Rick Scott: 2014 On Pace for Tourism Record High

Gov. Rick Scott and Visit Florida announced on Thursday that 23.7 million tourists visited the Sunshine State during the third quarter of 2014, an increase of 3.5 percent from last year when 22.9 million tourists visited.

Floridas thriving tourism industry is vital to growing jobs, and todays report that Florida has experienced three record quarters so far in 2014, putting the state on pace for a fourth consecutive record year, is great news for Florida families, Scott said. Tourism is a huge generator of jobs for our state and we invested $74 million into Visit Florida to create more opportunities for families.

Florida is on pace for a record high year of tourism with 73.9 million visitors in the first three quarters of 2014. These tourists added $55.6 billion to the Florida economy, an increase of 7.3 percent from 2013, and created almost 40,000 new jobs.

Florida tourisms continued strength across all metrics indicates that we are well on our way to making Florida the No. 1 travel destination in the world, said Will Seccombe, the president and CEO of Visit Florida.