Okaloosa County BOCC — March 17, 2015 — BOCC March 17 2015

THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF OUR BEACHES THE OFFICE OF ECONOMIC & DEMOGRAPHIC RESEARCH “Economic Evaluation of Florida’s Investment in Beaches” At the request of Speaker Will Weatherford, the Office of Economic and Demographic Research (EDR) undertook an economic evaluation of the state’s investment in beach management and restoration projects. 2  “Economic Evaluation of Florida’s Investment in Beaches” •Overall Results and Conclusions •“The state’s investment in the Beach Program “generated a positive return on investment of 5.4…” (p.6) • “Results indicate that beaches are the most important feature of Florida’s brand (25.5%) and have the strongest effect of attracting tourists.” (P.9) •“Beach restoration is essentially a form of quality control for that product.” (p.9) 3  “Economic Evaluation of Florida’s Investment in Beaches” •Overall Results and Conclusions •It is necessary “to maintain a certain level of beach quality or else visitors will travel elsewhere.” (p.13) •It is estimated that a high impact storm “would result in $159.5 billion worth of property damage, of which $80.4 billion would be uninsured.” (p. 15) •“From an economic perspective, it is important to quickly address severe storm-related damage.” (p. 16) 4 Thank You TDC Meeting 02/26/2015 5