Sunshine Matters

To leverage the new route Turkish Airlines launched on October 25 from Istanbul to Miami, VISIT FLORIDA, in partnership with the airline, brought five Indian journalists to Florida to showcase all the Sunshine State has to offer. While Indians are typically familiar with gateway cities like Miami and Orlando, there are plenty of surprises that these, as well as more off-the-beaten-path, cities offer when it comes to vacations. Continue reading »

Today Governor Rick Scott released his 2016-17 “Florida First” budget.  I am happy to share that the Governor recommended an $80 million investment in VISIT FLORIDA.  With this funding, VISIT FLORIDA will focus on continuing to create successful integrated global marketing efforts that maximize the economic impact of travel and tourism to Florida. Continue reading »

VISIT FLORIDA recently returned from World Travel Market (WTM), the leading global event for the travel industry.  WTM is a vibrant, must-attend business-to-business event presenting a diverse range of destinations and industry sectors to the United Kingdom and other international travel professionals.  This year, the show attracted an estimated 52,000 senior travel industry professionals, government ministers and international press at the ExCel Exhibition Centre in London. Continue reading »

I am pleased to share that today Governor Rick Scott announced Florida set another record in tourism by welcoming the highest amount of visitors of any nine months in the state’s history with 79.1 million visitors, according to VISIT FLORIDA.  This record amount of visitors represents a 5.5 percent increase over the previous year.  In the third quarter of 2015 (July-September), 25.5 million visitors came to the state, an increase of 6.8 percent over 2014 and Florida’s largest third quarter for visitation ever.  The average number of direct travel-related jobs in quarter three was also a record high, with 1,195,400 Floridians employed in the tourism industry – up 5.2 percent over the same period last year. Continue reading »

Through our partnership with Pitbull, VISIT FLORIDA was able to host 15 travel industry VIPS from around Mexico as part of his Pitbull Miami fragrance launch party last week in Mexico City. The event, which drew more than 50 guests, was held at the beautiful Four Seasons Hotel in the heart of the city. Continue reading »