Pictured: Watershed Hospitality Concepts, Visit Sarasota County Haley Hall of Fame Awards. Provided photo.

More so than any other time of year, gifts are top of mind – the ones we wrap, the ones we hope for, and the ones we cannot quite match the right bow with. For our hospitality professionals, this same joy comes not only from a thoughtful holiday present but also from the arrival of high tourism season – when dining rooms are full, attractions are buzzing, and staff schedules are steady.

For many locals, though, the experience is more mixed. The extra cars on the road, the harder-to-get dinner reservations – all concerns that deserve to be heard. And contextualized, as much of this activity comes from returning seasonal residents alongside our visitors.

If we solely focus on tourists, in our 2025 fiscal year, every 95 visits supported one local job. With more than 2.7 million visitors last year, that means around 28,000 careers and $3.6 billion are now circulating through our regional economy. Visitors also helped cover nearly $600 in taxes per household each year.

In this light, tourism becomes a shared community gift that helps invest in this place we’re all proud to call home.

Last month at our Indicators & Insights Summit, national experts helped us unwrap what that truly means.

Our keynote, Nicole Porter of the U.S. Travel Association, shared with 170 local businesses in attendance that while cost and perception are the two biggest barriers to travel, the decade ahead is full of opportunity – from global sporting events like the FIFA World Cup to milestone anniversaries such as America’s 250th Anniversary. These aren’t abstract trends but rather signals showing that visitors are changing the way they think about travel and how they choose destinations like ours.

Our research partners at Downs & St. Germain reinforced this with forecasts that feel tailormade for Sarasota County’s strengths. In 2026, the leading motivation for travel will be to pause with purpose. Visitors want personalization. They want meaning. Increasingly, they even meet destinations digitally, through AI programs like ChatGPT and Google’s AI summary, before they even lay eyes on our award-winning beaches.

That puts both pressure and possibility on us at Visit Sarasota County: to market smarter, adapt faster, and amplify our destination’s competitive advantages – for leisure visitors, groups and meetings, sports teams, and everyone in between.

But numbers and trends only tell part of the story. We all know from our own vacations that it’s the people, that human connection, that transform a visit into a repeat visit into a move into a lifelong advocate for our community.

Created to celebrate those very people, our Haley Hall of Fame Awards – now in its second year – reflect the heart of Sarasota County’s tourism industry. We combined these awards with our Summit, which proved to be a festive move. Seven finalists – from rising stars to legacy leaders – were selected from more than 40 nominations and honored in the presence of their peers, mentors, and the visionary for whom these awards were named after, Virginia Haley, who led our tourism bureau for 24 years.

Please join us in congratulating: Susie Chinn, of The Bazaar on Apricot & Lime, for Front Line Excellence; Edith May Perez, of the Ritz-Carlton, as our Rising Star; Phil Trego, of the Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce, for Volunteer Excellence; Myllanna McKinnon, of Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe, for Heart of the House Excellence; JuanCarlos Serra Valenzuela, of the Resort at Longboat Key Club, for Management Excellence; Mary Bensel, the executive director of the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, as our Legacy Star; and Watershed Hospitality Concepts, which received our inaugural Business Excellence Haley.

I’m grateful for the leaders inducted into our Haley Hall of Fame, for the partners who make our work possible, and for a community that continues to believe Sarasota County is worth sharing and investing in.

Tourism is a gift because it sustains livelihoods, supports local businesses, and connects strangers with our stories — and often, connects us more deeply with our own.And just like anything that holds that much meaning, it only grows when it’s shared with intention.

Erin Duggan is President & CEO of Visit Sarasota County.

Pictured: Watershed Hospitality Concepts, Visit Sarasota County Haley Hall of Fame Awards. Provided photo.