Sunshine Matters

During a press conference at The Jacksonville Zoo & Gardens this morning, Governor Rick Scott announced that Florida set another record in tourism by welcoming the highest amount of visitors of any nine months in the state’s history with 85 million visitors.  This record amount of out-of-state and international visitors represents a 5.5 percent increase over the same period last year.  In the third quarter of 2016 (July-Sept.), 26.9 million visitors came to the state, an increase of 5.1 percent over Q3 2015.  This marks Florida’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 percent year over year. Continue reading »