Florida Tourism Levels Up 223.4% Over Last Year

A lot has changed over the past year, especially when it comes to tourism and the effects COVID-19 has had on the industry.

In Florida, in particular, we’ve been keeping an eye on tourism levels. Florida’s 2020 tourism rates reached the lowest point in a decade, but over the past few months we’ve seen tourism rates in the state grow. Now, we’ve got an update on just how many visitors Florida is currently seeing.

According the Orlando Sentinel, in the second quarter of 2021, Florida drew in 31.7 million visitors. That is a 16.3% improvement from the first three months of 2021. But, an even bigger milestone is that this figure is 223.4% above the second quarter of 2020.

How do the 2021 tourism rates compare to 2019? Well, the visitor numbers from April 1st through June 30th, 2021, were just 2.2% less than the numbers Florida saw in 2019. This comes from a report from Visit Florida.

The Visit Florida report doesn’t include specific visitor rates by Florida’s individual cities, but Visit Florida has compiled air travel data. According to that data, Orlando International Airport had the “highest passenger volume” out of all of the Florida airports during the last quarter. In total, the airport saw 5.4 million passengers during the quarter.

This total passenger volume marks a 667.9% increase from the second quarter of 2020.

According to the passenger data, domestic travelers made up the majority of passengers during 2020 and 2021.

The Orlando Sentinel notes that the tourist numbers Florida saw during the second quarter were driven by travelers from other parts of the U.S. Overall, Florida drew in about 30.563 million domestic visitors during the quarter. This marks a 215.9% increase from the same quarter in 2020.

But, the Orlando Sentinel notes that the road ahead remains bumpy for the tourism industry, particularly with the high rates of COVID-19 that have been present in Florida, as well as some water quality issues. But, the Sentinel shares that Florida could be bolstered in the future with the return of cruising and other factors.