A recent presentation from Visit Florida, the state’s tourism arm, is showing just how hard the state has been hit by COVID-19 and the stop to travel.
“Preliminary estimates indicate 31.9 million total visitors (in person-trips) traveled to Florida during the first quarter of 2020,” according to the presentation, which covers Jan. 1 through March 31. “This represents a decrease of -10.7%from the same period in 2019, driven by the widespread impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on travel and tourism. Domestic visitors accounted for 89%of total visitors, while overseas and Canadian visitors accounted for 7% and 4%, respectively.”
The snapshot of lost tourism will undoubtedly get worse when the Q2 numbers are released showing the lost months of April and May.
“An estimated 28.5 million domestic visitors traveling to Florida between January and March of 2020, a decrease of -9.7% from the same period the previous year,” according to the report. “Overseas visitation is estimated at 2.2 million during the first quarter of 2020, a decrease of -20.6%.”
Of the Florida airports seeing the largest decrease, Jacksonville had a 21.5% drop while Orlando International experienced only a 10.8% drop in Q1.
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Statewide the hotel occupancy rate also fell in Q1 by 15.5%.
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