CLEARWATER, Fla. — Visit St. Pete/Clearwater has launched a new campaign to highlight the value of tourism for residents which provides an economic impact of more than $10 billion annually in Pinellas County, according to the agency.

What You Need To Know

  • The campaign is entitled “From Visitors, With Love”

  • It launched on July 27, which coicides with 727 Day

  • Last year, tourists spent $6.7 billion in Pinellas County

  • VSPC interim Pres. and CEO Brian Lowack began leading the agency in June

“Residents know that there’s an economic benefit from our visitors that come down here,” said Brian Lowack, interim President and CEO of Visit St. Pete/Clearwater. “We want to make sure to highlight exactly what those benefits are and thank our locals for being such great ambassadors for the community.”

The campaign is entitled “From Visitors, With Love” and launched on July 27, which coincides with 727 Day, the area code for Pinellas County. Lowack said tourism is the number one economic driver in Pinellas with visitors spending $6.7 billion last year, which created more than 109,000 local jobs.

“They pay the bed tax and that’s a 6 percent sales tax on that overnight stay,” he said. “Last year alone, we brought in about $95 million in bed tax collections.”

Residents benefit directly from the tourist tax money in the form of capital projects, according to Lowack.

“We use that to not only market our destination to the rest of the world but also for capital projects such as nourishing the beach, paying for baseball stadiums, museums,” he said. “More importantly our residents get to enjoy those assets each and every day of the year.”

Brian Lowack, interim Pres. and CEO of Visit St. Pete/Clearwater (Josh Rojas/Spectrum Bay News 9)

Many projects compete for the tourist development tax money with the Tampa Bay Rays and the Philadelphia Phillies expected to request a portion to build a new ballpark in St. Petersburg and makeover the spring training site in Clearwater.

On Tuesday, Pinellas County commissioners approved giving the Dali Museum $25 million for an expansion.

“The Dali is certainly a big time economic driver,” Lowack said. “Not only for tourism but also with locals here.”

The museum ended up getting $9 million less than requested because commissioners worry they’re going to have to spend more money on beach renourishment in the future due to a standoff with the Army Corps of Engineers over required easements.

On July 24, the County was informed the beach renourishment scheduled later this year for Treasure Island and St. Pete Beach has been put on hold because the Corps discovered some missing easements from beach front homeowners, according to Kelli Levy, Pinellas Public Works Director.

Lowack said it’s currently undetermined how much more money will need to be allocated for beach renourishment.

“We’re running different models that take into account different scenarios,” he said. “As we figure out what those models produce then we’ll know what we need to do with that funding.”

Lowack was the assistant to the county administrator before he began leading the marketing agency in June, after Steve Hayes resigned the position.

“I love it. We got a great group of employees over at Visit St. Pete/Clearwater,” he said. “They’re passionate about what they do and they get to wake up and come to work every day promoting this destination. What more could you want?”