The reality was tourists only came to the beach in the winter months. In the days before air conditioning and efficient air transportation _ not to mention first class hotels _ South Beach was a ghost town all summer long.

 

The "closed for the season" mentality held on for a long time, but hotel and restaurant operators now say those days are gone.

 

 "We are open 24/7 365-days a year," says Marlow Courtney from the Goldman group.

 

Courtney said at The Park Central Hotel on Ocean Drive, there is 80 percent summer occupancy during the week, full on most weekends, compared to last year’s 65 percent occupancy during the last summer. 

 

Summer business has been slowly trending upward for some years, and what is filling hotel rooms and restaurant tables are tourists from Europe and South America taking advantage of the weak dollar. 

 

A solid base of American tourists are also checking in during the summer.

 

Jim Maoulis and his girlfriend came from up north looking for beach, good dining, a reasonable hotel rate.

 

"I thought about the Dominican Repubic, thought about Puerto Rico, and the flights were much cheaper here in the U.S. than when you go out of the country," he said.

 

Tourism officials said the difference between summer and winter tourism is narrowing. There were 3 million visitors in the third quarter of this year compared to 3.4 million to the first quarter.

 

Volume is one part of the story, but the fact that the hotel operators can raise room rates is another.

 

Reports from tourism agencies and those that follow the industry say that during the first week of August room rates trended upwards 12 percent.

 

J.C. Jimenez, the concierge at The Park Central, remembers when things were slow during the summers. That's all changed now he says.

 

"We have European people coming into the hotel in June, July and August," he said.

 

Jimenez speaks a number of languages and was helping some Italian tourists find a restaurant.

"This is good for me, good for, the hotel, good for the City,” Jimenez says with a quick smile.

 

It appears that the only thing that remains from the old "Summer Tourism Season" is the South Florida heat and even that has not made a difference in the new economic reality on South Beach.