Florida Keeps On Setting Records
The Sunshine State has set another tourism record – welcoming the highest amount of visitors of any nine months in the state’s history with 85 million visitors.
This record amount represents a 5.5% increase over the year. In the third quarter of 2016 (July-September), 26.9 million visitors went to Florida, an increase of 5.1% over the year. This marks the state’s largest third quarter for visitation ever.
The average number of direct travel-related jobs in quarter three of 2016 was also a record high, with 1,241,300 Floridians employed in the tourism industry – up 4.1% over the year.
VISIT FLORIDA estimates that of the 26.9 million total visitors in the third quarter, 23.6 million were domestic visitors, reflecting a 5.8% increase over the same period last year. Estimates also show that 2.8 million overseas visitors came to Florida in quarter three of 2016, reflecting a 0.9% increase over the same period last year.
Will Seccombe, president and CEO of VISIT FLORIDA, said that Florida’s tourism industry “has done a tremendous job marketing the state both domestically and internationally during very challenging times. It also shows that we will have to work even harder as a state and an industry to maintain that growth going forward.”
