Florida Tourism Total Reaches 142.9M

Florida saw a record-breaking 142.9 million visitors last year as tourism continued to recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data released Wednesday by Governor Ron DeSantis’ office.

Speaking at the Miami International Boat Show, DeSantis highlighted the increase over the previous record of 140.62 million visitors in 2023, calling it a “pretty good increase.”

The growth was largely driven by domestic travelers, who made up 91.5% of visitors in 2024, compared to nearly 93% the year before. In contrast, international tourism has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels. While about 3.3 million Canadians visited Florida last year–slightly up from 3.23 million in 2023–it still fell short of the 4.088 million seen in 2019.

Similarly, overseas visitors totaled 8.9 million in 2024, an improvement from 8.309 million in 2023 but below the 9.801 million recorded in 2019, according to a recent article by Florida Realtors.

During the final quarter of 2024, Florida welcomed an estimated 33.1 million visitors, slightly surpassing the 32.85 million from the same period in 2023. This included 742,000 Canadian travelers and 2.5 million from overseas, both marking an increase over the previous year’s numbers.

This article originally appeared on Florida Realtors