Local

St. Augustine tourism booming during Nights of Lights

The City of St. Augustine emailed Action News Jax data that shows it increased the number of available hotel rooms in the area by 2.3 percent.

They tell us it’s to accommodate the millions of tourists that visit the city annually.

They say demand is up 5 percent despite bearing the brunt of two hurricanes in the past two years.

Now the city is having its annual Nights of Lights and Action News Jax saw flocks of tourists around the city.

We spoke to a woman who frequently visits the area and told her about the recent data,

“I’m not surprised because there’s that demand. Everybody wants to come check it out. I love St. Augustine. I’m from New York and I know I’m going to retire here," Lydia Velez said.

The city does not have the final tourism numbers yet for this year, but last year they tell us they had 6.6 million visitors.