FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 Spring break is bringing a major boost to Fort Myers Beach businesses, with owners reporting triple their usual revenue and expecting one of the busiest seasons since Hurricane Ian.<\/p>\n
The streets of Fort Myers Beach have been packed with spring breakers, and restaurants and businesses on the island are loving it. Margaritaville Beach Resort is busier than in previous years, and they’re expecting next week to be their busiest week yet.<\/p>\n
Margaritaville and other businesses are hoping this weekend’s potential rain doesn’t dampen the spring break momentum.<\/p>\n
“We\u00a0will get an afternoon shower here and there, but as long as it rolls in and rolls out, we don’t see a lot of people get out of the pool because it’s heated, and they’ll just stay in and see if it passes,” said Marin Asher, the Marketing and Communications Manager for Margaritaville Beach Resort.<\/p>\n
“Most of these businesses were affected by Ian, so it’s a welcome sight to see the crowd and see the people spending,” said Terry Persuad, a business owner on Fort Myers Beach.<\/p>\n
Persuad tells WINK News he has had to double his staff to keep up with the crowds. Margaritaville has as well. Employees say they’re seeing people of all ages flock to the beach.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“We have an older generation coming in right now. We have live music, so usually about 40-50 years old,” said Taylor, a bartender. “Then around noon on the weekends, we’ll get a bunch of 20-year-olds on spring break, so we’re pretty packed.”<\/p>\n
Even if it rains this weekend, visitors appreciate the Fort Myers Beach weather regardless.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Back\u00a0in St Louis, there’s no palm trees, and everything just looks dead,” said one visitor.<\/p>\n
Some owners are optimistic that visitors might take the opportunity to stay longer inside restaurants and stores if the weather turns. Most of Southwest Florida is currently in an extreme drought, making the forecasted rain a welcome sight for the region despite the timing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 Spring break is bringing a major boost to Fort Myers Beach businesses,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-191742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}