TAMPA — The number of Canadian visitors heading to Florida rebounded in the second quarter of 2017, showing a small increase of 0.8%. It wasn’t enough to offset a 2.2% dip in Q1 but it was a welcome and much-needed increase from this market.
Back in 2011, more than 4 million Canadians headed to Florida for a visit. In 2016, three years into the loonie’s downward tumble, that number was down to 3.2 million.
Visit Florida President and CEO Ken Lawson, in a July 2017 interview with Travelweek, said Visit Florida recently “doubled-down” its budget in Canada in an effort to reverse the slide. “This past year we’ve increased our spend in Canada and now we’re going to see the results of that,” said Lawson.
Florida set another record by welcoming the highest number of visitors of any six months in the state’s history with 60.7 million visitors.
This represents a 4.1% increase over the same period in 2016, and includes 53.2 million domestic visitors, 5.3 million overseas visitors and 2.2 million Canadian visitors.
“I am proud to announce today that Florida has continued its record breaking success by welcoming more than 60 million visitors to our state over the first half of 2017 – the highest number of visitors of any six months in our state’s history,” said Florida Governor Rick Scott.
“This means back-to-back record quarters for our state. Now, with the investments made in VISIT FLORIDA during this year’s Special Legislative Session, we can continue to break records and work toward our goal of 120 million visitors this year.”
Visit Florida estimates that a record 29.9 million visitors travelled to Florida in the second quarter of 2017 (April-June), an increase of 6.8% over the same period last year. This Q2 number breaks down to 26.4 million domestic visitors, 2.6 million overseas visitors and 899,000 Canadians coming to Florida.
Total enplanements at Florida’s 18 major airports in Q2 2017 increased 6.1% over the same period the previous year, with a record 22.8 million enplaned passengers.
The number of hotel rooms sold in Florida in Q2 grew by 4.2% compared to Q2 2016. During the same period, Florida’s average daily room rate increased by 4% and occupancy by 2.5%.
“With more than 60 million visitors to the state so far this year, this is an exciting and historic time for the Florida tourism industry. Visit Florida is committed to continuing to create cutting-edge marketing programs for our industry partners of all sizes that showcase the state to visitors and help make Florida the number one vacation destination in the world,” said Lawson.
