Florida Smashes Tourism Record — $131 Billion of Revenue in One Year Unsplash

Florida has smashed its tourism record, seeing not only the highest visitation numbers in history in 2023, but the highest amount spent by tourists.

Gov. Ron DeSantis made the historic announcement this week.

“It’s official: Florida just broke the record, again. Last year, we had the highest visitation numbers in state history, and tourists spent a record $131 billion in Florida,” he revealed, noting that the figure represents an increase of over 5 percent over 2022 “despite ‘travel advisories’ issued by left-wing activist groups seeking to drum up hysteria about our state.”

“For every dollar spent by a visitor, Florida’s economy retained 97 cents, with 58 cents supporting worker salaries and 13 cents collected as tax revenue,” DeSantis continued.

“In addition to boosting Florida’s fiscal health and budget surplus, tourism activity resulted in nearly $2,000 in tax savings per household in 2023. Tourism was responsible for 2.1 million jobs in Florida, providing $76.4 billion in income to workers across our state,” the governor said, adding, “There’s never been a better time to visit Florida!”

The governor paired his announcement with an infographic, breaking down the data. Of the $131 billion spent by visitors, $116.1 billion came from domestic visitors. Another 14.9 billion came from international visitors.

According to the infographic, the booming tourism resulted in $1,910 in tax savings per household in the Sunshine State.

“In 2023, tourism supported around one in every seven private sector jobs,” the infographic revealed, noting that visitors spent an average of $359 million per day in Florida.

Florida has long been a destination of interest for countless people home and abroad, particularly in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, as Florida largely resisted extended lockdowns, mandates, and rules.

Coinciding with this is the fact that Florida Republicans now have a firm grip on the state, with over one million more registered voters than Democrats. Notably, Republicans first overtook Democrats in voter registration in November 2021. And now, not only has Florida swung red for President-elect Donald Trump yet again, but the traditionally blue county of Miami-Dade also went red and has recently unveiled President Donald J. Trump Avenue.

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