Florida tourism numbers lowest since 2010 with 34 p.c drop

COVID-19 ended a decade of record-breaking Florida tourism numbers. The industry saw a 34% drop in visitors in 2020 compared to the previous year.

The state tourism marketing agency Visit Florida released preliminary fourth quarter and full year numbers late Monday and recorded 86.714 million visitors to the state in 2020. This was the lowest annual total since 2010.

St. Augustine also saw a decline in hotel, motel and vacation rental occupancy compared to 2019, despite the fact that city tourism is much stronger than at the start of the pandemic due to the downtown crowds.

The occupancy rate for traditional accommodations was 65.8% in 2019, based on a sample of more than 40 hotels, motels or resorts in the region. This is based on data shared by Richard Goldman, President and CEO of the St. Johns County’s Visitors and Convention Bureau. The occupancy rate for 2020 fell to 48.6%.

Vacation rentals had a better year in St. Augustine.

Airbnb occupancy decreased from 40.33% in 2019 to 37.7% in 2020. VRBO’s occupancy increased from 36.62% in 2019 to 34.68% in 2020.

More:Tripadvisor: St. Augustine is a top destination for travelers during COVID

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Goldman said that in December St. Johns County “recovered faster than the state as a whole” because tourism is mainly focused on leisure – as opposed to group businesses such as trade fairs and conferences – and fewer tourists fly in the district compared to other travel destinations.

Florida tourism overall

Dana Young, President and CEO of Visit Florida, said an estimated 20,625 million travelers “exceeded our expectations” in the fourth quarter. Still, the number of visitors could decrease for the year as the numbers are refined.

“Please note that due to the unprecedented nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact on the data used to generate visitor estimates, the numbers below are likely to be subject to above average revisions as new data becomes available.” The agency said in a note published online with the tourism estimates.

In particular, Visit Florida believes that an estimated 3.236 million overseas visitors, calculated by the State Revenue Estimating Conference for 2020, is about 400,000 too high.

However, Young remained optimistic as the state slowly expands marketing efforts across the country.

“Many of Florida’s major source markets had tighter travel restrictions in the fourth quarter than in the previous quarter, but visits from those states remain strong thanks to our promotion in the southeast,” Young said in a statement. “Visit Florida’s marketing has been an integral part of Florida’s economic recovery and will continue to fuel our tourism industry in 2021.”

The state attracted a record 131.42 million tourists in 2019, the peak of annual growth since 2009 when Florida had 80.879 million visitors. The hotel and leisure industry recorded 82.315 million visitors in 2010 and 87.307 million in 2011. Since 2015, the state had attracted more than 100 million visitors annually.

Visit Florida

The new estimates were released on Monday when the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee tabled a proposal (SB 778) that would eliminate a potential suspension date for Visit Florida on October 1, 2023 and allow the agency to allocate unused money from budget year Budget year to carry over year.

“No one will argue that tourism isn’t the largest industry in the state of Florida. We live on it or we will die from it, ”said committee chairman Ed Hooper, a Clearwater Republican who sponsors the bill. “And whatever we can do to encourage not only the 22 million of us traveling domestically, but also 131 million who will hopefully come back and visit what we have to offer and spend their dollars here, cannot be overlooked. And we will not recover economically until that part of that economy is close to normal or normal again. “

Senator Jason Pizzo, D-North Miami Beach, questioned government spending on the agency, saying that given the “dollar shortage” it made “no financial sense” to allow an agency to renew unused dollars.

“I’m a fan of the Visit Florida idea, but I think we can get a quarterback to win the Super Bowl, probably for free, to make a lot of good spots for the state of Florida instead of paying some people,” Pizzo said said. “I have to see the real bookkeeping and forensics on this.”

During the 2020 legislature, House leaders reiterated a urge to end Visit Florida and questioned the effectiveness of nationwide marketing spending. A compromise was reached with the Senate and Governor Ron DeSantis when the pandemic hit to extend Visit Florida’s activities by three years. The agency also received $ 50 million in government funding, the same amount DeSantis requested for the next fiscal year.

The House version of Hooper’s Bill (HB 675) was not assigned to any committees.

Pizza’s comments partly reflected the rejection of the American Senate Bill for Prosperity – Florida Policy Director Phillip Suderman.

“The role of government is not to act as an advertising agency, but to focus on the core government function that society needs to run. Visiting Florida is not one of those important responsibilities, “said Suderman.” The goal for the government is even more important now as our nation and state seek to advance the economic impact of COVID-19. “

Samantha Padgett, general counsel of the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association, endorsed the legislation, saying Visit Florida can plan for the long term if it doesn’t “have to fight for its life every year.”

Hooper noted that legislator’s Bureau of Economic and Demographic Research coordinator Amy Baker warned in 2018 that lost tourist revenue was the greatest potential risk to Florida’s economic prospects.

“I think she still stands by that prediction,” said Hooper.

Last month, Baker told lawmakers that despite improved tax revenues in December, high-spending overseas tourists are not expected to flock to Florida anytime soon, and that it may not be before 2024 for normalcy to return to the hospitality and leisure industries returns suffered most from the pandemic.

Before the pandemic, the state estimated that 1.6 million jobs were supported by tourism. Last week the US Travel Association reported that four in ten jobs lost nationwide in the past year were in the leisure and hospitality industries.

According to Visit Florida figures, the state attracted an estimated 20.62 million visitors in the fourth quarter of 2020, a 33.1% decrease from a year earlier. The pandemic had reduced tourism by 60.3% in the second quarter of 2020 and by 32.7% in the third quarter.

The 82.19 million travelers from other parts of the country for 2020 was a 29.7% decrease from 2019. The 1.286 million Canadian visitors in 2020 were a 64.5% decrease from the previous year.