It's been well over a year since Hurricane Ian ravaged parts of Southwest Florida, but hard-hit Fort Myers Beach continues to face challenges in achieving a full tourism recovery.
Just 34% of Fort Myers Beach's lodging inventory -- which comprises a little over 1,000 hotel rooms and a smattering of vacation rentals -- is currently open and operating, said Jacki Liszak, CEO of the Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce.
"The complexity of building this town back post-disaster has been mind-boggling," Liszak said, citing lingering impact from Covid-era supply chain shortages and updated building codes that have proven financially onerous for some rebuild projects. "We probably lost 90% of the small inns and hotels on the island."
Jacki Liszak
Several larger Fort Myers Beach properties were also wiped out, and the outlook for redeveloping many of those sites remains uncertain. They include the Outrigger Beach Resort, Wyndham Garden Fort Myers Beach and Sandpiper Gulf Resort.
According to Liszak, the Fort Myers Beach area is also still without basic conveniences like an on-island gas station or liquor store. The town's sole pharmacy just reopened a few weeks ago.
Still, despite a slower-than-expected restart, Liszak said that the market's tourism comeback appears to have recently hit a turning point.
"We are not 100% full or anything like that, and our ADR is down, but we had a very strong holiday season, all things considered," she said. "And our spring -- our first quarter going into the second quarter -- looks really solid."
Margaritaville opening a turning point
Helping to bolster this upswing is the opening of the 254-room Margaritaville Beach Resort Fort Myers Beach, which began welcoming guests in early December. Liszak described the debut of the Margaritaville as "a total boost in the arm."
"The day those doors opened, you could just feel the shift," she added. "And with the Margaritaville open, we're being introduced to a whole new set of people who maybe never would have come to see us before."
The Margaritaville, which skews upscale, may be a bellwether for what's to come on the development front for Fort Myers Beach.
Peter Ricci, director of Florida Atlantic University's hospitality and tourism management program and a longtime Florida resident, predicts that Fort Myers Beach will attract a wave of higher-end hospitality projects in the near future, which would mark a significant shift for a destination previously dominated by mom-and-pop hotels.
"A lot of these mom-and-pops have decided not to reopen or they're just stuck in limbo," Ricci said. "And anybody who comes in now is going to be interested in building a massive new project that's up to the new codes and standards, the construction of which is very costly. And so, those are going to be more affluent-type projects."
Ricci expects the area's evolution to potentially mimic that of Southeast Florida's Fort Lauderdale Beach, which went from motel-heavy and spring break-oriented accommodations to becoming "loaded with higher-end product" over the course of two decades.
"It's going to become a different destination," Ricci said. "I caution to say a better destination because I've loved Fort Myers Beach for years. But I do think Fort Myers Beach is going to have a phenomenal next decade once they get reopened and reposition, and it'll just be a more sophisticated, modern version of what it was, while still keeping that charm of being a quieter beach town known for great leisure travel."
Kristi Mackedanz, a Florida-based travel advisor and founder of KM Travel Designs, visited the beach annually with her family for well over a decade.
"I love Fort Myers Beach, and it's a very special place to me," Mackedanz said. "But it was also a very 'old' destination, with things that had been there forever. I do think that once they come back, there's going to be a new feel, and it's going to attract new people."
High-end hospitality trend
The ongoing reopening and redevelopment efforts in Fort Myers Beach come amid a flurry of noteworthy hospitality development in the broader Southwest Florida market.
Farther north, near Charlotte County's Punta Gorda Airport, Allegiant Travel Co. opened its 785-room Sunseeker Resort Charlotte Harbor in December after a series of hurricane- and Covid-related development delays. The beachfront property is the first hotel venture from Allegiant, which is known for its budget airline business.
Meanwhile, Marriott International's St. Regis brand recently announced plans to debut the 168-room St. Regis Longboat Key Resort just off the coast of Sarasota. On track to open by next summer, the luxury resort will have average rates that start at around $1,200.
And in Naples, already a luxury hospitality hot spot, more high-end hotel development is in the pipeline. The city's 216-room Naples Beach Hotel will be redeveloped and reborn as the Naples Beach Club, a Four Seasons Resort, which will mark the first Four Seasons-branded property on the Florida Gulf Coast.
"Southwest Florida was once kind of this quiet little secret, but somewhere around 2019 and 2020 we were 'found,'" Liszak said. "And now it's taking off like a rocket ship."