florida keys tourism statistics 2022

Key West Travel Guide - Visitor Information for Key West, FL in the Florida Keys

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Key West Tourism Statistics

Includes data for cruise ship, airport, ferry passenger counts, and hotel occupancy and average-daily-room rates (ADR).

Here you’ll find the most up-to-date information about Key West tourism statistics and data, including:

• Passengers arriving at Key West International Airport each month
• Average daily price (ADR) for Key West hotel rooms
• Average occupancy rate for Key West hotels
• Passengers arriving in Key West by cruise ship each month
• Port-of-calls from cruise ships each month
• Passengers arriving in Key West by ferry boat each month
• Foreign visitors to Key West by country

These graphs are updated multiple times each month as new data becomes available.

The charts below are interactive. If you hover your mouse over the chart elements, the underlying data will be displayed. For a printable, static version, click on the pdf links below each chart.

Airport Data:

Source: Key West International Airport

Hotel Data:

Source: Monroe County Tax Records

Cruise Ship Data:

Source: City of Key West – Port Operations

Ferry Data:

Source: City of Key West – Historic Seaport/Marinas

2013 Foreign Visitors to Key West, by Country

Source: Monroe County Tourist Development Council (TDC)

Florida Tourism Statistics for 2021

By James | Last updated December 28, 2023

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Florida Tourism Statistics for 2021 and early figures for 2022 show that visitor numbers have nearly recovered to their pre-pandemic 2019 numbers despite a very slow recovery from international visitors, especially from Canada.

According to statistics from VISIT FLORIDA Research , record numbers of visitors came to Florida for nine consecutive years in a row between 2011 and 2019, crashed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the various global lockdowns and then started to recover in 2021.

*In 2009, VISIT FLORIDA changed its Florida visitor study estimation methodology; therefore, estimates made prior to that year are not directly comparable. In 2022 they further refined their estimating for Canadian and other overseas visitors

Florida Tourism Statistics in 2021 and 2022

The latest data from VISIT FLORIDA Research has shown that visitor numbers to Florida in 2021 and the first three quarters of 2022 are recovering back towards their pre-pandemic 2019 figures despite a slow recovery from international visitors. Many international markets were prohibited from entry into the USA until November 2021 due to COVID-19 restrictions imposed by the USA.

In fact, Columbia which was not subject to any travel bans with 0.71 million visitors came out on top for all international visitors, beating Canada with just 0.58 million (down from over 4 million in 2019).

Domestic visitor numbers surged with over 117 million (a new record) up 55% on 2020 whilst total visitor numbers increased to 122 million.

Top out-of-state domestic US visitors were from Georgia 9.5%, New York 9.3% and Alabama 6.4%.

The international breakdown by country showed the only gains were from South American countries that were not subject to travel bans (2020 figures in brackets):

• Canada 0.58 million (1.36 million)
• United Kingdom 0.14 million (0.18 million)
• Brazil 0.13 million (0.29 million)
• Columbia 0.71 million (0.17 million)
• Argentina 0.23 million (0.15 million)

Preliminary figures for the first three quarters of 2022 are showing further improvements:

• In quarter 1 of 2022, total visitor numbers were up 38.3% on the same period in 2021
• In Quarter 2 the figures were up 5.6% on 2021 and actually 4.5% up on 2019
• In Quarter 3 total visitor numbers were up 15.3% on 2021

The last two quarters of 2021 also showed an increase on the same quarters in 2019.

Barring further problems, 2022 could well set a new record and put Florida back on top again.

The final 2022 figures are expected in May/June 2023.

How Many Tourists Visit Florida Each Year?

Florida’s great climate makes it a year-round destination for both vacationers and business and leisure conventions. It is also a great draw for college students on spring break and snowbirds during the cold winter months in the North Eastern seaboard.

Over the last 10 years, visitor numbers have for the most part continued to grow.

In 2013 an estimated 94.7 million tourists visited Florida in total, up 3.6% on 2012 and then in 2014 that number grew to 97.35 million, a 2.8% increase on 2013.

In 2015 despite a small fall in international visitors, overall growth was around 6.5% topping the 100 million mark and reaching a record near 105 million visitors. A further 5.9% increase in 2016 saw numbers reach nearly 113 million.

Though international numbers continued to fall, especially from South America, overall 2017 and then 2018 and 2019 were record-breaking years with over 131 million visitors in 2019, despite the impact of hurricanes like Irma and the red tide outbreaks.

Of the major international countries, Canada continued to show growth and Brazil had started to climb again.

These figures demonstrated that for the ninth year running, Florida was still the “Number One” US attraction for holidaymakers with year-round appeal and that it had bounced back following the 2010 Gulf oil spill.

In 2019, domestic visitors still made up the lion’s share at over 116 million, a 3.7% increase, with Canada in second place and the United Kingdom in third place. In 2020, there was a 29.7% drop in domestic visitor numbers, a 64.5% drop for Canada and a 70.4% drop for international.

The biggest change in the last couple of years is the drop in visitor numbers from overseas, particularly in South America, and specifically from Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela. This was partly due to economic and political turmoil coupled with a poor economy and not being part of the US Visa Waiver Program .

For most of 2020 and 2021, the biggest factor was when the global COVID-19 pandemic struck the USA and it effectively went into lockdown, though this varied by state.

Orlando Visitor Numbers in 2021

With its multiple conference facilities and theme parks , Orlando hosts the largest number of visitors to Florida each year resulting in tourism being the largest private employer in the Orlando area.

