Tourism and the hospitality industry are tremendously important to the Florida economy. Despite Florida's painfully slow economic recovery, the state's tourism and hotel industries have rebounded very well from the Great Recession. The number of visitors to Florida and tourism and hotel revenues declined significantly during 2008 and 2009, but have experienced a strong resurgence since then.
After growing steadily from 2002-2007, the tourism industry suffered a downward slide in 2008 and 2009. An upward trend began in 2010, and the number of visitors, the amount of tourism spending and the number of persons directly employed by the tourism industry all reached record high levels in 2011. Last year, 87.3 million persons visited Florida, representing an increase of 6.1% over 2010. Those visitors spent $67.2 billion, resulting in 1,013,100 persons being directly employed in Florida's tourism industry in 2011 as 38,400 new jobs were added last year. The following statistics for the years 2002-2011 have been published by Visit Florida, the state's public-private tourism marketing partnership:
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Historic Visitor Numbers (in millions)
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Year
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Domestic
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Overseas
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Canadian
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Total
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2002
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67.9
|
4.4
|
1.6
|
73.9
|
|
2003
|
68.7
|
4.2
|
1.7
|
74.6
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2004
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73.4
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4.4
|
1.9
|
79.7
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|
2005
|
77.2
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4.4
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2.0
|
83.6
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2006
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77.6
|
4.1
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2.1
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83.9
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|
2007
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77.3
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4.7
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2.5
|
84.5
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2008
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76.1
|
5.2
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2.9
|
84.2
|
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2009
|
71.2
|
7.0
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2.6
|
80.9
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2010
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71.2
|
8.0
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3.1
|
82.3
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2011
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74.7
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9.3
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3.3
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87.3
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Historic Economic Impact
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Total Tourism Spending (Tourism/Recreation Taxable Sales)
2002-2011:
2002 - $51.1 billion
2003 - $51.5 billion
2004 - $57.1 billion
2005 - $62.0 billion
2006 - $65.0 billion
2007 - $65.5 billion
2008 - $65.2 billion
2009 - $60.9 billion
2010 - $62.7 billion
2011 - $67.2 billion
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Number of Persons Directly Employed by Tourism Industry
2002-2011:
2002 – 862,900
2003 – 874,700
2004 – 920,700
2005 – 948,700
2006 – 964,700
2007 – 991,300
2008 – 1,007,000
2009 – 973,800
2010 – 974,700
2011 – 1,013,100
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As reported in the October 24, 2012 issue of Florida Trend magazine, over 40% of Florida's increase in tourism in the last three years has resulted from overseas travelers, particularly South Americans. In the past four years, the number of Brazilian tourists has almost tripled and nearly 1.5 million Brazilians visited Florida last year. During that same time frame, the number of tourists from Argentina, Chile and Colombia each increased by more than 20%. The number of visitors from the United Kingdom has declined, but the number of tourists from the rest of Europe has gone up by 20% since 2008, notwithstanding the European debt crisis.
The recovery of Florida's tourism industry has also been fueled by an increase in the number of tourists from the United States. The number of visitors to Florida from elsewhere in the U.S. rose by 4.9% in 2011. This increase was credited by Visit Florida's CEO, Chris Thompson, to pent-up demand as people have become tired of the economic sacrifices they have made since the Great Recession occurred.
Not surprisingly, the surge in tourism has improved the hotel market in Florida. HVS' Fall 2012 Florida Newsletter pointed out that hotels in South Florida are showing "strong performance indicators" and that Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, the Florida Keys and West Palm Beach are attractive hotel markets that should be considered by investors. Statistics quoted in the HVS Newsletter revealed that for the state as a whole in the first half of 2012, occupancy rates are up by 2.0%, the average daily rate ("ADR") is up by 4.5%, and revenue per available room ("RevPAR") is up by 8.8%.
Tourism and the hotel industry have been bright spots in Florida’s economy during the last three years and have recovered more quickly and robustly than most other aspects of the state's economy. Many people do not realize that Florida's tourism industry reached an all-time high last year, despite the lackluster economy. Forecasters are predicting that this positive trend will continue and that tourism and the hospitality industry will continue to help lead Florida's economic recovery for the foreseeable future.