The sugar white sand of Panama City Beach attracts approximately 4.5 million visitors each year. On any given day during the peak summer season, as many at 100,000 people may be in the City. Our beaches are unique in that the soft Panama City Beach sand is actually quartz crystals, which over time has been broken down, bleached, polished and deposited on the shoreline. This natural process has made Panama City Beach home to the "World's Most Beautiful Beaches."
While visitors come for the sun and the sand, many also travel to the area for youth and adult sports tournaments, held year-round at Frank Brown Park and the Panama City Beach Sports Complex, located outside the City limits near the Hathaway Bridge.
Panama City Beach also hosts dozens of popular special events ranging from the Real. Fun. Fourth., the Pirates of the High Seas Festival, the Seabreeze Jazz Festival, Jeep Jam, the Summer Concert series, Pepsi Gulf Coast Jam, the Ironman Triathlon, Beach Home for the Holidays, the Beach Ball Drop and many more activities.
The City has a growing and robust retail environment along the business corridor, anchored by the shops in Pier Park and Pier Park North. The City's primary industry is tourism, evidenced by the large number of hotels, condominiums, vacation rentals and restaurants.
The City of Panama City Beach as it exists today is relatively young. It was established in 1970 with the merger of West Panama City Beach, Long Beach Resort, Edgewater Beach Resort and Panama City Beach.
