TALLAHASSEE Florida’s tourism economy is still supported by U.S. tourists, but the state is hoping to attract tourists from other nations to offset a drop in Canadian visitors.
According to a Visit Florida estimate released on Tuesday, 34.435 million people visited Florida between April 1 and June 30, up from 34.279 million during the same time last year. The state tourism-marketing department estimates that this year would be a second-quarter record.
31.499 million, or 91.5 percent, of the total travelers this year were from the United States, a little increase from 31.419 million in the second quarter of 2024. This year’s quarter had an expected 2.295 million foreign visitors, up 11.4 percent from the same time in 2024, according to Visit Florida. However, compared to 2024, the expected 640,000 Canadian visits to Florida during the quarter represented a 20% decrease.
We’re really keeping an eye on it and trying to see if we can shift some efforts there to continue that positive trend, Visit Florida President and CEO Bryan Griffin told members of the agency’s Executive Committee on Monday. “I know the nation is seeing some Canadian visitors not traveling at the moment, but Florida actually is seeing an increase in visitors from other places, including Brazil, which I think it’s part of that overseas visitation increase,” Griffin said.
Since the COVID-19 outbreak, Florida has had difficulty reviving its foreign and Canadian visitor numbers. About 1.9 percent of the estimated visitors in the second quarter of this year were Canadian, and 6.7 percent were foreign visitors.
Prior to the outbreak, foreign visitors made up 7.4 percent of Florida’s total visitor count in 2019, while Canadians made up 3.11 percent.
Due to controversy surrounding matters like President Donald Trump’s suggestion of annexing Canada and the United States’ imposition of tariffs, Canadian tourism has declined this year.
The national statistical agency of Canada, Statistic Canada, announced on August 11 that preliminary figures for July’s foreign arrivals, comprising both Canadian residents and non-residents, were down 15.6% from July 2024 and represented six months in a row of year-over-year reductions.
According to Statistic Canada, the number of Canadians returning by automobile from the United States in July was down 36.9 percent compared to the same month in 2024, and the number of individuals returning by air was down 25.8 percent.
An projected 75.394 million tourists visited Florida in the first half of this year, a 0.1 percent decrease over the same period in 2024.
Following Visit Florida’s revision of first-quarter data, the decline occurred.
41.193 million people visited Florida in the first quarter, according to an initial estimate published in May. This would have been equivalent to the first quarter of 2024. 40.959 million was the updated first-quarter count for 2025.
Similar to the previous fiscal year, Visit Florida received $80 million from the state’s 2025–2026 budget, which went into effect on July 1.
