Florida achieves fifth year of record tourism
Florida achieved another record year for tourism in 2015 with estimated visitor numbers reaching 105 million.
It is the fifth consecutive record year for visitation to Florida, 6.6% up on last year’s high of 98.5 million.
While the majority were domestic visitors, the Sunshine State welcomed nearly 4 million visitors from Canada, 1.7 million from the UK and just under 1.5 million from Brazil.
Governor Scott said: "With five consecutive record years for tourism, it is time to set our goal even higher, and I look forward to welcoming 115 million visitors to the Sunshine State this year."
For 2015, Florida’s average daily room rate rose 5% and the number of rooms sold grew by 4.5% compared to 2014.
Florida’s average occupancy rate for 2015 was 72%, an increase of 3.2% over 2014.
Here are the top countries for international visitation for 2015:
Canada 3,956,000
UK 1,718,000
Brazil 1,475,000
Argentina 613,000
Columbia 598,000
Germany 452,000
Mexico 435,000
Venezuela 321,000
Australia 319,000
France 292,000
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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