Over 97 Million People Visit Florida in 2014

According to preliminary estimates released by Visit Florida, the state’s official tourism marketing corporation, 97.3 million people visited Florida in 2014, an increase of 3.9% over 2013.

This is the fourth consecutive record year for visitation to Florida, exceeding the previous high of 93.7 million in 2013.

The number of direct travel-related jobs in 2014 also reached a record high, with 1,135,700 Floridians employed in the tourism industry, up 3.6% from 2013.

Governor Rick Scott said, “Florida’s natural beauty, pristine beaches and exciting attractions continue to bring countless visitors to our state and provide valuable jobs for our families. Our tourism industry is vital to helping Florida become the global destination for jobs, and this year we are proposing in our ‘Keep Florida Working’ budget an additional $17.5 million so Visit Florida can market our state and continue our unprecedented growth in visitors.”

Visit Florida estimates that 11.5 million overseas visitors and 3.8 million Canadians came to Florida in 2014, both of which are record highs and represent 2.6% and 2.4% increases over 2013 respectively.

Estimates also reflect a 4.2% increase in domestic visitors to Florida in 2014 and show that Floridians took a record total of 20.2 million in-state pleasure trips.

In Q4 2014, preliminary estimates show a record 22.4 million people visited the sunshine state. This represents the largest fourth quarter visitation number Florida has ever seen and reflects an increase of 2.8% over the same period in 2013. Visit Florida also reports that an estimated 3.1 million overseas visitors traveled to Florida in the fourth quarter of 2014, an increase of 0.5%, and 765,000 Canadians traveled to Florida, reflecting an increase of 5.6% over the same period in 2013.

“In 2014, a record 97.3 million tourists visited the state of Florida, an increase of 3.6 million people. That means there were nearly 4% more visitors spending money in Florida last year,” said Andrew Hertz, Chair of the Visit Florida Board of Directors. “Anyone would be happy to see their business grow by 4% year-over-year. But it is absolutely amazing when an entire industry keeps beating record numbers, while adding jobs and supporting the rest of the state’s economy.”

Tourism and recreation taxable sales for Florida increased every month year-on-year from January through November 2014 (last reported month), representing a 7.7% increase over the same period in 2013.

For 2014, the ADR rose 5.7% and the number of rooms sold grew by 5.3% compared to 2013. Florida's average occupancy rate for 2014 was 69.7%, an increase of 4.4% over 2013. This represents a record year for the statewide calendar year occupancy rate, exceeding the previous high of 69.0% in 2005. ADR, occupancy and rooms sold all increased every month year-on-year in 2014.

“Thanks to the visionary leadership of Governor Rick Scott and the Florida legislature, the Florida tourism industry has grown from 82.3 million visitors in 2010 to 97.3 million in 2014,” said Will Seccombe, President and CEO of Visit Florida. “With all indicators up – taxable sales, ADR, occupancy and rooms sold – the industry is firing on all cylinders.”