Tourism triumphs despite Irma
Florida’s 116.5M visitors set record in 2017
Despite Hurricane Irma — a force that pushed thousands to evacuate their homes and briefly shut down Orlando’s theme parks — Florida set a record for tourists with an estimated 116.5 million in 2017, Gov. Rick Scott said Tuesday.
His announcement broke the record set for 2016 by more than 3 percent and is the eighthstraight annual increase of visitors.
Domestic visitors made up the bulk of the total — 102.3 million — with 3.5 million Canadian visitors leading the foreign total as 10.7 million traveled from overseas to visit the Sunshine State.
“Because of Visit Florida’s aggressive marketing efforts to make sure families across the world knew that Florida was open to visitors following Hurricane Irma, we are able to celebrate another record-breaking year for tourism,” Scott said in a
statement. “This is especially great news for the 1.4 million jobs that rely on our growing tourism industry.”
State tourism marketing agency Visit Florida estimated 1.8 million would-be visitors were lost because of Hurricane Irma, which struck in September — resulting in an estimated loss of $1.5 billion in visitor spending.
In Orlando, Universal Orlando Resort and Walt Disney World both shut down for two days and canceled other park festivities.
A state report released Tuesday said airport passenger counts dropped 12 percent percent during the month Irma hit.
“Travelers are becoming more resilient in coping with those disasters,” said Youcheng Wang, a professor and associate dean at the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management.
The key is giving travelers updated and accurate information so “people really understand what happened. Yes, we were hit by a hurricane, but after that, it was OK to come back and visit,” he said.
Officials touted the record despite the challenges from the weather.
About 28.5 million people visited Florida in the final four months of 2017, nearly 6 percent more than the same time period in 2016.
In Central Florida, the theme-park industry fared particularly well during that quarter, according to finance reports released by the companies.
Comcast’s theme-park division posted nearly $1.5 billion in revenue, up about 9 percent from the fourth quarter in 2016. Both Walt Disney World and Animal Kingdom saw record-breaking attendance for the quarter that ended in December.
The trend of pulling in rising numbers of visitors despite uncertainties and concerns over the weather and current events was visible in 2016 too, when more than 112 million people visited, the previous record which came during a backdrop of worry over the Zika virus, Hurricane Matthew and the highly publicized tragedies of the Pulse nightclub shooting and an alligator attack that led to a child’s death at the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa.
Visit Florida calculated its figures based on several factors, including enplanement numbers from airports and current survey data from the Conference Board of Canada, a spokesman said Tuesday.
A new state provision will allow counties to spend some money collected from hotel taxes on capital projects although it won’t affect Orange, Seminole or Osceola counties.
Already, the numbers for 2018 are looking strong, officials have said.
More than 3.2 million passengers are expected to use OIA between March 1 and April 15, which is nearly an 8 percent increase year-over-year, according to a news release from the airport.
“Five days in that time frame will see more than 80,000 departures alone, setting new records for single day passenger traffic,” the press release said.
The busiest travel day is expected to be March 31, when nearly 85,000 people depart a day before Easter.
Looking ahead, Wang said he expects the tourism growth to continue into 2018, especially as Orlando’s major theme parks are set to open new attractions. But he also emphasized it’s key to keep spending on advertising and marketing for Florida.
“Florida is not only about theme parks. Orlando is not only about theme parks,” he said. “We have to communicate that diverse message to consumers.”