Florida Governor’s Conference announces 118.5 million out of state tourists visited Florida in 2017
Another successful Florida Governor’s Conference on Tourism has concluded in Osceola County, Florida as tourism leaders wrapped on their three day conference at the Omni hotel by announcing that a record 118.5 million out of state tourists visited the Sunshine State in 2017. Visit Florida initially estimated the 2017 tourism total at 116.5 million but in more good news for the industry, it reported a higher adjusted number despite the State being affected somewhat by Hurricane Irma last September.
Further, Governor Rick Scott announced that Florida continues to see record tourism with a strong first half of 2018. Scott announced that 65.5 million visitors came to the Sunshine State in the first six months of the year, up almost 6 percent over the year before.
Of the tourists who visited during the first six months of 2018, the vast majority of them, 58 million, were from other parts of the United States while 5.2 million came from overseas and 2.3 million from Canada. More than 28 million tourists came during the second quarter of 2018, up 7.1 percent from the second quarter of 2017.
“Florida’s tourism industry and our entire economy continue to flourish,” Governor Scott said. “After having record-breaking tourism in 2017, Florida started off the first half of 2018 by welcoming back-to-back record quarters of visitors. These record-breaking achievements allow our economy to create more jobs and adds to our success of having nearly 1.6 million private-sector jobs created in seven and a half years while our state’s unemployment rate is the lowest in over a decade. If we have that sort of growth the rest of the year, we’re going to have 125 million tourists and every 65 to 75 tourists is another Florida job.”
Ken Lawson (pictured above), the president and CEO of Visit Florida, also reacted to the new tourism data at the conference.
“Back-to-back record quarters in the first six months of this year show that the Florida tourism industry has continued its tremendous momentum,” Lawson said. “Visit Florida will continue to develop cutting edge marketing programs that highlight the diversity of our state so that we can attract more visitors, create more jobs, and make Florida the number one vacation destination in the world.”
The conference also saw the Film Florida Legends Tourism Ambassador Award given to Vanilla Ice (pictured above) for his work over the years in promoting the State of Florida.
