- March 28, 2024
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Visit Florida can sure show the money.
The state's tourism marketing arm, after a controversy over how much it paid rapper Pitbull for promotions, is touting new data that puts the economic vitality of the out-of-state visitor on full display. (The Pitbull controversy ultimately cost CEO Will Seccombe his job.)
The out-of-state visitor report, by Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics company, boasts a rise in three key metrics: spending, revenue and jobs. Data include:
• Out-of-state visitor spending in Florida reached $108.8 billion in 2015, up 3.9% over 2014;
• Visitors spent $30 billion more in Florida in 2015 than they did five years ago;
• On average, out-of-state visitors spend $300 million per day in Florida;
• Including indirect and induced impacts, out-of-state tourism in Florida generated $11.3 billion in state and local taxes and $13.1 billion in federal taxes in 2015;
• In the absence of the state and local taxes generated by tourism, each Florida household would need to pay $1,535 to maintain the current level of government services;
• Out-of-state visitor spending supported 1.4 million Florida jobs in 2015, with an associated income of $50.7 billion.
3.9% growth
Out-of-state visitor spending in Florida reached $108.8 billion in 2015
$300 million
Average amount out-of-state visitors spend per day in Florida
$11.3 billion
amount in state and local taxes that out-of-state tourism in Florida generated in 2015