In recent years theme parks have seen larger numbers of spring breakers wishing to spend time in the theme parks rather than the beach resorts. It is estimated that Walt Disney World receives over 50 million visitors each year, the most visited vacation resort in the world.

Visit Orlando produces annual visitor statistics and they estimated there were 59.3 million visitors to Orlando in 2021 which is a big increase on 2020 with 35.3 million but well down on the record over 75 million in both 2019 and 2018.

The figure of 59.3 million breaks down into 49.7 million domestic leisure visitors, 7.5 million domestic business visitors and about 2.1 million overseas visitors.

The Orange County Convention Center saw nearly 1 million visitors with over 40 million transiting through Orlando International Airport (MCO).

Visitors to Orlando bring in over $4bn in state and local taxes from hotels and businesses.

However, in 2020, that figure crashed to just 35.3 million visitors. International travel was down by 75%, not helped by the travel ban into the USA from so many countries.

Before the pandemic struck, in 2019 Orlando witnessed record-breaking numbers with 75.8 million visitors overall, 69.3 million domestic and 6.5 million overseas making it the most visited destination in the USA, beating New York.

Orlando International Airport maintained its position as the busiest airport in Florida, with 50.1 million travellers to the airport, a 6.7% increase on 2018.

Miami Visitor Numbers in 2021

Though Miami lacks theme parks it still has a lot to offer with great beaches, casinos, cruises to the Caribbean and beyond, culture and the lure of the Florida Keys.

The Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau publish annual visitor numbers to Miami. In 2021, Miami played host to some 24.2 million visitors matching the pre-pandemic numbers of 2019.

Domestic visitors made up 8.7 million of the overnight guests and 3.4 million of the day trippers plus about 3.5 million Florida residents overnight and the same number of day trippers.

There were around 5.1 million international visitors, the largest group were from Columbia with 0.50 million.

Like Orlando and Florida as a whole, Miami was also hit badly by the COVID-19 pandemic particularly in 2020 with only 11.6 million visitors, 7.9 million overnight and 3.7 day trippers. This was 52% down on 2019.

In 2019, there were estimated to be a record 24.2 million visitors, 16.3 million overnight and 7.9 million day trippers.

In 2018, the figures were 23.3 million, 16.5 million overnight and 6.8 million day trippers.

Below you will find historical figures for Florida for the last couple of years.

Florida Tourism Statistics in 2020

VISIT FLORIDA Research figures for 2020 showed a significant decline compared to 2019, especially in the second, third and fourth quarters.

Overall, quarter 1 was down by 14.5%, quarter 2 by a massive 66.6% and quarter 3 by 31.4%. Quarter 4 figures showed a drop of 31.9%.

Total visitor numbers to Florida in 2020 were just over 79 million of which over 75 million were from the United States.

The international breakdown by country figures showed large losses (2019 figures in brackets):

• Canada 1.36 million (4.09 million)
• United Kingdom 0.18 million (1.33 million)
• Brazil 0.29 million (1.30 million)
• Columbia 0.17 million (0.55 million)
• Argentina 0.15 million (0.56 million)

With the closing of the borders to many countries, there was around a 75% decrease in overseas visitors whereas domestic USA visitor numbers were only down by around 35%.

One of President Donald Trump’s last actions before he left office on January 20, 2021, was to rescind the overseas travel ban that came into effect in early 2020 but before it was due to take effect, new President, Joe Biden, reintroduced it and actually added another country (South Africa) to the list.

So the question “Is Florida open to visitors?” was a moot point as anyone who had been in the following countries in the last 14 days was still banned from entering the United States:

• European Schengen area (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Monaco, San Marino, Vatican City)
• United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland)
• Republic of Ireland
• South Africa

These bans were finally lifted in November 2021.

Florida Tourism Statistics in 2019

Total visitor numbers to Florida in 2019 were over 131 million of which over 116 million were domestic travellers from the United States. This represented a 3.8% increase on 2018.

Looking at the 2019 international numbers (2018 figures in brackets):

• Canada 4.09 million (3.55 million)
• United Kingdom 1.33 million (1.50 million)
• Brazil 1.30 million (1.22 million)
• Columbia 0.55 million (0.60 million)
• Argentina 0.56 million (0.65 million)

Overseas tourists showed a 0.1% increase compared to 2018.

In prior years, the United Kingdom (UK) was always top of the international tourist list behind Canada but in 2011 the UK at 1.3 million was knocked off the second spot by Brazil with 1.5 million visitors. Brazil has now slipped back to third place behind the UK.

Comparing these figures from as far back as 2010, the biggest gains in percentage terms came from emerging markets like Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela and Brazil reflecting the impact of the economic downturn in Western Europe.

Florida Tourism Statistics In Previous Years

The breakdown for 2009 was an estimated 71.2 million domestic (US) visitors plus a further 2.6 million from Canada.

Visitors from the United Kingdom were in third spot with 1.2 million down 12% on 2008 whereas Brazil was in fourth place with 0.7 million, up 29%. In 2010 Brazil’s visitor numbers topped the 1 million mark.

Tourists spend over $60 billion per annum in Florida bringing in nearly $4 billion in sales tax revenues (a quarter of all sales tax revenues) and creating over 1 million jobs in the tourist industry.

Another interesting statistic is the amount of money spent by foreign tourists and again Brazilians spent far more per person than say visitors from the United Kingdom, in fact, they spent twice as much, taking advantage of low prices and a favourable exchange rate at the time.

