New Airport May Help Area Businesses Take Off
By Fraser Sherman, Destin Log, Fla.
Oct. 6–Instead of tourists with Canadian accents or Southern drawls, Bay County’s planned new airport could draw visitors from California, Europe and South America to the Emerald Coast, local business people say.
“It will create easier access for visitors internationally,” Myra Williams of the Howard Group said in an interview, “that currently really don’t know that much about us.”
Despite legal challenges from environmental groups, the 1,300-acre, $331 million Panama City-Bay County International Airport is expected to open in 2009. When it does, Williams said, it will open up access to the Emerald Coast to more airlines, and offer more opportunities for travelers to reach the area.
“Right now, everything’s got to go through Atlanta and the air fares are quite expensive,” Darrel Jones, executive director of the Okaloosa County Tourist Development Council, said.
“An international airport is going to open the Destin region up to markets we’ve never had before,” Shane Moody of the Destin Area Chamber of Commerce said. “I think you’ll see some good discount airlines come in there.”
Most tourists visiting Okaloosa and Walton counties do so by car, but the new airport could change that, Dawn Moliterno of the South Walton Chamber of Commerce said: “With the more frequent and reasonable fl ights that come along with a new airport, you will now start to tap in to the fl y-in market rather than saturate our drive-in market.”
Destin Airport offers private planes and some charter flights access to the city. Kelvin Espada of Miracle Strip Aviation, which provides terminal and maintenance services at Destin Airport, said he looks forward to the competition from Bay County because it will lower congestion in Destin.
“With the amount of traffic we’ve grown to, additional space is welcome,” Espada said. “Customers will benefit (and) a better customer experience is better for Destin.”
City Councilor Jim Bagby said people visiting Destin or Sandestin will probably keep using Destin Airport: “People fl ying down from Atlanta will still go into Destin … They won’t go over (to the new airport) unless they park their planes for free or gas is five cents cheaper a gallon or something.”
Executive Director Kriss Titus of Beaches of South Walton said the county will have to refocus its marketing to include tourists who fly here in addition to the drive-in market, but a detailed plan will have to wait until they know more about who uses the Bay airport: “How many times do they take beach vacations? Where are they coming from? Is there a possibility they’d want to come here?”
Jim Breitenfeld of the Destin Harbor Association said if the airport brings more people to the area, that would benefi t everyone, but “new airports don’t generate new traffi c. That’s market-driven.”
Jones said he’s been working for 17 years to bring charter fl ights from Europe to the Emerald Coast, but the legal requirements for visas and passports made that impractical in the past. If the Bay airport is genuinely international, Jones said, that could change.
Jones said the airport could also open up the area to South American visitors who now settle for South Florida, and to tourists from America’s West coast: “Most of our market is everything east of Colorado — I think this will probably open it up.”
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