Tourism in Florida during the first half of 2022 was up 20 percent from the same period last year and was higher than during the first six months of 2019, the last full year of travel before the coronavirus pandemic.
The 35.628 million visitors during this year’s first quarter was an all-time three-month record. Covering most of the winter, the first quarter historically has been the state’s busiest tourism period.
Visit Florida, the state’s tourism-marketing agency, posted numbers on Aug. 15, which estimated Florida had 33.717 million visitors from April 1 through June 30, bringing the total for the first six months of this year to 69.34 million.
Travelers were mostly from within the U.S. and accounted for more than 90 percent of people visiting Florida in the first six months.
The pandemic slammed into Florida in March 2020, largely shutting down the tourism industry. That year, Florida drew just 9.7 million tourists from the start of April to the end of June and 39.764 million in the first half of the year.
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— Compiled by Interim Business Editor Tory Brown