To cater for this increase in Brazilian visitors, all the main theme parks started employing Portuguese-speaking workers and launched websites in Portuguese.

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Florida sees record tourism in the first quarter of 2022

Florida attracted a record number of tourists during the first three months of 2022, surpassing totals from similar quarters before the COVID-19 pandemic rocked the hospitality and leisure industry.

Visit Florida, the state’s tourism-marketing agency, posted information Friday showing that 35.982 million people traveled to the state between the start of January and the end of March.

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With tourism a key engine of the state’s economy, that was 39.6 percent higher than during the first quarter of 2021, a time when COVID-19 vaccines were becoming more widely available. It also was 19.29 percent over the first quarter of 2020, when the virus hit the state.

More important for tourism officials, the new total was up 1.35 percent from the first quarter of 2019, before the pandemic started.

“I can tell you by seeing all the cars on the road, I think that there's a lot more people still coming to visit Florida,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a May 4 news conference at Frenchy’s Rockaway Grill in Clearwater.

As has been the case since the pandemic started, the vast majority of people traveling to Florida --- 95 percent --- during the first three months of the year came from other states.

After DeSantis alluded to record domestic tourism during the May 4 appearance, Visit Florida President and CEO Dana Young credited the DeSantis-led push to reopen businesses months after the initial hit from the pandemic.

“The ability to be in market for almost seven months ... where not another state was doing anything outside their borders, helped us create an incredible strategic advantage for the state of Florida,” Young said.

Florida has now recorded four consecutive quarters attracting more than 30 million visitors. It also has posted three consecutive quarters with numbers topping the same periods in 2019, when the state handled a record 131.07 million tourists.

Even with the increases during this year’s first quarter, the state attracted just 1.323 million visitors from overseas and 578,000 from Canada.

In the first quarter of 2019, the state saw 2.276 million overseas travelers and 1.446 million Canadians.

The number of overseas travelers fell to 1.76 million in the first quarter of 2020, as businesses and borders began shutting down. With virus-related restrictions hindering most international travel in 2021, the first-quarter total dropped to 492,000.

After attracting nearly 1.45 million Canadians in the first quarter of 2019, the numbers fell to 1.25 million in the first quarter of 2020 and 55,000 in the same period of 2021.

COVID-19 travel restrictions imposed by Canada also resulted in Colombia being the top nation of origin for international travelers during the full year of 2021.

Visit Florida recorded 709,000 visitors in 2021 from the South American country, accounting for 15.3 percent of international travelers coming to Florida. Canada was next at 584,000 visitors for the year, followed by Mexico at 389,000 and Peru at 261,000.

In 2019, 4.09 million Canadians came to Florida, making up 29.4 percent of the state’s tourists. The United Kingdom was second at 9.6 percent, with 1.33 million visitors. Colombia ranked fifth behind Brazil and Argentina.

Florida lawmakers in March passed a proposed budget that includes $50 million to fund Visit Florida’s tourism-marketing efforts during the upcoming 2022-2023 fiscal year. The agency received $80 million for the current fiscal year, which included $30 million in federal stimulus money. Lawmakers have not formally sent the 2022-2023 spending plan to DeSantis, who has line-item veto power.

Last Friday, DeSantis signed into law a measure (SB 434) that extends the authorization of Visit Florida from Oct. 1, 2023, to Oct. 1, 2028.

Monroe County grapples with scathing audit of Keys Tourist Council

As Florida’s peak tourism season kicks off, the Florida Keys are grappling with how to address a scathing audit of its county tourism agency.

In October, the Monroe County Clerk of Circuit Court and Comptroller released an initial audit of the county’s Tourist Development Council (TDC).

The Monroe County TDC, which is a legislative extension of the Monroe County Board of County Commissioners, was created by a referendum of electors in 1981 to oversee the development of the county’s tourist economy with a mix of public and private efforts.

The audit reviewed the TDC’s marketing processes, contracts, and expenditures for the period from fiscal year 2019 through 2023.

It found alleged “repeated noncompliance” with the county’s purchasing policy, “a significant lack of internal controls and management oversight” when it comes to financial management, “potential self-dealing” and double-billing from a contractor and “serious ethical concerns” among leadership.

“We want to fix this,” said Rita Irwin, the chairperson of the TDC board. “Nobody ever goes, ‘Yippee, an audit’ but we can always learn and you must respond and say, ‘How can we do better?’ If there are factual things, you want to address them but if there are systematic concerns, you want to correct them.”

READ MORE: "WLRN Connects: Reopening And The Reliance On Tourism In The Keys"

The allegations include that the TDC, through the nonprofit running their executive office called Visit Florida Keys, mishandles receipts and does not sufficiently review the accuracy of vendor invoices before submitting them to finance for payment.

For example, auditors found that 14% of sampled items were returned to Visit Florida Keys due to insufficient documentation or explanation of what is being invoiced. They also include that Visit Florida Keys staff may have violated county purchasing policy by submitting purchase requisitions after goods and services are purchased, not before like the policy requires.

The audit also alleges that the TDC misstated their revenues and expenditures to the public for the fiscal year 2022.

For example, the TDC annual report for the Board of County Commissioners stated that a fund controlled by the TDC identified as “Fund 115,” was reported as having total revenues and transfers add up to about $9.1 million. Auditors found that the number should be reported as $11.3 million, which would mean the TDC underreported that revenue by $2.1 million. Similar reporting discrepancies were found across 6 other TDC funds. The audit projects that the TDC’s fund balances at the end of FY 2022 exceeded $100 million.

