By DINA ARÉVALO
Port Isabel-South Padre Press
editor@portisabelsouthpadre.com
The South Padre Island Convention and Visitors Advisory Board (CVA) met Tuesday morning to hear the reports of several of the Island’s most recent tourist draws, including Beach-N-Biker Fest, the National Tropical Weather Conference, Splash and the Jailbreak Run. Most notable, however, was a detailed financial and law enforcement report about Spring Break 2016.
The two biggest takeaways from the analyses were that, overall, profits were up across the board while law enforcement numbers remained comparable to years’ past.
Spring Break produced $30.5 million in gross sales revenues, reported the City’s Finance Director, Rodrigo Gimenez, who reminded the CVA that 11 percent of the City’s annual sales taxes are collected in March alone. Gimenez broke down the gross revenues according to where they came from: $15.6 million in sales, $11.7 million from Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT tax) eligible stays, and $3.2 million from the mixed beverage sales, he said.
Of that, the City’s cut amounts to just over $1.59 million dollars — $312,000 from sales tax revenues, $1.23 million from the HOT tax and $52,000 from the mixed beverage tax.
This year’s Spring Break season was a little unusual in that Semana Santa, or Holy Week, also took place during the same month. The last time the two major tourist periods coincided was in 2013, Gimenez said.
Compared to 2013, the City saw an 8 percent increase in sales tax collection, Gimenez reported.
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