ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — Business and industry leaders from across south Baldwin County gathered at the Orange Beach Event Center for a first look at year-to-date tourism numbers, and the headline figure is a large one: $739 million in lodging revenue through July.
That is $60 million ahead of the same point last year.
The Numbers Beth Gendler Presented
Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism President and CEO Beth Gendler reported the impacts of visitors to the area covering 2025 through the 2026 summer season.
- Lodging revenue: $739 million through July 2026, up $60 million year over year
- Visitor spending: up $500 million in 2025 compared with 2024
- Salaries and wages generated by tourism: up $200 million
The wage figure is the one worth sitting with. Tourism revenue that stays in property owners’ accounts affects a destination differently than tourism revenue that moves through payroll. A $200 million increase in salaries and wages is money circulating through households in Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, Foley and the surrounding communities.
950 New Units on the Way
Gendler said economic growth includes increased lodging inventory as demand for the destination continues to rise, with 950 units planned over the next two years.
Those 950 new lodging units translate to 346,750 additional available room nights.
That conversion is the number that matters for capacity planning. A destination cannot grow revenue indefinitely on rate alone — at some point, additional visitors require additional rooms. Adding roughly 347,000 room nights over two years represents a substantial expansion of what the destination can physically accommodate.
It also carries the question that accompanies every tourism expansion on a barrier island: whether the supporting infrastructure — roads, water and sewer, beach access, parking, emergency services and the year-round workforce — scales alongside it.
The 2025 Baseline
Final 2026 economic impact numbers will not be compiled until next spring. The most recent complete picture comes from the Alabama Tourism Department’s 2025 report:
- An estimated 8.9 million visitors came to Baldwin County
- 7.1 million of those came to Alabama’s beaches
- Beach visitors spent almost $6.8 billion in the coastal communities
- That spending helped employ 57,000 people
Those figures are worth placing against the size of the community that hosts them. Baldwin County’s year-round population is a fraction of 8.9 million, and the permanent populations of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach together are smaller still. The ratio of visitors to residents on the Alabama coast is among the highest of any destination in the Southeast.
What 57,000 Jobs Means Locally
Employment supported by tourism spans far more than hotel front desks. It includes restaurants, retail, construction, property management, cleaning and maintenance services, charter operations, attractions, transportation and the professional services that support all of it.
The characteristic challenge of a tourism economy is seasonality. Demand concentrates heavily in the warm months, which means workforce needs swing dramatically across the year, and the availability of affordable year-round housing for those workers has been a persistent concern in coastal Baldwin County — where the same demand that fills rental units in July also prices long-term rentals out of reach.
‘By Locals for Locals’
The morning presentation also included the reveal of GSOBT’s new By Locals for Locals program, which provides community resource information, locals’ discounts and high check-in/check-out days.
That last element is the most practically useful piece and the least obvious. In a vacation rental destination, turnover days — typically Saturdays and Sundays in peak season — produce enormous traffic as thousands of units change hands simultaneously. Publishing which days carry the heaviest check-in and check-out volume lets residents plan around them: schedule errands, avoid the beach road, time a trip to the grocery store for a day when the highway is not full of arriving vehicles.
It reflects something destination marketing organizations have increasingly recognized: sustaining tourism requires maintaining the goodwill of the people who live there year-round. A resident who feels the destination is managed with them in mind is a different kind of neighbor to a visitor economy than one who feels displaced by it.
Why the Growth Is Continuing
The Alabama Gulf Coast has been among the faster-growing beach destinations in the Southeast for over a decade. Several factors sustain it: drive-market accessibility from a large regional population, pricing that remains competitive against Florida destinations, a substantial inventory of condominium rental units suited to family groups, and investment in attractions and infrastructure that extend the season beyond summer.
A $60 million year-over-year increase through July suggests those conditions have not yet reversed.
What Comes Next
Final 2026 economic impact numbers arrive next spring. Until then, the through-July lodging revenue figure is the most current indicator, and it points in one direction.