During a Nov. 8 Monroe County Board of Commissioners meeting, commissioners decided to recommend the Tourist Council place its Marketing Director, the TDC's head executive, on administrative leave with pay.

On Nov. 16, the TDC Board accepted commissioners’ recommendation. The board also moved to have one of their members, Diane Schmidt, step in to take over the marketing director’s duties in her absence.

Management oversight

The marketing director, Stacey Mitchell, who was only referenced by her title in the audit, is accused of sharing her financial system account log-in information to delegate handling purchase orders and vendor invoices to other TDC employees without management oversight.

She’s also accused of potential ethical misconduct after hiring a photographer that she is alleged to have a long-time personal relationship with. The TDC commissions an annual photo calendar through photographer Robert O’Neal. O’Neal and Mitchell have a long-term “landlord-tenant relationship” as described in the audit. Mitchell declined to comment to WLRN about the audit.

The audit alleges that the focus of the calendar appears to help promote O’Neal’s business website and a portion of the calendars printed through the TDC are given back to O’Neal to re-sell later. No other vendors were given the opportunity to bid on the project, according to the audit, which is a violation of Monroe County purchasing policy.

O’Neal said the accusation that he sells calendars the TDC purchased is false.

“My world went into the gutter,“ O’Neal said. “It’s devastating to have someone falsely accuse you of something, especially something like stealing.”

O’Neal said auditors never called him to ask about the calendar sales. He said that his photo calendar project began in 2008 with then-TDC director Harold Wheeler. Each year, O’Neal takes an order from the TDC for calendars. Then, he orders extra to sell online and in local bookstores. This year, he said, the TDC requested 1,100 calendars. O’Neal planned to purchase an extra 400 for himself. So, he placed an order to print 1,500 calendars and paid the order in full. Then, he invoiced the TDC for the 1,100 calendars they requested.

“It’s pretty simple math,” he said. “Had the county auditors actually take the time to contact me, I could have provided solid proof of this.”

Potential double-billing and using a nonexistent company

Since the audit’s release, further investigations into the TDC were prompted.

While most are still ongoing, a review from the county attorney’s office contradicts the clerk’s finding that a TDC contractor was potentially double-billing for his services.

The October audit had accused long-time TDC contractor, NewmanPR, of double-billing the TDC for photography and videography services. It also alleged that NewmanPR may have submitted reimbursement requests through a nonexistent company named Graphics 71.

NewmanPR’s president, Andy Newman spoke at the Nov. 16 TDC board meeting. He said he was not given the chance to provide explanations for the accusation of double-billing in the clerk’s audit.

“It feels like a rusty dagger has been stabbed through my heart,” Newman said. “[The audit] contains extremely disconcerting accusations against my company, my staff, our partners and family friends and others who have known our work and reputation for more than four decades.”

However, on Nov. 7, the county attorney’s office released a memorandum to the county clerk, who oversaw the original audit.

The memorandum states that the county attorney, Bob Shillinger, reviewed the contract between NewmanPR and the TDC and its outlined scope of services.

While the scope of services calls for NewmanPR to “coordinate development and distribution of news materials for trade and consumer media” as well as “provide development and maintenance of video and still image libraries,” the county attorney determined that the contracted services do not include photography and videography services and production.

“In my view, no double billing exists for these services under the provisions of the contract,” Shillinger wrote in the memorandum.

Andy Newman told WLRN that he is “gratified that the Monroe County attorney's office concluded that there were no double-billings being done by our company.”

“At this time, I can't comment beyond that as the audit continues,” he said.

Further investigation

The initial audit’s findings prompted the clerk’s office to launch three more audits of the TDC’s agencies of record. The agencies include NewmanPR, Two Oceans Digital and Tinsley Advertising & Marketing. Those financial record reviews are ongoing.

Commissioners also voted for, and the TDC board approved, the hiring of an outside fraud examiner firm, Cherry Bekaert.

The firm will review the TDC’s financial filings and contracts as well as make suggestions for improved financial management processes. A representative from Cherry Bekaert laid out the firm’s plan to independently review and consult the TDC during the Nov. 8 commission meeting. Their proposed timeline includes submitting a final report 16 weeks after they begin their independent review process.

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Florida Tourism Numbers Get Boost

TALLAHASSEE — With international travel clawing closer to pre-pandemic levels, Florida is on pace for a record-setting year for tourism.

The tourism-marketing agency Visit Florida on Thursday estimated 35.066 million people traveled to Florida during the third quarter of 2023, 1.4 percent more than during the same period of 2022 and 7.9 percent above the total in 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic began.

The new numbers showed a rebound from a slight second-quarter dip, which industry leaders attributed to increased competition from other states and countries that were closed longer than Florida because of the pandemic.

In 2019, Florida attracted 131 million visitors, with 100.267 million coming to the state during the first nine months of the year.

Florida’s July-through-September totals this year were dominated by visitors from other states. But they were also helped by the federal government’s lifting of COVID-19 vaccination requirements for international air travelers on May 11, the same day a COVID-19 public health emergency ended.

International tourism, however, continues to face issues with non-migrant visa delays, which have been blamed, at least in part, on staffing shortages at embassies. The U.S. Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs website Thursday showed London wait times at 110 days, up from 90 days on June 7. Paris was at 200 days, up from 180 days in June. Rio De Janeiro was at 162 days on Thursday, down from 477 days in June.

