florida tourism

Florida’s pristine waters are its calling card for tourists, who are now returning to the state in record numbers. But what happens when crushing numbers of visitors harm the natural environment that draws them?

Port Tampa Bay, PortMiami, Port Everglades, Port Canaveral, and Port of Jacksonville collectively recorded 6.1 million cruise passengers in 2021.

As the Visit Florida tourism marketing agency celebrated record first-quarter tourism numbers while meeting last week in Orlando, staff and board members also expressed concern that increasing cost of hotel rooms is slowly affecting occupancy rates.

With the state drawing record numbers of tourists from other parts of the country as the industry rebounds from the COVID-19 pandemic, Visit Florida President and CEO Dana Young received an 8.6% pay boost.

She shares food-related hacks for your summer road trip, plane ride or cruise. You'll learn how to avoid sticker shock at the airport, how to make your own ice pack in a hotel mini-fridge, and the kitchen item Carrie never leaves home without.

Caladesi Island, in Dunedin, climbed to No. 2 in Dr. Beach's national rankings — only one of two Florida beaches to make the top 10.

A record 36 million people visited Florida in the first quarter of 2022.

Visit Florida has drawn praise the past few years for its marketing work amid crises such as toxic algae outbreaks and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The increase passed unanimously during Tourist Development Council deliberations and unanimously again by county commissioners during a Tuesday public hearing.

It will leave it up to vacationers to decide whether they feel safe getting on a ship.

The AAA study says declining COVID rates and increased eagerness about traveling have contributed to these statistics.

Visit Florida is set to run out of funding in fall of 2023 — unless state lawmakers act before then.