Florida welcomed 142.9 million visitors in calendar year 2024, a record total and 1.6% increase over 2023, according to VISIT FLORIDA’s February 12, 2025 release. Most trips were domestic, while overseas and Canadian visitation also grew. The figures below put Florida vacations in context, from visitor origins and seasonal peaks to airports, spending, jobs, taxes, and welcome-center traffic.
Contents
- Florida visitation at a glance
- Where Florida visitors came from
- Quarterly and seasonal travel patterns
- How visitors traveled
- Visitor spending and Florida’s economy
- Jobs, wages, and tax effects
- Welcome-center traffic
Florida visitation at a glance
VISIT FLORIDA reported 142.9 million Florida visitors in 2024, up 1.6% from 2023. The fourth quarter alone attracted 33.1 million visitors, the highest Q4 total on record in the February 12, 2025 release. Domestic visitors numbered 130.7 million, up 1.3% year over year. Overseas visitors reached 8.9 million, up 6.6%, and Canadian visitors reached 3.3 million, up 1.2%.
The 2024 visitor mix was 91.5% domestic, 6.2% overseas, and 2.3% Canadian, based on the same release. VISIT FLORIDA’s Research FAQ lists the overseas share as 6.3%, so the exact percentage depends on the publication’s rounding. Both sources identify domestic travel as the overwhelming majority of Florida visitation.
For context, the revised 2023 total was 140.6 million visitors, representing 2.3% growth from 2022 in VISIT FLORIDA’s May 16, 2024 release. The Research FAQ later described 2023 as a 1.7% increase from 2022. VISIT FLORIDA says its 2023 and 2024 tourism data were revised using a methodology applied retroactively to prior years. Those historical percentages should therefore be read as publication-specific estimates rather than independently reconciled measures.
| Measure | 2023 | 2024 | 2024 change or note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total visitors | 140.6 million | 142.9 million | 2024 record high |
| Domestic visitors | 129.1 million | 130.7 million | 2024 up 1.3% |
| Overseas visitors | 8.3 million | 8.9 million | 2024 up 6.6% |
| Canadian visitors | 3.2 million | 3.3 million | 2024 up 1.2% |
The 2023 and 2024 totals and visitor categories come from VISIT FLORIDA’s May 16, 2024 and February 12, 2025 releases. Category totals are reported estimates and may not sum perfectly because of rounding.
Where Florida visitors came from
Canada was Florida’s leading international origin country in 2024, with 3.4 million visitors, according to the VISIT FLORIDA Research FAQ. Brazil supplied 1.2 million visitors, the United Kingdom supplied 1.1 million, Colombia supplied 619,000, and Mexico supplied 594,000. The FAQ reports 12.3 million visitors combined from Canadian and overseas markets.
The international figures show why a Florida vacation market can be both highly domestic and globally connected. Domestic travel to Florida was up 1.2% from 2023 and 11.5% from 2019, while the 2024 domestic total reached 130.7 million trips. VISIT FLORIDA’s FAQ gives domestic visitors a 91.5% share and Canadian visitors a 2.3% share of 2024 visitation.
Earlier recovery figures provide a separate historical snapshot. In the first two quarters of 2023, overseas visitation rose 21.8% and Canadian visitation rose 81.1% compared with the same period in 2022, according to a VISIT FLORIDA July 2023 release. That release put Florida’s overseas arrival recovery at 80% of 2019 levels, ahead of New York at 75% and California at 68%. These are 2023 recovery comparisons, not 2024 forecasts.
Quarterly and seasonal travel patterns
Florida’s quarterly totals show substantial travel throughout the year. The first quarter of 2024 drew 40.6 million visitors, the highest single-quarter total on record at the time, according to VISIT FLORIDA’s May 16, 2024 release. Q1 included 37.2 million domestic visitors, 2.1 million overseas visitors, and 1.3 million Canadian visitors. Domestic visitors represented 91.6% of Q1 visitation, overseas visitors 5.2%, and Canadian visitors 3.2%.
The second quarter of 2023 brought 33.1 million visitors. Its mix included 30.3 million domestic visitors, 1.9 million international visitors, and 846,000 Canadian visitors, according to VISIT FLORIDA’s July 2023 release. Domestic visitors made up 91.6% of that quarter, overseas visitors 5.9%, and Canadian visitors 2.6%.
