WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA – Canadians are flocking back to Florida in near-record numbers.
Following nearly three years of declining numbers, Canadian visits to Florida are very nearly back to 2019 levels, tourism officials have announced.
Speaking to media at this year’s Florida Huddle tourism event in West Palm Beach, VISIT FLORIDA executives said a surge in Canadian visits to the Sunshine State last fall resulted in 1.04 million visits from Canada. That’s just 4.5% below the fourth quarter figure of 1.09 million for 2019. It’s also the first quarter since the start of the pandemic that saw Florida attract more than a million Canadians.
That’s great news for a state where Canadians account for roughly one-third of all international visitors.
“Clearly getting Canada back is critical, not only just for our visitation numbers, but because Canada is very special to Florida and we have so many Canadian snowbirds who come and spend five or six months with us and really become integrated in our community,” VISIT FLORIDA CEO Dana Young said. “We have missed them, and so now I feel we’re getting the snowbirds back, we’re getting the leisure travellers back, we’re getting the business travellers back.”
“It’s this close to pre-pandemic numbers,” said Jacob Pewitt Yancey, director of consumer insights and analytics for VISIT FLORIDA, holding his thumb and finger close together in the air. “All indications are that this winter’s numbers will be very strong.”
Although fourth quarter numbers were strong, Canadian visits to Florida in the first nine months of the year weren’t as positive. For 2022 as a whole, Florida reeled in 2.79 million Canadian visitors. That’s miles ahead of the meager 454,000 visitors in 2021 and substantially ahead of the 1.48 million Canadian travellers in 2020, but only about two-thirds of the 4.09 million Canadian visits Florida notched in 2019.
One of the most interesting slides Yancey put on the big screen at the press event was one showing Canadian consumer interest in visiting the United States. In March of 2018, 61% of Canadians said they were interested in wandering south of the border. In June of 2018 that was down to 52%, and then all the way down to 44% in June of 2020. By December of 2021, that figure had crept up to 48%. As of November of last year, polls found that 47% of Canadians were interested in visiting the U.S.
Asked last November what state they’d most likely visit, 49% said Florida. That compares with 48% for New York state, 39% for California, 27% for Hawaii, 24% for Nevada and 15% for both Arizona and Texas. Another 14% of Canadians cited Washington D.C., followed by Louisiana (12%), Colorado (11) and Illinois (11).
Orlando is usually at the top of Canada’s Florida bucket list, but in the latest poll Canadians gave Miami the top score. Forty eight per cent of Canadians said Miami is their top Florida destination, compared to 43% for Orlando. Those two tourism giants were followed by Fort Lauderdale (31%), The Florida Keys (30), Palm Beach (30), The Tampa Bay Area (19), Daytona Beach (18), Fort Myers/Naples (13), Jacksonville/Saint Augustine (11), The Space Coast (10), The Treasure Coast north of Palm Beach (9), the Sarasota area (9), The Florida Panhandle (8), Tallahassee (8) and Ocala (4).
Another slide showed that Canadian visits to Florida are larger than visits from the next four most important countries on the list; the UK, Mexico, Brazil and Colombia.
Young is clearly paying attention to her neighbours to the north.
“I was in Vancouver right before Christmas and got to celebrate the launch of the new Air Canada flight, the direct flight from Vancouver to Miami,” she said. “Having gone on a non-direct flight from Tampa to Vancouver I can tell you the direct flight was needed. Now all of western Canada, if they can get to Vancouver, they have the ability to get to Florida more quickly than they would be able to get to Hawaii, which is their traditional warm weather vacation spot.
“I think that’s huge. And I was just in Toronto a few weeks ago, and the enthusiasm for Florida vacations was palpable. I think Canadians are just ready to get back here.”
Officials say it’s the first direct Vancouver-Miami flight in nearly 20 years.
Brett Laiken, Vice President Marketing for VISIT FLORIDA, told me today that there are 15 new flights between Canada and Florida since last year.
“One of every five flights from Canada to the U.S., 21.8% in all, are to Florida,” he said.
A Brightline train at the downtown Miami station. JIM BYERS PHOTO
The Brightline train, which yours truly took from Miami to West Palm Beach this week, also will be a boon to tourism, Laiken said.
The trip costs about $37 for a “regular” ticket and takes just over an hour. There’s free Wi-Fi on the train, which runs from the heart of downtown Miami to downtown West Palm Beach, where you can get a free electric shuttle to most hotels in the area. Trains are clean and shiny, and Brightline plans to expand north to Orlando International Airport some time this year, which would allow people to leave their car behind and travel easily from Miami to Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach and the Orlando Airport. There also are plans to extend the line west from Orland to Tampa.
This year’s Florida Huddle kicked off with a splashy, poolside party at the West Palm Beach Hilton hotel. The next two days will result in thousands and thousands of business meetings and trade talks.
Yancey said potential problems remain for Florida, including delays of sometimes 500-600 days for visas from would-be visitors from some countries. Political issues abroad and economic issues also are a problem.
Asked if Florida tourism officials are worried about inflation impacting visitation, Milton Segarra, Chief Marketing Officer for Discover The Palm Beaches, said his destination has 18,000 hotel rooms, with “all levels” of pricing.
Young said she spoke this week to a member of the VISIT FLORIDA board who owns dozens of hotels in the state.
“He told me rates have dropped, significantly in some cases.”
“There could be an opportunity for correction,” she said. “But people are still coming, and Florida seems to have a resiliency about it that’s above and beyond a lot of destinations.”
