Brazil Moves into Third in Terms of Visitors to Florida

Florida attracted 20.4 million visitors during the third quarter of 2011, a 5.1 percent increase from the same period a year earlier, the states tourism arm, Visit Florida, announced.

Of those visitors, 17.5 million came from other states or U.S. territories, 420,000 were Canadian and 371,000 Brazilians.

The Brazil visitors, surpassing the United Kingdom's, jumped 38 percent from a year earlier.

As the states No. 1 industry and a key driver of the Florida economy, Im greatly encouraged by increases in tourism industry jobs and visitors to the Sunshine State, Gov. Rick Scott stated in a release from Visit Florida. After meeting with top travel professionals during the trade mission to Brazil last month and seeing firsthand how committed Visit Florida is to increasing travel by Brazilians to Florida, Im heartened to learn they have become our top-ranked overseas market.

Since the start of the year, Florida has had 1.1 million visitors from Brazil, up 41 percent over the same period in 2010, spending $1.6 billion, per Visit Florida numbers. The spending is up 59 percent from the first nine months of 2010.

Overall, domestic travel is up 3.4 percent, overseas visitors grew by 18.7 percent, and Canadian travel increased by 4.4 percent, according to Visit Florida.

The vacation industry accounted for 1,009,500 jobs in the third quarter, which is up by 51,400 positions from a year earlier.

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