Sunshine Matters

This evening, the Florida Legislature passed the state budget which included $74 million in funding for VISIT FLORIDA in FY 2015-2016.  I would like to thank Governor Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature for their visionary leadership and for their extraordinary support of VISIT FLORIDA and the state’s tourism industry. Continue reading »

I am pleased to share that today Governor Rick Scott announced during a press conference at the Naples Zoo that Florida has set another record in tourism numbers by welcoming the highest amount of visitors of any quarter in the state’s history.  In the first quarter of 2015 (January-March), 28.4 million visitors came to the state, an increase of 6.2 percent over the same period in 2014.  The previous high for a quarter for tourism was 26.7 million visitors in quarter one last year.  The average number of direct travel-related jobs in quarter one of 2015 was also a record high, with 1,186,900 Floridians employed in the tourism industry – up 4.8 percent from the same period in 2014. Continue reading »

I am pleased to share that late yesterday Governor Scott announced our revised preliminary 2014 visitation figure of 98.9 million.  This figure represents a 5.1 percent increase over the previous high of 93.7 million in 2013 and marks the second largest year-over-year visitor increase Florida has experienced in a decade. Continue reading »

We all know tourism is the state’s No. 1 industry and that every 85 visitors support one Florida job.  With the release of the latest employment data from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, here are some new stats you may not know: Continue reading »

Yesterday, VISIT FLORIDA and nine other statewide organizations hosted the industry’s annual Florida Tourism Day at the Capitol.  This all-day event provided an excellent opportunity to showcase the state’s No. 1 industry to the legislature. Continue reading »