Florida’s tourism industry was hammered in 2020 because of pandemic-related shutdowns. But state officials have contended that early efforts to reopen the economy led to a quicker tourism rebound in Florida.

“Florida continues to set records for visitation because of our commitment to allowing visitors to enjoy their travels without arbitrary government restrictions,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a prepared statement Thursday.

Overseas and Canadian tourists, however, showed year-over-year increases — though they are still not at pre-pandemic levels.

Visit Florida estimated the state had nearly 2.23 million overseas visitors in the third quarter, up from 1.93 million in the third quarter of 2022. In the third quarter of 2019, the total was 2.5 million.

Also, Canadian travel — traditionally the top international country of origin for visitors to Florida — reached 666,000 in the third quarter, topping 561,000 in the third quarter of 2022. For the first nine months of 2023, Florida attracted about 2.8 million Canadians, up from 1.749 million in the same period of 2022.

In 2019, 4.088 million Canadians made their way to Florida, with 2.997 million during the first nine months of the year and 703,000 during the third quarter.

Pointing to the trends in global travel, Visit Florida President and CEO Dana Young called the third-quarter figures “a new normal with an elevated market share of tourism, especially international tourism.”

To combat increased competition from other parts of the U.S., Visit Florida made plans this year to market regions of the state outside of their peak seasons, highlight non-typical tourist destinations and move up the start of winter and “families” advertising campaigns.

The state budget for the current fiscal year, which began July 1, includes $80 million for Visit Florida, a $30 million increase from last year.

Florida's latest tourism numbers just dropped, what it means for the state

Visit Florida has dropped the latest numbers for our state’s tourism, and they show a dip in travelers.

In the second quarter of 2023, the State of Florida saw a little more than 33 million visitors. It’s keeping us on pace to beat out our record from last year, but we have 1.2% fewer tourists compared to what we saw during the same time last year.

“We figured that we would start to even out and become more manageable because the numbers from 22 were just not sustainable,” explained Stacy Ritter.

Ritter is with Visit Lauderdale, and she said they were expecting a slower summer. The reasons as to why we have had one vary.

“From what I am told,” stated Ritter. “Americans are crawling all over Europe. There’s a lot of pent-up demand for people who have been there for years. I also think there is some Florida over-saturation. For a couple of years, we were the only place you could come with no competition, so people came, and they came back and back again. But now they can go everywhere.”

Why they are choosing to go elsewhere also varies.

We spoke to Ritter last month when roughly 10 convention events had pulled out of Greater Fort Lauderdale. Now they are up to 13 since May. Ritter shared the businesses have cited the state’s political climate and controversial policies coming from the governor’s office.

During the start of this year, we also saw groups like the NAACP and Equality Florida issuing travel advisories, telling travelers to reconsider coming to Florida because of tensions regarding African American studies and DEI curriculum in the state, as well as new policies.

The CEO of Visit Florida told the Orlando Sentinel that those reasons did not play a meaningful role in the lowered numbers during the second quarter, saying:

“We are continuing to see a very diverse group of vacationers that are coming to Florida,” they are spending money here, supporting our state economy. We value all of them, and we continue to encourage people to come.”

Ritter attested to that, “As it relates to group business, we actually poll higher in LGBTQ and multicultural group business than does our competitive set.”

According to the numbers, in Q2, most of Florida’s international tourists were from Canada, followed by the United Kingdom.

As for what those in the tourism industry are hoping to see next, hopefully, a busy winter, “We expect it will even out, it will be similar to 22, if we collect a half a million or a million dollars less of TDT, in calendar 23 compared to 22, we will consider it a very successful year,” stated Ritter.

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Florida tourism hits record number in 2022

By CBS Miami Team

February 15, 2023 / 7:17 PM EST / CBS/News Service of Florida

TALLAHASSEE - Bolstered by travelers from other states, Florida had a record 137.6 million visitors in 2022, Gov. Ron DeSantis' office said Wednesday. 

People from other states accounted for just under 93 percent of Florida's tourists. 

The overall visitor total was 12.9 percent higher than in 2021 and 5 percent higher than in 2019, the last full year before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the state. 

The pandemic cut overall visitors to 79.397 million in 2020. Leaders of the Visit Florida tourism-marketing agency have recently expressed concerns about a lag in international tourists returning to pre-pandemic levels because of visa wait times and vaccine requirements.

The CBS Miami team is a group of experienced journalists who bring you the content on CBSMiami.com.

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They came for Florida's sun and sand. They got soaring costs and a culture war.

One of the first signs Barb Carter’s move to Florida wasn’t the postcard life she’d envisioned was the armadillo infestation in her home that caused $9,000 in damages. Then came a hurricane, ever present feuding over politics, and an inability to find a doctor to remove a tumor from her liver.

After a year in the Sunshine State, Carter packed her car with whatever belongings she could fit and headed back to her home state of Kansas — selling her Florida home at a $40,000 loss and leaving behind the children and grandchildren she’d moved to be closer to.

“So many people ask, ‘Why would you move back to Kansas?’ I tell them all the same thing — you’ve got to take your vacation goggles off,” Carter said. “For me, it was very falsely promoted. Once living there, I thought, you know, this isn’t all you guys have cracked this up to be, at all.”

Florida has had a population boom over the past several years, with more than 700,000 people moving there in 2022, and it was the second-fastest- growing state as of July 2023, according to Census Bureau data . While there are some indications that migration to the state has slowed from its pandemic highs, only Texas saw more one-way U-Haul moves into the state than Florida last year. Mortgage application data indicated there were nearly two homebuyers moving to Florida in 2023 for every one leaving, according to data analytics firm CoreLogic.

