Florida Tourism Economy

VISIT FLORIDA estimates that Florida received 143.3 million visitors in 2025, not counting residents, an increase of 0.2 percent from 2024 (VISIT FLORIDA Research FAQ).

These are the marketing corporation's own estimates, and its FAQ marks them preliminary and subject to revision. Domestic travel made up 130.9 million of the visits, or 91.3 percent of the total. Visitors from Canadian and overseas markets came to 12.5 million: 9.3 million overseas visitors, up 4.0 percent from 2024, and 3.2 million Canadians, down 6.8 percent (VISIT FLORIDA).

VISIT FLORIDA puts 2025 Canadian visitation 22.4 percent below 2019, while overseas visitation was 5.1 percent below 2019 and closer to full recovery than in any year since the pandemic began (VISIT FLORIDA Research FAQ). The same estimates put 40.7 percent of 2025 visitors arriving by air and 59.3 percent by road or other non-air means.

VISIT FLORIDA quotes STR figures showing a 2025 statewide hotel and motel occupancy rate of 68.1 percent, a decrease of 1.7 percent from 2024, and an average daily room rate of $193.69, up 2.7 percent (VISIT FLORIDA, citing STR). Visitor counts rose slightly in the same year that occupancy fell.

Local numbers are not in the statewide series. VISIT FLORIDA tracks the state and eight vacation regions and states that it does not keep data on specific cities or counties; it directs those questions to each local convention and visitors bureau (VISIT FLORIDA). For county spending it offers county economic impact reports built on Rockport Analytics data for 2024, which it calls the latest year available (VISIT FLORIDA Economic Impact Reports).

Georgia and Texas sent the most domestic visitors to Florida in 2025, 8.1 percent each, and Canada sent the most foreign visitors, 3.2 million, according to VISIT FLORIDA estimates (VISIT FLORIDA Research FAQ).

Beach or waterfront activities (36 percent), culinary and dining (23 percent) and shopping (21 percent) were the most popular activities for domestic visitors in 2025, while overseas visitors in 2024 cited shopping (88 percent), sightseeing (73 percent) and amusement and theme parks (49 percent) (VISIT FLORIDA).

Seasonal residents sit outside these counts. VISIT FLORIDA says it does not track snowbirds, because many own homes and are part-time residents, and it does not track people who relocate to Florida (VISIT FLORIDA Research FAQ).

Florida's private leisure and hospitality industries averaged 1,335,780 jobs at 68,192 establishments in 2025, with average annual pay of $39,351, according to the BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (BLS QCEW, Florida 2025).

Food services and drinking places (NAICS 722) report 860,502 jobs at average annual pay of $32,062, and all private Florida industries report average annual pay of $72,719 (BLS QCEW). The same file lists a 2024 to 2025 job change of 11,135 for arts, entertainment and recreation and 8,315 for amusement, gambling and recreation.

Two job counts appear in the sources, and they do not match. VISIT FLORIDA states that in 2024 visitor spending directly and indirectly supported 1.8 million jobs in Florida (VISIT FLORIDA). The BLS file reports 1,335,780 private leisure and hospitality jobs for 2025 (BLS QCEW). The two figures cover different years and different definitions, and neither source reconciles them with the other.

Florida county tourist development tax rates run from 0 to 6 percent on the current DOR rate form, with 7 percent in Miami Beach, charged on top of the 6 percent state sales tax (DOR Form DR-15TDT, DOR Sales and Use Tax).

The tax applies to stays of six months or less and is in addition to the state sales tax and any applicable discretionary sales surtax (DR-15TDT). The county tax rests on section 125.0104, Florida Statutes. DOR explains that counties may levy local option transient rental taxes on hotels, motels, apartments, rooming houses, mobile home parks, RV parks, condominiums and timeshare resorts, and that the maximum rate varies from a minimum of 3 percent to a maximum of 6 percent depending on a county's eligibility (DOR Local Option Taxes). The money may pay for capital construction of tourist-related facilities, tourist promotion and beach and shoreline maintenance, though approved uses vary by levy. A separate professional sports franchise facility tax of up to 1 percent pays debt service on bonds for sports facilities, retained spring training facilities and convention centers.

Rates on the current DOR form (DR-15TDT, R. 10/26):

• 6 percent: Broward, Duval, Hillsborough, Manatee, Miami-Dade, Okaloosa, Orange, Osceola, Palm Beach, Pinellas, Sarasota and Volusia.
• Miami-Dade exceptions: 4 percent in Surfside and Bal Harbour and 7 percent in Miami Beach.
• 0 percent: Calhoun, Lafayette, Liberty, Sumter and Union.

Five counties, Monroe, Orange, Osceola, Palm Beach and Pinellas, have imposed an extra 1 percent high tourism impact tax after DOR certified their level of taxable transient rental activity (DOR). The rate form lists Monroe at 5 percent and Orange, Osceola, Palm Beach and Pinellas at 6 percent, and it tells filers in county-collected counties to contact the county to verify the rate (DR-15TDT).

Where the bed tax is paid matters for hosts. For each of the 6 percent counties listed above, the form shows the county, not DOR, as collector, but DOR states that sales tax and discretionary surtax on transient rentals are always reported and remitted to the Department (DOR). The form also states that not all counties notify DOR when they change their rate (DR-15TDT).

EDR, the Legislature's economic research office, estimates that 13.9 percent of Florida's sales tax collections in fiscal year 2020-21, $3.77 billion of $27.16 billion, came from purchases made by tourists (EDR, Return on Investment for VISIT FLORIDA).

The same report reprints an earlier EDR estimate for fiscal year 2018-19 in which tourists accounted for an estimated 15.0 percent, over $3.8 billion, of nearly $25.4 billion in sales tax collections (EDR, 2024 report appendix). The two estimates are labeled by year in the source, and the newer one is the lower share.

Florida's general state sales tax rate is 6 percent, and each sale, admission, storage or rental is taxable unless the transaction is exempt (DOR Sales and Use Tax).

EDR's March 2024 report found VISIT FLORIDA's public marketing spend over fiscal years 2019 to 2022 generated a positive ROI of 0.58, or 58 cents back in state tax revenue per dollar (EDR, Return on Investment for VISIT FLORIDA).

EDR states that the State is getting back less than was invested in the program, and that the effect of the COVID health crisis on Florida's tourism industry was the largest contributor to the decline, that state payments were 36 percent lower than in the 2021 report's review period, and that the ROI fell as low as 0.11 in fiscal year 2021-22 (EDR). EDR also attributes 6.24 percent of all marketing-influenced tourists in Florida to VISIT FLORIDA over the period.

EDR does not treat 0.58 as the program's long-run figure. The report states that the current working ROI of 3.3 is more reflective of VISIT FLORIDA over a longer period and should be used for forward-looking analyses (EDR). Both numbers come from the same report: one is the measured result for the review years, the other is EDR's working estimate for planning.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, by re-reading the VISIT FLORIDA research FAQ, the Department of Revenue bed tax form and local option pages, EDR's 2024 VISIT FLORIDA ROI report and the BLS 2025 Florida QCEW file.