Sunshine Matters

On Monday, VISIT FLORIDA released preliminary estimates* of visitors to Florida which show an estimated 80.3 million visitors came to Florida in 2009, a decrease of 0.8 percent**. 

The preliminary estimates continue to reflect that 2009 was a very challenging year for the Florida tourism industry, visits from domestic travelers, international travelers and Canadian travelers as well as in-state travel by Floridians were all down for the year.  Given the economic volatility and consumer uncertainty that marked 2009, the Sunshine State held up extraordinarily well with total visitation to the state down less than 1 percent from 2008.

Preliminary estimates of visitors to Florida for the fourth quarter of 2009 (October-December) show an estimated 18.1 million people visited the Sunshine State.  This reflects a visitor decrease of 3.4 percent.   VISIT FLORIDA also reports* that more than 4 million residents took a pleasure trip in the fourth quarter of 2009 and in-state trips decreased by 1.8 percent in 2009 overall.  Preliminary data* collected at 14 of Florida’s major airports shows a 0.6 percent decrease in total enplanements to Florida for the fourth quarter and a decrease of 5.1 percent for 2009.   

During the fourth quarter of 2009, overseas travel to Florida decreased by 6.3 percent and overseas visitation for the 2009 calendar year decreased by 4.3 percent.  Canadian travel to Florida during the fourth quarter shows a 10.3 percent increase.  Canadian travel to Florida decreased by 6.4 percent overall in 2009.

See the newly released preliminary numbers here:  (http://media.visitflorida.org/research.php)

*Preliminary estimates are issued 45 days after the end of each calendar quarter.  Final estimates are released when final data are received for all estimates in the report.

**VISIT FLORIDA implemented a new methodology for estimating visitor numbers last quarter,