By Dave Carlson
“Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” — Victor Hugo—
As the 2026 Florida legislative season gains momentum, lawmakers continue inching toward eliminating residents’ property taxes. Scrape away the shiny election-year veneer, and you’ll find tourism budgets are at the core of proposed financial offsets.
Whichever side of the debate you favor, it’s clear that the Tampa/St. Pete/Clearwater area will feel the impact. Increasing taxes on tourists, whether on second homes, hotel beds, and/or Tourist Development Taxes, will cause visitors to more carefully consider their vacation and travel budgets.
Tourism is the very fuel of Florida’s economic engine and can ill-afford a downturn in visitor sentiment. Local tourism development leaders are already discussing ways to curb the inevitable damage to budgets and tourists’ perceptions.
Circumstances like these call for creative, even visionary, thinking. A what-if, outside-the-box, no-bad-ideas brainstorming mindset is the order of the day.
So how about this idea… Let’s create a unique tourist attraction, one that costs essentially nothing to build and maintain; one that will appeal to locals and visitors, both national and international alike.
This attraction should create jobs, directly benefit local businesses’ bottom lines, and increase revenue for the responsible governing body.
Conversely, our new attraction should avoid the usual negatives, such as traffic jams, increased crime, and triggering costly infrastructure improvements.
Fantasy? Not if you’re truly thinking outside the box. In fact, what I’m suggesting already exists. There are four such attractions on Florida’s east coast right now!
Four clothing-optional beaches have been attracting millions of visitors and international tourists (and their dollars) to Brevard, St. Lucie, and Miami-Dade Counties for decades now. Their low-key successes and the economic benefits they bring to their communities are undeniable.
Haulover Beach is widely considered one of the top clothing-optional beaches in the world. Since 1991, some 1.4 million visitors annually generate $1.2M in parking revenue alone.
St. Lucie County’s Blind Creek Beach is quickly gaining worldwide recognition for its unspoiled beauty. Playalinda and Apollo Beaches are less well-known but attract thousands of locals and tourists, including families, to the Space Coast.
All four of these beaches are well-established and very popular, and their positive economic impacts have stood the test of time. Unfortunately, the tourism dollars they attract accrue to the East Coast.
Competition for those tourists’ dollars is only going to intensify. Clearly, a designated clothing-optional beach in our area is the idea whose time has come.