uncertain if the pace can be maintained in the future.
"Right now, everything feels very strong. We are cautiously optimistic," Stewart, the marketing director, said in a presentation this month to the Brevard County Tourist Development Council's Marketing Committee. "This spring and summer should continue to be strong for us."
And Peter Cranis, the Office of Tourism's executive director, cautioned that "the question mark will be summer," especially if the economy takes a tumble or gas prices jump.
"Nothing goes up forever, and things are cyclical," Cranis said. "It doesn't take very much to turn the consumer south."
Rick Neale is the South Brevard Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (for more of his stories, click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @RickNeale1
Contact Berman at dberman@floridatoday.com, on Twitter at @bydaveberman and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dave.berman.54