Tourism remains one of Florida’s largest industries, and one advocacy group says investment from the government created nearly 76,000 jobs in 2013.
The analysis, reported by Florida TaxWatch, says the state could reach its goal of attracting 100 million visitors annually by 2015.
“Florida’s thriving tourism industry provides extraordinary opportunities for economic growth,” said Dominic Calabro, president and chief executive of Florida TaxWatch, in a release. “By increasing the number of visitors to Florida, the state is on track to reach this important milestone, providing jobs to hardworking taxpayers along the way.”
The report reveals that the number of visitors to Florida increased by more than 2.8 million in 2013 alone, continuing a trend of steadily increasing visitor numbers, according to a release. Because of that increase, Florida added 38,400 tourism-related jobs. That should induce or indirectly result in 37,400 non-tourism jobs.
In all, it added nearly 76,000 jobs, with an annual salary of $43,000.
“Florida’s tourism industry is responsible for far more than lowering the tax burden for the state’s residents,” said Jerry Parrish, chief economist for Florida TaxWatch, in a release. “Expanding tourism has a direct impact on job creation in the state, and the economic impact can be felt in many of Florida’s other industries.”
Visit Florida, the state’s official tourism marketing corporation, reports quarterly visitation and tourism industry employment figures to the state economist’s office. The latest figures from the first quarter of 2014 showed that 26.7 million visitors came to Florida, and that 1.13 million people are employed in the tourism industry.
That is the largest quarter for visitation the state has ever experienced, according to the release, beating the 26.2 million who visited a year before.
The average number of direct travel-related jobs in the first three months of this year also was a record high, up 3.5 percent from the same period in 2013.
“Coming off of three consecutive record years for visitation and employment, and experiencing the largest first quarter for the industry in our state’s history, proves the power of tourism as a way to sustain Florida’s economic growth,” said Will Seccombe, Visit Florida’s president and chief executive, in a release. “With Florida tourism maintaining this type of strong momentum, we are well on our way to welcoming 100 million visitors, and making Florida the No. 1 travel destination in the world.”
The non-tourism jobs being created are in areas like retail trade, administrative services, construction, transportation and warehousing, Florida TaxWatch said. The additional marketing investment by the Legislature — along with investments by private-sector companies — have helped to create the new jobs.
