About 5 percent

more people visited Florida in the first three quarters of 2016 than the previous year, according to the state’s tourism authority.

About 5 percent more people traveled to Florida in the first three quarters of 2016 than the previous year, according to Visit Florida, the state’s tourism authority.

An estimated 85 million people, a mix of out-of-state and international tourists, came to the Sunshine State between January and September, said Alfredo Gonzalez, Visit Florida’s vice president of International Sales and Global Development.

“We’re looking at a 5.6 percent growth already,” he said. “So I believe 110 to 112 million will definitely be attained by the end of the year.”

Gonzalez released the updated tourism figures during the group’s annual Florida Huddle, a business event this week in Orlando that connected Florida destinations, attractions and tourism suppliers with tour agents and buyers.

In 2015, Florida welcomed 106.6 million visitors, an increase of 8.2 percent over 2014.

Visit Orlando leaders said they will not have 2016 tourism data until at least April. The local tourism authority released 2015 figures — a record 66 million tourists coming to the Central Florida region — in May.

One key distinction between Visit Orlando and Visit Florida is which tourists they track. Visit Orlando counts all tourists, in-state, out-of-state and international.

Even without final tallies, Scott Smith, a hospitality instructor at the University of South Carolina, said one way to determine how Orlando did last year is to examine hotel bookings.

“As hotels go so does the rest of the tourism economy,” he said.

Metro Orlando’s hotels wobbled on key metrics in the first three quarters of 2016 according to STR, which tracks the industry.

Hotel occupancy was down in all three quarters in year-over-year statistics, according to STR.

As it continues to grow and expand, Metro Orlando saw an increase in supply each quarter.

Last year, Orange County’s summer collection rates on tourist development taxes, collected on hotel and motel stays, reflected the sluggish year many of Central Florida’s tourist attractions reported.

The summer months of June, July and August, arguably the busiest time of year for the region, had some of the smallest year-overyear increases for the 2015-16 fiscal year.

June’s increase was 2.7 percent, according to county records.

Gonzalez said he thinks Florida’s going to have had a record 2016, thanks in part to the increasing amount of flights coming here. In total, 77 airlines offered 615,627 flights to Florida.

Another 26,614 flights are scheduled for 2017, he said.

“That’s a huge, huge accomplishment, not only by the airports that are in the room, but the [convention and visitors bureaus] that support those efforts,” Gonzalez said.

As the most-visited destination in the United States, Orlando typically benefits from any increase in visitors coming to Florida, Smith said.

“It absolutely is all good news for Orlando when Florida does better,” he said.