Miss Florida Pageant economic impact to exceed $2 million

Last year, MaryKatherine Fechtel won the title of Miss Florida in 2015 in St. Petersburg last year. The Miss Florida Pageant is expected to bring about $1.6 million in tourism dollars to Polk County.

PROVIDED TO THE LEDGER

By John Ceballos
The Ledger

Published: Sunday, June 26, 2016 at 12:01 a.m.

Last Modified: Friday, June 24, 2016 at 7:26 p.m.

LAKELAND — By the time the newest Miss Florida is crowned in Lakeland on Saturday night, the pageant will have brought an estimated $2 million in tourism dollars to Polk County.

That’s according to Kris Keprios, tourism, sales and marketing manager for Polk County Tourism and Sports Marketing, who also said the majority of those dollars will come as a result of the pageant week festivities that officially kicked off Saturday.

“For these sorts of events, we use calculations and calculators from the Florida Sports Foundation and Visit Florida to estimate spending per person, per day,” Keprios said.

This year’s Miss Florida Pageant takes place June 25 through July 2. The week includes the Miss Florida Outstanding Teen competition, several preliminary events, and culminates with the Miss Florida 2016 finals Saturday at The Lakeland Center’s Youkey Theatre.

In August, it was announced that the pageant — which awards more than $50,000 in scholarships to participants each year — was moving to Lakeland from St. Petersburg, which had hosted the event for the previous 11 years. The current deal is for the pageant to take place at The Lakeland Center for five years.

Mary Sullivan, executive director of the Miss Florida Pageant, said the most recent weeklong pageant accounted for almost 1,400 room nights, or the number of nights rooms will be reserved. Her goal is to surpass the 1,500-room mark in Lakeland this year.

This week’s festivities, according to Keprios, will bring about $1.6 million in tourism dollars to Polk.

Cory Skeates, president of the Lakeland Area Chamber of Commerce, said the pageant’s impact on the city is three-fold.

http://www.theledger.com/article/20160626/news/160629727