TORONTO — With a fast-paced recovery that began in earnest in spring 2022, Canada has regained its number one spot as Florida’s top international market.

Visit Florida’s VP Marketing, Brett Laiken, told Travelweek at IPW 2023 that the Canadian market “has basically recovered, or at least it’s about 99.8% of the way there.”

The Wheel at ICON Park in Orlando, Florida

And the numbers are only going up. Visitation to Florida from Canada in 2022 was 2.79 million. And for Q1 2023, Canadian visitation was 1.44 million.

No wonder Laiken calls Canada “a super important market.”

So much of a destination’s success depends on lift, and that’s why Laiken is also very pleased with the seven new routes into Florida from Canada this year. “The scheduled seats are up from 2022, scheduled to be up 14%,” he said. “It’s a lot about our ability to bring Canadians into the destination.” Leisure travel is booming, especially friends & family vacations.

“With the added flights, there’s a lot more ability to get here. We have several partnerships with tour operators, that’s very helpful, and also with travel agencies,” he said.

Overall, from all markets, Florida had 137.4 million visitors in 2022. That’s up 5% over 2019.

Travelweek asked Laiken if Visit Florida paused its international marketing during COVID.

“We took a beat, like, a breath, I don’t even think it was three months,” said Laiken. “We were the first one back and that’s what really helped Florida – because we never left. Many, many of our competitors paused marketing for an extended period of time. We believe that our leadership, allowing us to be in market, really paid dividends for us coming out of COVID. And it continues to pay dividends.”

Naples, Florida

Here’s a look at just a few of the many new and noteworthy offerings in Florida …

VISIT FLORIDA E-LEARNING PLATFORM

Visit Florida’s e-learning platform for the travel trade is constantly updated with new happenings, new builds, culinary news and the like.

One big focus for Visit Florida is accessible travel, and the agent e-learning portal now offers modules on this timely topic. With so many people looking for accessible travel, for disabilities both seen and unseen, Visit Florida wants to be the top accessible destination, says Laiken. “If agents have clients that have any kind of disability or additional need, they’re able to tell them some of the destinations with specific offerings for those specific needs,” he says. Accessibility is a key pillar of ours. We have a goal of being the number one accessible destination.”

Visit Florida also offers a toolkit for accessibility, for its partners, plus it’s facilitated webinars on the topic. As the Visit Florida team notes, the percentage of people who have some sort of extra need for traveling can be surprisingly high, 30% or more. “How do we make sure that everyone can come on the trip and feel included and not have to maybe stay back at the hotel for a specific activity because it’s not accessible for them?”

Visit Florida’s e-learning platform for travel advisors can be found here.

BRIGHTLINE EXPANSION

Brightline’s high-speed rail service has proven very popular, and tickets to Orlando, its newest stop, are now available. Says Laiken: “You can go from Miami to Orlando, you can stop off in Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach along the way, and it’s less than three hours. That’s really exciting for us.”

Next up for Brightline’s expansion? Tampa. “So eventually you’ll be able to go from Miami to Tampa on Brightline, which is super convenient,” says Laiken. “And for us, it’s unique. There isn’t a system like this in the country. And especially for a lot of our international travellers who are a little more accustomed to travelling by rail, it’s just going to be a welcomed experience.”

The new rail service has been very well-received by travellers, he added. “Brightline has been around for several years. They had the Miami to West Palm Beach route, they added in the Boca Raton stop. The terminal for Orlando is actually in the airport. So people are really happy, really excited for it.”

Brightline’s high-speed rail network serves several major destinations in Florida, including Miami, Orlando, Boca Raton, Ft. Lauderdale and, pictured above, West Palm Beach

CULINARY SCENE

Florida is now in year two of the Michelin Guide Florida. While Miami, Orlando and Tampa are much in the spotlight when it comes to Florida’s culinary scene, all destinations across the state with great dining benefit. Laiken noted that during the pandemic, when so many other states were shut down, “a lot of chefs relocated to Florida. So we have these world-class chefs. And our culinary offerings, because of our growing zone, we’re just like the Caribbean. So you have those flavours and spices that are grown in Florida as well. And we have five ports. So when we’re importing things from South America, they’re as fresh as they can be coming into Florida, not to mention what we’re able to grow year-round. So we’re excited about that.”

Visit Florida also has a video series called ‘You Gotta Try This: Chef’s Edition’. “We interview chefs for their menu, their specialty, plus they also recommend another place to go,” says Laiken.

OUTDOOR ADVENTURE

Visit Florida is also shining the spotlight on the Sunshine State’s wide range of outdoor and adventurous pursuits. Visit Florida is working with Florida’s Office of Greenways and Trails (OGT) which does trails and parks, to highlight the state’s 4,000+ miles of multi-use trails, for walking and biking and mountain biking. Florida is also home to 3,000+ miles of waterways, for paddleboarding, kayaking and boating. “It’s something we’re going to bring to life a little bit more in the coming year and really highlight,” said Laiken.

“As we’ve said in the past, we have the ‘core and more’ so you have your mains – Miami, Orlando, Tampa – but there’s also ‘what’s beyond’. And it’s not even a far drive. It could be 30 minutes outside the main city, where you’re able to be in the springs, swimming with the manatees, ziplining … there’s just so much and so we want to really showcase that. What a lot of people learned during the pandemic is the diversity of the destination, the offerings and so we’re going to continue to spotlight that,” he added.

Kayaking in the Florida Keys

HURRICANE IAN RECOVERY: NAPLES & FORT MYERS

In the wake of Hurricane Ian in September 2022, southwest Florida “has recovered tremendously,” said Laiken.

Visit Florida’s work with The Weather Network included a campaign that ran for Naples “and it was fantastic,” said Laiken. “It had a promotion attached with the contest, and it had the most entries they’d ever seen: 36,000 people entered. Which to us just says, they believe that it’s back. It’s resilient. We made the recovery.

He added: “Part of what [Naples has] done is, they didn’t wait. They just put the money in and they said, we’ve got to recover, we don’t have a choice. And I think that’s something that Canadians should know, is that we are resilient. And we’ve made a tremendous recovery there.”

Meanwhile Fort Myers is welcoming vacationers as well. “There’s a small part of Fort Myers Beach that is still having to rebuild, but they’re still having plenty of visitors.”

WORDS OF INSPIRATION

Travelweek asked Laiken and his team if they have a message for Canadian travel advisors selling Florida to their clients.

“I think what we would say is, every time you come back to Florida, you can have a new experience,” he said. “A Florida vacation is never the same.”

Visit Florida’s site is visitflorida.com.