Sarasota County Tax Collector Barbara Ford-Coates' office collected more than $3.2 million in Tourist Development Taxes in June, nearly twice as much as what was collected in June 2020, and 75.6 percent higher than the pre-pandemic June 2019 figure.

The tax (commonly known as a “bed tax”) is a 5 percent charge on revenue from rentals that last six months or less.

The June number continues a streak of increased monthly collections. While some of that trend has been driven by the sharp dropoff in tourist tax collections that accompanied the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in spring 2020, 2021's monthly figures have frequently shown that tourist traffic has risen even higher than before the pandemic.