PANAMA CITY BEACH — With vacation rental reservations down from 2021 in Panama City Beach, Mitch Warren, owner of Warren Beach Rentals & Property Management, said it seems like tourists might have "beach fatigue."

As of Thursday, Warren said that of his 160 short-term rental properties, the majority of which are in Panama City Beach, only about 75% were booked for the upcoming peak season, a time he described as spanning from the last week in May until the first week in August.

For comparison, his properties were 100% booked for the season by the same time last year.

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The dip, however, is something Warren said he "fully expected." Life has shifted back to normal in practically every state, giving people more travel options and allowing for a variety of different activities other than going to the beach.

"There's probably some level of beach fatigue from people who have not gotten to go to (such things as) a baseball game or a concert for two years," Warren said. "They may want to spend their travel money and go somewhere else for a season.

"In the past two years, (Florida was just about) the only place people could go," he added. "There's (now) other entertainment options competing for the same number of travelers."

Warren described the current demand for rentals as being similar, but still higher, than the pre-COVID pandemic market.

Warren said he also expects reservations to rise as the peak tourist season approaches.

"I'm thinking we'll probably fill up (during) summer," Warren said. "Where we really (saw) a drop off (was in) April and May. ... We'll (probably still) be between 95% and 100% full (by) those peak summer weeks."

Panama City Beach still 'premier destination'

Stephen Stewart, director of operations for Sand Seeker Vacations, said his group has experienced the same trend so far this year for its 50 rental properties, 37 of which are in Panama City Beach.

Stewart reported Thursday that future bookings for his properties were almost 60% for May, almost 60% for June, more than 40% in July and 15% for August. He also expected those numbers to rise quickly.

Stewart noted that like Warren Beach Rentals, his properties also were almost completely booked for peak season by this time last year.

He also said he believes future tourism numbers for Panama City Beach will be higher than before the pandemic because so many new people traveled to the area during the past two years.

"I think the normal for this area is that we've grown and become a premier destination," Stewart said. "That's not to say we weren't a premier destination before. We're now just a little bit more on the map, and so I don't think we'll ever go back to those numbers.

"I think we're on the radar," he added. "I think when people think about vacation (now), they think about the Florida Panhandle from Okaloosa Island to Panama City Beach, to Cape San Blas."

Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport numbers still high

While short-term rental reservations are down from the dramatic boom in business during the past year, passenger numbers at Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport (ECP) still are up. Parker McClellan, executive director of the airport, said there are no signs they will take a dip anytime soon.

McClellan noted that the facility saw about 20% more passengers this March than it did during March 2021, which he marked as the airport's "beginning of the big surge in growth" that continues.

ECP is located in unincorporated Bay County, just north of Panama City Beach.

"We're now well into more than 12 months of continuous growth," McClellan said. "Year to date, we're up almost 27% over (2021) from the same time period."

He also said that part of the reason why airport passenger numbers continue to rise while rental reservations are down could be because more people now are traveling to Bay County for business.

He said he did not think the recent ending of the mask mandate in airports by the Transportation Security Administration would cause any noticeable increase on top of the growth he already expects to occur at the facility this summer.

"Potentially, our business market is coming back," McClellan said. "It could be the percentage of business travel is up versus leisure travel. ... We have not done any surveys. That's just a guess."

Like Stewart, McClellan agreed that there is no denying the Panhandle was discovered by tens of thousands of new vacationers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is a tune he has echoed during the past year as Panama City Beach welcomed a record-breaking number of tourists, many of whom were first-time travelers to the area.

"We think that based on everything that has happened in the past, and with what's going on in the world today, we don't see a big (dip in passengers anytime soon)," McClellan said. "I've been saying (it) for a long time — the Panhandle has been discovered."

This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Panama City Beach vacation rentals dip; some call it 'beach fatigue'