The third quarter of 2023 totaled 35.1 million visitors: 32.2 million domestic, 2.2 million overseas, and 666,000 Canadian visitors, according to VISIT FLORIDA’s October 2023 release. The first three quarters of 2023 together totaled 105.2 million visitors. That release also reported Florida Q3 travel spending at 11.3% above Q3 2019, compared with 3.9% for the United States overall.
| Period | Total visitors | Domestic | Overseas or international | Canadian |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2024 | 40.6 million | 37.2 million | 2.1 million overseas | 1.3 million |
| Q2 2023 | 33.1 million | 30.3 million | 1.9 million international | 846,000 |
| Q3 2023 | 35.1 million | 32.2 million | 2.2 million overseas | 666,000 |
The periods are not a same-year comparison, but they illustrate how VISIT FLORIDA reported different quarterly snapshots. Q4 2024 reached 33.1 million visitors, the highest fourth-quarter total on record in the February 12, 2025 release.
How visitors traveled
Florida’s 19 major airports recorded 3.1% year-over-year growth in total enplanements during 2024, according to VISIT FLORIDA’s February 12, 2025 release. The detailed Q1 2024 airport figures show 30.2 million Florida airport enplanements, up 9.4% year over year.
Orlando International recorded 7.6 million Q1 2024 enplanements, up 6.8%. Miami International recorded 7.5 million, up 12.1%. Fort Myers airport posted the largest relative gain among the Florida airports cited, with enplanements rising 25.2%; Tallahassee airport enplanements rose 18.7%.
Not every Florida vacation begins at an airport. In Q1 2024, the domestic air/non-air split was 38.2%/61.8%, according to VISIT FLORIDA’s May 16, 2024 release. That measure describes domestic visitors for the quarter and shows the larger share arrived through non-air travel in that reported period.
Visitor spending and Florida’s economy
VISIT FLORIDA’s November 25, 2025 release reported $134.9 billion in out-of-state visitor spending in Florida during 2024. U.S. visitors accounted for $120.1 billion, while international visitors spent $14.8 billion. The release also reported $133.6 billion in tourism economic impact and said travel and tourism represented 7.8% of Florida’s nominal gross state product.
The comparable 2023 economic measures come from VISIT FLORIDA’s December 10, 2024 release. Florida visitor spending reached $131 billion, including $116.1 billion from domestic visitors and $14.9 billion from international visitors. Tourism generated $127.7 billion in economic impact. Florida tourists spent an average of $359 million per day in 2023.
These measures use different labels: visitor spending is not the same as economic impact, and the 2024 release specifically describes spending by out-of-state visitors. They should not be combined into a single total. Instead, they show the scale of travel activity reported for each calendar year.
Jobs, wages, and tax effects
Tourism-supported employment reached 1.8 million Florida jobs in 2024, according to VISIT FLORIDA’s November 25, 2025 release. Tourism-supported wages reached $79.9 billion, and tourism-related activity produced $33.6 billion in federal, state, and local taxes. The same release estimated that Florida households would have paid $1,730 more in annual state and local taxes without tourism in 2024.
VISIT FLORIDA’s December 10, 2024 release reported a different 2023 employment measure: tourism supported 2.1 million jobs and accounted for 9.5% of Florida jobs. It reported $76.4 billion in tourism wages and salaries, $36.9 billion in tourism taxes, and $1,910 in tax savings per Florida household. Because the releases use different reporting periods and measure descriptions, the 2023 and 2024 figures are best treated as the source-reported annual snapshots.
One further 2024 economic estimate from VISIT FLORIDA says that for every dollar spent by a visitor, 99 cents stayed in Florida’s economy. This is a retention estimate, not a claim that each visitor spends exactly one dollar or that all spending categories have identical effects.
Welcome-center traffic
VISIT FLORIDA recorded 1,340,203 visitors at all Florida welcome centers in 2024. Highway welcome centers accounted for 1,278,603 of those visitors. The I-10 Welcome Center received 374,809 visitors, the I-75 Welcome Center received 525,142, and the I-95 Welcome Center received 378,652. The Capitol Welcome Center received 61,600 visitors.
The VISIT FLORIDA Welcome Center Visitation 2023/2024 table reported that the total fiscal-year 2024 welcome-center count exceeded fiscal-year 2023 by 4,321 visitors overall. This is welcome-center traffic, not a count of all Florida vacationers; it covers people who used the listed centers during the table’s reporting period.
A separate 2024/2025 welcome-center table reported 64,571 visitors at the I-75 Welcome Center in July 2024, its peak month in that table. The all-welcome-center total for July 2024 was 156,556 visitors in the 2023/2024 visitation table. Together, these figures show the role of road travel and visitor facilities alongside airport and statewide visitation statistics.