But while hundreds of thousands of new residents have flocked to the state on the promise of beautiful weather, no income tax and lower costs, nearly 500,000 left in 2022, according to the most recent census data. Contributing to their move was a perfect storm of soaring insurance costs, a hostile political environment, worsening traffic and extreme weather, according to interviews with more than a dozen recent transplants and longtime residents who left the state in the past two years.

“It wasn’t the utopia on any level that I thought it would be,” said Jodi Cummings, who moved to Florida from Connecticut in 2021. “I thought Florida would be an easier lifestyle, I thought the pace would be a little bit quieter, I thought it would be warmer. I didn’t expect it to be literally 100 degrees at night. It was incredibly difficult to make friends, and it was expensive, very expensive.”

Cummings expected she’d have extra money in her paycheck working as a private chef in the Palm Beach area since the state doesn’t have an income tax. But the high costs of car insurance, rent and food cut into that additional take-home pay. After six months of dealing with South Florida’s heat and traffic, she began planning a move back to the Northeast.

“I had been so disenchanted with Florida so quickly,” Cummings said. “There was this feeling of confusion and guilt about wanting to leave, of moving there then realizing this is not anything like I thought it would be.”

While costs have been rising across the country, some areas of Florida have been hit particularly hard. In the South Florida region, which includes Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach, consumer prices in February were up nearly 5% over the prior year, compared to 3.2% nationally , according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Homeowners insurance rates in Florida rose 42% last year to an average of $6,000 annually, driven by hurricanes and climate change , and car insurance in Florida is more than 50% higher than the national average, according to the Insurance Information Institute. While once seen as an affordable housing market, Florida is now among the more expensive states to buy a home in, with prices up 60% since 2020 to an average of $388,500, according to Zillow.

For Carter, who made the move in 2022 from Kansas to a suburb of Orlando for the weather, beaches and to be closer to her grandchildren, the costs began to quickly pile up. She purchased a manufactured home and initially expected the lot rent in her community to be $580 a month. But when she arrived she learned her monthly bill was actually $750, and by the time she left it had jumped to $875 a month. Along with the $9,000 in repairs from the armadillos, her car insurance doubled and Hurricane Ian destroyed her home’s roof on her 62nd birthday.

There were also the ever-present conversations and disagreements over politics that started to wear on her. Carter, who describes herself as a “middle of the road” Republican, said she learned to keep her opinions to herself.

“You cannot engage in a conversation there without politics coming up, it is just crazy. We’re retired, we’re supposed to be in our fun time of life,” she said. “I learned quickly, just keep your mouth shut, because I saw people in my own community break up their friendships over it. I don’t like losing friends, and especially over politics.”

But she said the final straw was when she couldn’t find a surgeon to remove a 6-inch tumor from her liver that doctors warned could burst at any moment and lead to life-threatening sepsis. After being passed among doctors, she finally found one willing to remove the tumor. But when she called to schedule the surgery, her calls went unanswered and her messages weren’t returned. After months of trying and fearing for her life, she returned to Kansas to have the procedure done.“It just seemed like one challenge after another, but I kept with it until there was literally a lifesaving event that I needed to get handled and I wasn’t able to do it there,” she said. “I think it was the most difficult year of my life.”

No state has had more residents relocate to Florida in recent years than New York, with 90,000 New Yorkers moving there in 2022, according to census data. Among all out-of-state mortgage applicants, nearly 9% were from New York in 2023, slightly lower than the previous two years but similar to 2019, according to CoreLogic. One of those New York transplants was Louis Rotkowitz. He lasted less than two years in Florida.

“Like every good New Yorker, this is where you want to go,” he said by phone while driving the last of his belongings out of the state to his new home in Charlotte, North Carolina. “It’s a complete fallacy.”

After years working in emergency medicine, and nearly dying from a Covid-19 infection he contracted at work, Rotkowitz said he and his wife were looking for a more pleasant, affordable lifestyle and warmer weather when they decided to buy a house in the West Palm Beach area in 2022. He got a job there as a primary care physician and his wife took a teaching position.

But he said he quickly found the Florida he’d moved to wasn’t the one he’d experienced on regular visits there over the years. His commute to work often took more than an hour each way, he struggled to get basic services like a dishwasher repair, and the cost of his homeowners association fees doubled.

“I had a good salary, but we were barely making ends meet. We had zero quality of life,” said Rotkowitz.

Along with the rising costs, Rotkowitz said he generally felt unsafe in the state between the erratic traffic — which resulted in a number of his patients being injured by vehicles — and a state law passed in 2023 that allowed people to carry a concealed weapon without a license.

“Everyone is walking around with guns there,” he said. “I consider myself a conservative guy, but if you want to carry a gun you should be licensed, there should be some sort of process.”

Veronica Blaski, who moved to Florida from Connecticut, said rising costs drove her out of the state after less than three years. When at the start of the pandemic her husband was offered a job in Florida making more money as a manager for a landscaping company, Blaski envisioned warm weather and a more comfortable lifestyle.

The couple, both in their 40s, sold their home in Connecticut and were starting to settle into their new community when Blaski said they were hit with a “bulldozer” of costs at the start of 2023.

