Florida Reports Record Number of Visitors

Florida welcomed the highest amount of visitors of any six months in the state’s history with 57.4 million visitors in H1 2016.

This record amount of out-of-state and international visitors represents a 4.3% increase over the previous year.

In the second quarter of 2016 (April -June), 27.3 million visitors came to the state, an increase of 3.1% over the same period in 2015.

The average number of direct travel-related jobs in quarter two of 2016 was also a record high, with 1,255,200 Floridians employed in the tourism industry – up 4.3 % year over year.

Governor Scott said, “It’s exciting that we are starting the first half of 2016 off with back to back record quarters which puts us on pace to reach our goal of 115 million tourists this year and $100 billion in visitor spending by 2020. In Florida, the health and safety of our visitors is a top priority and we look forward to welcoming even more visitors to the Sunshine State this year.”

Visit Florida estimates that 23.6 million domestic visitors traveled to Florida in the second quarter of 2016, reflecting a 4.6% increase over the same period last year.

Estimates also show that 2.6 million overseas visitors and 1.1 million Canadians came to Florida in quarter two of 2016, reflecting 5.5% and 5.1% decreases respectively over the same period last year.

Preliminary figures for the first half of 2016 show 49.4 million domestic visitors (up 6.0%), 5.3 million overseas visitors (down 5.6%) and 2.7 million Canadians (down 3.5%) have come to the Sunshine State.

William D. Talbert, III, CDME, Chair of the Visit Florida Board of Directors, said, “The success of Florida tourism is directly attributable to the strong alignment between Visit Florida and our tourism industry partners, and their continued investment in strengthening the state’s incredible tourism product.”

Tourism and recreation taxable sales for Florida increased 6.1% year-on-year for January through April 2016 (last reported month).

For Q2 2016, ADR rose 1.4 %, the demand in rooms sold grew 1.1 % and the hotel occupancy rate was down 0.3% compared to Q2 2015. 

See other recent news regarding: Florida, Tourism, Arrivals