Florida International Tourism Visitation
Florida quietly slipped behind California in 2011 as the third most visited state for international visitors. Florida fell short by approximately 400,000 tourists to maintain its second place position behind New York State.
Two indicators were primarily responsible for the drop:
- International traffic to Miami was down 5% in 2011
- Travel to Florida from Europe was down 3%
The net change in international travel to California was up 9% while conversely being down 2% to Florida in 2011. On a curious note, travel to California from Europe was up 12%. Perhaps one of our readers can enlighten us why there would be such a wide discrepancy in attracting international visitors to California over Florida last year?
International visitors spent over $153 billion in the United States in 2011. Florida alone accounted for 12.6 million international visitors to the United States. International visitation to Florida represents about 11% of Florida’s overall travel and tourism market. The top 3 origin countries to Florida in 2011 were (according to the VisitFlorida.com website):
- Canada 3.3 million visitors
- Brazil 1.5 million visitors
- United Kingdom 1.3 million guests
Brazil has also quietly surpassed UK visitors (as you can see) in terms of total numbers. This is quite evident from the number of inquiries our business gets via SKYPE from Brazil. Over the last several years, travel from Brazil to Florida has grown steadily as the middle class grows in that country. In Orlando, Brazilian tourists fill the shops of various retail and dining outlets around Central Florida.
Perhaps the most surprising fact that emerged during research for this post has to do with Orlando and international passenger traffic. Although 2012 international traffic continues to increase in the low double digits over 2011, the city is not in the Top 10 for direct traffic to/from foreign airports. The top 10 includes Miami, but not Orlando. Others in the top 5 include JFK, Los Angeles International, Newark and Chicago O’hare.
International tourists continue to choose vacation rentals in Orlando and Central Florida as their primary lodging accommodation of choice. Most of our international friends are not intimidated by the lack of a national brand name and enjoy the allure of vacation homes. They are highly influenced by the amenities, living space and privacy that Orlando villas have to offer.
If you have any questions about booking at one of the many great villa resorts in Central Florida, give us a call at 888-826-0551 toll free or 00-1-407-966-4144 international. As we mentioned, you can also SKYPE us at OVH360.
Orlando Vacation Homes 360 is a proud web marketing partner with VisitFlorida.com, the official consumer website of the Sunshine State. We’ve also included a tribute video below in honor of the late Gary Sain who did so many great things to promote Orlando travel and tourism.
