MIAMI.- People who visited Florida in 2022 spent about 124.9 billion dollars, exceeding almost 20 billion registered in 2021, according to a Visit Florida study recently cited by Governor Ron DeSantis.
Visit Florida found that for every dollar spent by the 137.4 million visitors in 2022, 97 cents were retained in the state’s economy. “On average, visitors contributed $333 million a day to Florida’s economy.”
“Whether for business or vacation, people continue to visit Florida and support the state’s businesses because of our commitment to keeping the economy open and allowing businesses to thrive without arbitrary government restrictions,” said Governor DeSantis. “Florida is the best state in the country to take your business and vacation with your families.”
“The impact of commerce and tourism on Florida’s economy cannot be underestimated, and once again the Sunshine State has shown that it is recovering faster than national economic trends,” said Dana Young, president and CEO of VISIT FLORIDA.
The goal of the study was to measure and analyze the total economic contribution that out-of-state visitors make to Florida’s economy.
According to highlights from the 2022 Economic Impact Report, tourism-supported employment exceeded its pre-pandemic peak by 422,000 jobs, increasing to 2 million positions, and direct employment It represented 66% of the total with 1.3 million jobs.
Domestic visitors to Florida spent $112.7 billion in 2022, and international visitors spent $12.2 billion.
By comparison, in 2021 domestic visitors to Florida spent $99.4 billion, and international visitors spent $5.7 billion, resulting in total out-of-state visitor spending of $105.1 billion.
Tourism was responsible for 9.5% of all Florida jobs in 2022, making tourism the second largest employer statewide.
Employment grew 16.8%, compared to the state’s 7.6% growth.
For its part, travel and tourism generated $73 billion in wages for Florida workers in 2022.
According to the study, one in six private sector jobs were supported by tourism in 2022. Tourism in Florida raised a total of $35.2 billion in taxes, $18.9 billion in federal tax revenue, $8.1 billion in state tax revenue of Florida and $8.2 billion in local tax revenue.
Without tourism, Florida’s 8.8 million households would each have to pay more than $1,840 in state and local taxes to maintain current income levels, the analysis highlights.
8.1% of domestic visitors traveled from New York, second only to the 9.8% from the neighboring state of Georgia. The third largest state in terms of visitors was Texas with 7.3%.
For its part, Canada, with 2.7 million people, contributed 28.9% of foreign visitors, followed by the United Kingdom (1.1 million, 11.5%); Brazil (709 thousand visitors, 7.4%) and Colombia (560 thousand visitors, 5.8%).
According to Visit Florida, all 2023 results will be available starting in May 2024.
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