Sunshine Matters

Today we celebrate Florida Tourism Day at the Capitol as the industry’s annual opportunity to ensure our legislators know just how important tourism is to the Sunshine State.  And coming off of two consecutive record years of tourism spending and visitation, Florida’s tourism industry has a great story to tell.

Here are the top 10 tourism stats that show why we are the No. 1 industry in the state:

1. Florida welcomed a record 89.3 million visitors in 2012
2. Those visitors spent a record $71.8 billion
3. Tourism generates 23 percent of the state’s sales tax revenue
4. More than one million Floridians are employed in the tourism industry
5. Visitors spent over 500 million vacation nights in the Sunshine State in 2012
6. On any given day, Florida has 1.6 million visitors
7. That represents more people than live in 11 different U.S. states
8. Florida visitors average spending $196 million a day
9. Every 85 visitors to the state supports one tourism job
10. For every $1 spent on tourism marketing, VISIT FLORIDA generates $258 in tourism spending and $15 in new sales tax collections

Governor Scott has recommended a record $75 million investment in VISIT FLORIDA’s tourism marketing efforts for 2013-2014.  As the official statewide destination marketing organization responsible for attracting visitors to the Sunshine State, VISIT FLORIDA works with nearly 12,000 tourism industry businesses to secure matching funds that expand those marketing dollars.  This is done by actively recruiting the state’s tourism industry to invest as Partners through cooperative advertising campaigns, promotional programs and many other pay-to-play ventures.

Last fiscal year, VISIT FLORIDA raised a record $95 million in private sector matching funds.  With more than three months still to go in the current fiscal year, VISIT FLORIDA and our tourism industry Partners are on pace for another record year.