After last week’s announcement that record numbers of tourists visited Florida in 2015, a new report makes the case to expand international tourism to the Sunshine State.
Florida TaxWatch released “Welcoming the World: Making Florida the Top International Tourism Destination” on Tuesday, noting the state needs new tactics to bring in more tourists from around the globe. Kyle Baltuch, an economist with Florida TaxWatch, wrote the report.
“Competition for tourism dollars is fierce and the Sunshine State must fight to maintain its status as the world’s premier tourism destination," Florida TaxWatch insisted, maintaining “investing more in international tourism will significantly boost the state’s tourism numbers and strengthen the economy.”
“In recent years, increased public and private investment in Florida tourism has resulted in record numbers of visitors who have added billions of dollars and thousands of jobs to the state’s economy. However, we as a state cannot rest on our laurels,” said Dominic Calabro, the president and CEO of Florida TaxWatch. “Investing in international tourism is crucial in maintaining and growing Florida’s natural competitive advantage in attracting visitors to the Sunshine State from all parts of the world.”
The report calls for more secure funding for Visit Florida to recruit international tourists, targeting underserved tourists, including expanding efforts in Asian countries, and improving the state’s infrastructure. “Properly maintaining the state’s seaports, roads and airports will make travel safer, ensuring a smooth and memorable visit for tourists,” Florida Tax Watch noted.
Speaking at Epcot at Walt Disney World last week, Gov. Rick Scott announced 105 million tourists came to Florida in 2015, an increase of 6.6 percent from 2014. Almost 1.2 million Floridians work in tourism and travel-related jobs, an increase of almost 53,500 from 2014.
Most of the tourists--almost 90 million--came from the United State, an increase of 8 percent from 2014. There were 4 million Canadians who visited Florida in 2015 and 11.2 million residents of other nations came to the Sunshine State. With the bump in tourism, Florida’s airports saw an increase of more than 8 percent more traffic than in 2014. Tax revenue from tourists went up 8.6 percent from January through November 2015 (no records are available yet for December) compared to 2014 while hotel room sales increased 4.5 percent.
Florida currently ranks 17th in the world for international tourism but is battling other states--namely California and New York--to bring more tourists from around the world.
Scott has called for Florida to bring in $100 billion through tourism by 2020 and Visit Florida noted last week they were on track to reach that goal. Also, last week, Jerry Parrish, the chief economist from the Florida Chamber Foundation, said other areas of the economy benefited from the increase of tourists.
“We know that expanding the number of Florida visitors puts Floridians to work not only in the hospitality industry, but in other important Florida industries such as retail, construction, transportation and many others,” Parrish said. “In fact, almost half of the jobs created by increasing visitor numbers are in industries other than hospitality. The benefits that Florida receives also include a higher percentage of state and local taxes paid by visitors rather than by Florida families and businesses.”
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
