Nearly four years after Hurricane Ian tore through Southwest Florida, WINK News chief investigative reporter Chorus Nylander says the recovery of Fort Myers Beach looks very different depending on which side of the hotel industry you are watching.
In a WINK Investigates report, Nylander said large resorts are celebrating major milestones and record-setting tourism numbers, while many smaller, historic lodging businesses are still dark, closed, or gone entirely.
“Paradise has not recovered equally,” Nylander said.
The report comes as the Atlantic hurricane season is already underway, forcing coastal communities to prepare for the next storm while some are still struggling with the last one.
Big Resorts Are Reopening
Nylander began the report at Pink Shell Beach Resort and Marina on Fort Myers Beach, where memories of Hurricane Ian remain on display in the lobby.
A display shows the before, during, and after images of the storm, serving as what resort leaders called a reminder of the island’s resiliency.
The resort recently opened a new luxury spa, which marked the official end of its physical recovery from Ian. For Pink Shell President Bill Waichulis, that milestone was about more than fresh paint and repaired buildings.
“Our theme is ‘Back to the Future,’” Waichulis told Nylander. “Actually back to the future of taking care of guests and focused on making memories.”
But getting there was enormously expensive. Nylander reported that Ian’s 18-foot storm surge wiped away Pink Shell’s historic 1950s cottages and led to nearly $80 million in insurance claims.
Waichulis said he had never seen anything like the destruction left behind.
“Ian was the worst hand we could be dealt,” he said, explaining that he even got a tattoo of a seven and a two, the worst starting hand in Texas Hold ’em poker.
For major resorts with insurance backing and access to capital, the path was painful but possible. That is the first half of the Fort Myers Beach recovery story.
The second half is much harder.
The Numbers Tell A Different Story
Nylander said Lee County tourism data shows more than 86% of lodging rooms across the county have reopened since Hurricane Ian.
For the properties that are open, business has been strong. Occupancy in March jumped nearly 5% from the previous year, average nightly room rates climbed to about $256, and revenue per available room rose 7.8%.
Those numbers sound like a comeback. Tourists are returning, guests are paying higher rates, and some resorts are once again busy.
But Nylander said Fort Myers Beach itself tells a darker story. On the island, more than 41% of hotel rooms remain completely closed.
Out of 2,380 original rooms, 985 are still dark.
That gap matters because recovery is not only measured by whether tourists can find a room somewhere in the county. It is measured by whether the old fabric of the beach town survived, including the small motels and family-run inns that helped define its character for decades.
A community can look busy from the outside and still be missing a large part of itself.
Mom-And-Pop Motels Took The Hardest Hit
Nylander reported that corporate resorts had the capital to rebuild, while many smaller lodging operations could not absorb the damage, delays, and costs.
Jacki Liszak, president of the Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce, knows that pain personally. She lost both her home and her business, the Sea Gypsy Inn, during Hurricane Ian.
“It was my life savings I put into it,” Liszak told WINK.
She said the ability to rebuild often depended on whether an owner still had a usable building and enough financial strength to carry the project while no money was coming in.
“If you had a building to work with, you had an opportunity to get back,” Liszak said. “And if your lot is small and you’re not really well capitalized, how are you going to spend that money?”
Her point is simple and brutal. Rebuilding is not just about wanting to come back. Owners still have to pay for design, permits, construction, insurance, loans, and code requirements while the business earns nothing.
For a major resort, that may be survivable. For a small motel owner who had everything tied up in one property, it can be impossible.
Nylander’s report noted that 19 boutique hotels on Fort Myers Beach were completely destroyed by Ian. Those were not just room counts on a spreadsheet. They were part of the island’s older beach-town identity.
Tourists See The Comeback, But Owners See The Cost
Tom McNicholas, a longtime visitor from New York, told Nylander he has watched the beach slowly come back year by year.
“I’ve never seen devastation like that,” McNicholas said. “It literally looked like a war zone here.”
Still, he said the improvement is clear.
“Baby steps,” he said. “Year by year by year, it’s been better and better and better. I think it’s back alive finally.”
For returning tourists, the progress is real. More restaurants are open, more rooms are available, and more familiar vacation rhythms are returning.
But for owners like Liszak, the recovery is not complete just because some lights are back on. If the biggest resorts reopen while small motels disappear, the island may recover economically while changing culturally.
That is the difficult part of rebuilding after a storm. The new version of a place can be cleaner, taller, more expensive, and more polished, but still feel like it lost something along the way.
Marco Island Felt The Ripple Effect
Nylander also looked farther south to Collier County, where Marco Island did not see the same level of physical damage as Fort Myers Beach, but still felt the economic effects.
James Garcia, general manager of the Hilton Marco Island Resort, told WINK that the perception of damage in Southwest Florida affected travel decisions.
“The general feeling was that where the damage occurred in Fort Myers and north was almost like a barrier to folks getting down here,” Garcia said.
In other words, even areas that were open had to fight the idea that the whole region was shut down.
Garcia said business has been bouncing back, but the threat of future storms has changed how resorts operate. Hurricane planning is now more detailed and more serious.
He said the Hilton makes sure generators have fuel, landscaping is cleared, and anything that can fly in heavy winds is addressed before a storm.
“We have a hurricane plan,” Garcia said. “We literally dust it off every year and make notes and make changes.”
That is the new normal for many coastal businesses. Recovery is not just rebuilding what was lost. It is changing the blueprint so the next storm does not create the same level of damage.
The New Cost Of Paradise
Nylander’s report shows a region living with two truths at once.
The tourism industry is bouncing back in many ways. Guests are returning, rates are high, and major resorts are investing heavily in the future.
At the same time, hundreds of rooms on Fort Myers Beach remain closed, and many smaller operations that gave the island its old charm are still struggling to find a path back.
That is why the 41% figure is so important. It cuts through the sunny images and strong tourism numbers to show how uneven the recovery remains.
The biggest players could rebuild. Many smaller owners were left facing ruined properties, limited capital, no revenue, and a long list of costs before they could welcome even one guest back.
For Fort Myers Beach, the question is not only when all the rooms reopen. It is what kind of island exists when they do.
A Recovery Still In Progress
Nylander said Liszak believes many small hotel owners remain committed to coming back if they can.
That “if” carries a lot of weight.
Nearly four years after Ian, some resorts are opening spas and celebrating finished renovations. Others are still dark. Some may never return at all.
As another hurricane season begins, Southwest Florida is again preparing for wind, rain, storm surge, and uncertainty. But the longer recovery story is already visible in the numbers.
Fort Myers Beach is alive again, as McNicholas said, but it is not whole yet.
The lights that remain off in 985 hotel rooms are a reminder that disaster recovery is not equal, and paradise can look rebuilt long before everyone who helped make it special has found a way back.
Ed spent his childhood in the backwoods of Maine, where harsh winters taught him the value of survival skills. With a background in bushcraft and off-grid living, Ed has honed his expertise in fire-making, hunting, and wild foraging. He writes from personal experience, sharing practical tips and hands-on techniques to thrive in any outdoor environment. Whether it’s primitive camping or full-scale survival, Ed’s advice is grounded in real-life challenges.
