Florida Tourism Hits Record 85.9 Million; Travel Jobs Up, Too

An estimated record 85.9 million visitors came to Florida last year, a 4.4 percent increase over 2010, state officials said Thursday.

Surpassing the previous record of 84.5 million visitors in 2007, Florida added more than 38,000 travel-related jobs last year. That increase brought travel-related employment to a near-record 1,013,100, Visit Florida reported.

With such significant increases in jobs and visitors to the Sunshine State in 2011, tourism remains the states No. 1 industry and the leading driver of Floridas rebounding economy, said Gov. Rick Scott.

The preliminary estimates for 2011 show a 3 percent increase in domestic visitors, a 5.7 percent increase in Canadian visitors and a 16.1 percent increase in overseas visitors.

For 2011, 21.5 million Floridians took an in-state pleasure trip, an increase of 12.5 percentage points.These increases represent record highs for overseas, Canadian and in-state visitation to Florida.

Since Florida relies on tourism to generate nearly a quarter of the states sales tax revenue and to employ over 1 million Floridians, its very encouraging to see that the industry experienced a record year, said Tony Lapi, chairman of the Visit Florida board of directors and president and CEO of Tween Waters Inn Island Resort in Captiva.

Every 85 visitors support one Florida job, so Im incredibly proud of our industrys continued growth as we work to strengthen the economy and provide much-needed employment.

Primary data collected at Floridas 14 major airports in 2011 reflect an 11.9 percent increase in total enplanements from 2010.Tourism/recreation taxable sales for Florida increased every month year-over-year from January through November 2011 (last reported month), representing a 7.2 percent increase over the same period in 2010.