Her homeowners insurance company threatened to drop her coverage if she didn’t replace her home’s 9-year-old roof, a $16,000 to $30,000 project, and even with a new roof, she was expecting her home insurance rates to double — one neighbor saw their insurance go from $600 a month to $1,200 a month.

She was also facing rising property taxes as the value of her home increased, her homeowners association fees went from $326 a month to $480, and her insurance agent warned that her car insurance would likely double when it was time to renew her policy. Her husband had to get a second job on weekends to cover the higher costs.

While Florida has an unemployment rate below the national average, Blaski and others said wages weren’t enough to keep up with their expenses. The median salary in Florida is among the lowest in the country, according to payroll processor ADP. To afford a home in one of Florida’s more affordable metro areas, like Jacksonville, a homebuyer would need to earn $109,000 a year, around twice as much income as a buyer would have needed just four years ago, according to an analysis by Zillow.

“My little part-time job making $600, $700 a month went to paying either car insurance or homeowners insurance, and forget about groceries,” said Blaski, who was working in retail. “There are all these hidden things that people don’t know about. Make sure you have extra money saved somewhere because you will need it.”

When her husband’s former boss in Connecticut reached out to see if he’d be willing to return, the couple leaped at the chance.

The reverse migration out of Florida isn’t just among newcomers, but also among longtime residents who said they can no longer afford to live there and are uncomfortable with the state’s increasingly conservative policies, which in recent years have included a crackdown on undocumented immigrants, a ban on transgender care for minors, state interventions in how race , slavery and sexuality are taught in schools, and a six-week ban on abortions .

After more than three decades in the Tampa Bay area, Donna Smith left the state for Pennsylvania in December, with politics and rising insurance costs playing a major role in her decision to leave.

“It breaks my heart, it really does, because Florida was really a pretty great place when I first moved there,” Smith said.

Having grown up in Oklahoma, Smith considered herself a Republican, but as Florida’s politics shifted to the right, she said she began to consider herself a Democrat. It wasn’t until the past several years, though, that politics started to encroach on her daily life — from feuds between neighbors and friends to neo-Nazis showing up at a Black Lives Matter rally in her small town.

“When I first moved to Florida, it was a live-and-let-live sort of beach feel. You met people from all over, everybody was relaxed. That’s just gone now, and it’s shocking. It’s just gone,” said Smith, 61, who works as a graphic designer and illustrator. “Instead, it’s just a constant stressful atmosphere. I feel as though it could ignite at any point, and I’m not a fearmonger. It’s just the atmosphere, the feeling there.”

She was already considering a move out of the state when she was told by her homeowners insurance company that she would need to replace her home’s roof because it was older than four years or her insurance premium would be going up to $12,000 a year from $3,600, which was already double what she had been paying. Even with a new roof, she was told her premium would be $6,900 a year. Before she could make a decision about what to do, her insurance policy was canceled.

Shortly after, Smith ended up moving to the Lancaster, Pennsylvania, area, where she is closer to her adult children. While the majority of voters in her new county chose Donald Trump in the last election, she said politics is no longer such a heavy presence in her everyday life.

“I don’t feel it is as oppressive. People don’t wear it on their sleeve like they did in Florida,” she said. “When you walk in a room, you don’t overhear a conversation all the time where people are saying ‘Trump is the best’ or ‘I went to that last rally,’ and they’re telling total strangers while you’re just waiting for your car or something. It was just everywhere.”

Costs and politics were also enough to cause Noelle Schmitz to leave the state after more than 30 years, despite her son having a year left in high school, and relocate to Winchester, Virginia. She said the politics became ever-present in her daily life — one former neighbor had a massive Trump banner in front of their house for years, and another had Trump written in big letters across their yard. When she put out a Hillary Clinton sign in 2016, it was stolen and her house was egged.“I saw my neighbors and co-workers become more radicalized, more aggressive and more angry about politics. I’m thinking, where is this coming from? These are not the people I remember,” Schmitz said. “I was finally like, we need to get the hell out of here, things are not going well.”

For some Florida newcomers though, politics is the main draw to the state, said John Desautels, who has sold real estate in Florida for decades. While politics never used to be a topic for homebuyers, Desautels said it is now a regular subject his clients bring up. Rather than asking about schools or amenities in a community, prospective buyers are asking him about the political affiliations of a certain neighborhood.

“One of the first things they say is, ‘I don’t want to be in one of them X or Y political party neighborhoods,’” Desautels said. “I spend hours listening to people vent to me about fleeing the communist government of XYZ and they want to come to freedom or whatever. So the politics have been the biggest issue when we get the call.”

Even home showings have become a politically sensitive issue. He recalled showing an elderly woman one property where there were Confederate flags at the gate and swastikas on the fish tank.

But while politics are a lure to people arriving in the state, he said they’re also among the reasons sellers tell him they’re leaving, and the state’s politics have deterred some of his gay or nonwhite clients from moving there.

“The problem is, when we alienate protected classes, it sounds like a good sound bite, but you’ve got to remember those are people who spend money in our community,” he said. “For this pro-business, free state, I’m feeling it in the wallet, bad.”

In Kansas, Carter says it’s good to be home. She moved into a 55-plus community in a small town about 10 miles from Wichita. While in Florida she was paying nearly $900 in lot rent for her manufactured home, she now pays just $520 in rent for a cottage-style apartment — a place she estimates would have cost her $1,800 a month in Florida.

With the money she’s saving in Kansas, she can afford to visit Florida.

“People call me the modern-day Dorothy,” she said. “There’s no place like home.”

