NEWS

Visit Tybee, the tourism promotion and marketing organization for Tybee Island, is reporting that 2014 was its strongest year on record for hotel/motel tax collections on the island with a more than 19 percent increase in collections over 2013. Tybee Island collects a 6 percent room tax on hotels and vacation rentals on the island.
“It’s really no surprise that visitation and spending on Tybee are up and so favorably,” said Joseph Marinelli, Visit Savannah president. “Tybee Island is benefitting from a tremendous amount of positive media throughout the region and even nationally. More and more visitors are finding that the Tybee visitor experience is exactly what they are looking for.”

Under the leadership of new Visit Tybee Director Sara Lane, who started in March 2014, Tybee Island increased marketing efforts targeted towards visitors with new interactive campaigns on social media and through online advertising, social media growth, a media familiarization tour and more last year.

“We’re pleased to see that our tourism marketing efforts are helping to make a difference,” said Lane. “We have terrific partnerships in place with city leadership, the hotels and vacation rentals, restaurants and retailers on the island and that collaboration is showing very impressive results.”

Tybee Island expects visitation to increase in 2015 following a recently completed beach renourishment initiative that has widened and extended the amount of beach square footage on the island. The increased beach frontage is designed to have a 10-year life cycle.