Fort Myers Beach is a small town, 5,582 residents in 2020, inside a county that drew about 3.2 million visitors in 2024. Hurricane Ian in 2022 and Helene's surge in 2024 closed and reopened many businesses. Clear reopening updates on Google, a current website and pages for visitor searches are what bring customers back.
A small town with a big visitor footprint
Fort Myers Beach is a town on the north end of Estero Island, incorporated on December 31, 1995. The town had 5,582 residents in 2020, down from 6,277 a decade earlier. Most of the people searching for beach businesses do not live there at all.
The Lee County visitor bureau, which markets the area as The Beaches of Fort Myers and Sanibel, counted about 3.2 million visitors and about 4.4 million room nights in 2024, with visitors up another 3.8 percent in 2025. For a beach business, the real audience is in hotel rooms, rental condos and airport terminals.
What Ian did to the island's businesses
Hurricane Ian made its first Florida landfall on Cayo Costa around 3:05 pm on September 28, 2022, with winds near 150 mph. Fort Myers Beach sat just south of the landfall, and Times Square and most of the coastal homes and businesses on the island were damaged.
For many owners, the years since have been about rebuilding, reopening in phases and sometimes moving. Every one of those steps changes what your Google listing and website should say.
Helene, two years later
In September 2024, Helene's storm surge overtopped the rebuilt dunes on Fort Myers Beach, washed out sand berms placed after Ian and pushed water up to 4 feet into homes, Local 10 News reported. The Fort Myers gauge reached 5.12 feet, second only to Ian's 7.26 feet.
For businesses that had just reopened, that meant another closure and another reopening announcement. The ones that kept their listings current recovered their search traffic fastest.
Reopening announcements visitors can find
- Use the right Google setting. Google's help pages say closures of 7 days or less should use special hours, and longer, off-season or indefinite closures should use temporarily closed.
- Reopen promptly. Google notes temporarily closed businesses can rank after open ones for broad searches.
- Post proof. A Google post with photos of the new dining room, rebuilt deck or refreshed rental tells visitors you are really back.
- Match everywhere. Your website banner, booking pages and social profiles should say the same thing on the same day.
A website care plan keeps those updates fast when things change.
Festivals, shrimp boats and seasonal search
The island's calendar gives businesses natural content. Annual events include the Shrimp Festival, the American Sand Sculpting Championship and the Blessing of the Shrimp Fleet, held since 1952. Pages and posts tied to these events, with your hours and specials, catch visitors searching while they plan.
Our tourism and vacation rental approach covers how restaurants, charters and rentals turn that planning into bookings, and our Lee County overview shows how the island fits the wider market.