Shannon Pettypiece is senior policy reporter for NBC News digital.

While Florida's tourism dipped slightly in 2023, international tourism continued strong rebound

The Visit Florida tourism-marketing agency reported an 18.3% increase in international tourists compared to 2022.

While Florida saw a slight decline in the total number of tourists in 2023, the number of international visitors continues to show a strong rebound following the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2023, Florida welcomed an estimated 135 million tourists according to the Visit Florida tourism marketing agency. That’s down from 137.4 million the year before, but up from 131.1 million in 2019 – the last full year of data before the pandemic.

Visit Florida reported an 18.3% increase in international tourists year over year, with 8.3 million from overseas (up 18.7% from 2022) and 3.8 million from Canada (up 45.5%).

Agency officials said this is the closest the state’s international visitation has come to full recovery since the beginning of the pandemic. They also say it’s noteworthy considering current economic challenges.

"Even as we faced the challenges of rising travel costs and widespread inflation, Florida's tourism sector not only persevered but flourished," Visit Florida President and CEO Dana Young said in a statement.

In 2023, a record 45.9 million visitors flew into Florida, the largest number since 2016.

The agency also saw a 15.9% increase in fourth quarter 2023 overseas visitors and a 22% increase in fourth quarter Canadian visitors compared to 2022. However, there was a decrease of 12.1% in domestic tourists year over year.

And the area hit by Hurricane Ian in Sept. 2022 posted a recovery.

In the fourth quarter 2023, Fort Myers saw a 32.4% increase in visitors, compared to the same period a year earlier. The Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau reported the fourth-quarter visitation was up by 65.8% compared to 2022.

The News Service of Florida reports the state Senate has proposed $80 million for Visit Florida in its proposed budget for the upcoming 2024-2025 fiscal year, the same as in the current year. The House has countered with a $30 million proposal, and Gov. Ron Desantis has recommended $105 million.

A couple that quit full-time work in their 20s share the money mindset that 'propelled' them to financial independence without altering their quality of life: 'We made zero sacrifices'

• Lauren and Steven Keys built a million-dollar portfolio and left full-time work in their 20s.
• Their annual spending never surpassed $26,000, but they never felt like they were making sacrifices.
• The couple's framework was: 'How do we build a happy life on a low amount of money?'

Lauren and Steven Keys built a million-dollar portfolio from scratch , which set them up to quit their full-time jobs in their 20s and pursue various side projects and creative work.

"Focusing on making a happy life with low expenses is the most powerful thing that we ever did in the early years," Steven, a former high school physics teacher, told Business Insider. "It's what propelled us to financial independence. It's what allowed us to save so much money."

The Florida-based couple says that, over the last decade, their annual spending never surpassed $26,000. That allowed them to save most of their income, even early in their careers, when their salaries were around $40,000 each.

That's significantly less than the average American household spends — $72,967 annually, according to the 2022 Consumer Expenditure Survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics — but the couple never felt deprived.

"We made, honestly, zero sacrifices on our journey," Steven said, noting that they never budgeted or tracked their spending. They also didn't start their financial independence journey by asking, "How much should I save?" Rather, "the whole philosophy we took from the beginning is: How do we build a happy life on a low amount of money?"

This framework worked for the Keys, who describe themselves as naturally frugal.

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"We found that we were pretty happy doing around $18,000 to $26,000 a year combined," he said, noting that their mindset didn't change as their incomes increased over the years: "We thought, there's no reason to spend more if we make more if we're already happy. We'll just save extra and reach freedom faster."

How to spend small and live large

The crux of their savings strategy is to keep three main expenses — housing, transportation, and food — as low as possible. That gives them room to spend more liberally in other categories that are important to them, including travel.

The couple, who met in high school, has lived together and benefited from sharing expenses since graduating college. They split the rent payment for a one-bedroom apartment before they bought their first home in cash, which cut their housing expense (it didn't fully eliminate it, as they owe condo association dues and have upkeep and maintenance costs). They also share a used car and cook 90% of their meals.

As for entertainment, "You get to choose your leisure activities," said Steven. "If your favorite thing to do is to drink eight beers at a bar every weekend, it's going to be harder to save money than if your favorite thing to do is to go on a bike ride."

That said, Lauren added that there are ways to socialize on a budget: "Instead of going out, you can have friends over to your house. There are ways to make your activities more affordable."

The couple kept the cost of their hobbies in check and sometimes even found ways to monetize them. For example, their enjoyment of photography naturally evolved into a low-lift side hustle that more than covers the cost of equipment.

"We discovered that doing this fun thing we already like doing and want to do can also make us money. In fact, it made us significantly more money than it cost us in the first place," said Steven. "Can you be an amateur photographer and enjoy taking pictures, spend a ton of money on gear, and lose money on that hobby financially? Yes. Can you do almost the exact same thing and come out ahead on it? Also, yes. So why not choose that one?"

Another one of their hobbies, a card game called "Magic: The Gathering," isn't known for being cheap, said Steven: "They're expensive cards. But if you're careful about buying and selling the cards in clever ways and if you get good at the game and can win tournaments, it can cost nothing. Playing Magic: The Gathering, on aggregate over my lifetime, has actually made me money, not cost me."

Regardless of your personal finance goals or where you are in your financial freedom journey, consider your perception and feelings about saving money. While the word "saving" can have a negative connotation attached to it, the Keys choose to look at it differently.

As Steven puts it, "Saving money gives you more choices and options in life."

Watch: 6 simple investing tips for beginners

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