Tropical Storm Debby can't stop Pinellas tourism's record-setting year

CLEARWATER — Not even Tropical Storm Debby could derail Pinellas County tourism's record-setting streak.

The county collected $2.6 million in bed tax revenue in July, making it the best July on record — and an 8 percent rise over July 2011. Tropical Storm Debby inflicted as much as $20 million in damage to Pinellas County's beaches when it struck Florida's west coast at the end of June.

But while the damage, and the resulting publicity about the storm, may have affected tourism that month, the industry itself continued its record-setting year in Pinellas County.

So far in the current fiscal year, the county has earned $24.9 million in bed tax revenue. Pinellas has two months left to surpass last fiscal year's bed tax collections — $25.6 million — and could even surpass the tax record set during the 2008 fiscal year: $26.4 million.