Naples, known for its vibrant tourism, faces a challenging period as new data reveals a decline in visitors and job losses. The area, which thrives on tourism, has been hit hardest by unemployment in Florida.
WINK News reporter Maddie Herron spoke with local business owners to understand the impact.
"Definitely, tourism has dropped, but we've seen a lot more staycations," said Kennedy Lemoine, assistant manager at Naples Soap Company.
Lemoine observed a decrease in foot traffic on the sidewalks, both during and outside the tourist season.
"Definitely less traffic from like other states," said Lemoine.
Collier County's latest tourism report for April 2025 showed about a 5% drop in overall visitation from the prior year, mainly due to fewer day trippers.
Despite the drop in visitation, the county says visitor days and room nights grew by 3.1%, supported by an increase in average length of stay.
The report also noted international visitation to Collier County fell nearly 8%. That statistic is driven by a rounded 19% decrease in Canadian visitors, though tourists from other countries increased.
The county's breakdown of the data was presented in the Tourism Director Report on June 17th, 2025. It can be found here.
In an area where tourism is crucial, this could spell trouble for the many businesses downtown.
The Naples area lost more than 2,000 jobs from May 2024 to May 2025, leading the state in job losses, according to state data.
"We definitely need tourism in our area, because without it, we just simply won't make it," said Vincenzo Betulia, chef and owner of Campagna Hospitality.
Betulia, who owns several popular restaurants downtown, is making adjustments to avoid reducing his staff.
"We've had to make adjustments, right, so we've had to trim back our hours," Betulia said. "We have to, you know, at the French, for example, which is such a big restaurant; We've cut back some of the days to even be open, so we can kind of funnel the crowds into our establishment if we can."
Despite the challenges, neither Betulia nor Lemoine is cutting back on creativity to attract visitors.
"We're doing everything that we can, as far as, like, small local events. Saturday, we're gonna have like, a sip and shop," said Lemoine.
"We do wine dinners, we do bar takeovers, we do all kinds of stuff to kind of activate the community and give them something to do," said Betulia.
The community's resilience shines through as local businesses strive to adapt and thrive amid the downturn.