In
second quarter, the number of foreign tourist reduced more than 90% in Tallahassee
- Florida’s main tourism industry. In total it is estimated that visitors
dropped more than 60% because of Coronavirus.
Tallahassee - Florida’s main tourism industry |
And the
outlook remains dim for the state following the decline of nearly 20 million
visitors from April through June. The tourism industry must combat
ongoing negative perceptions of Florida’s handling of Covid-19,
international travel bans, people slow to return to entertainment venues and
double-digit unemployment.
During
the second quarter, an estimated 12.801 million people — almost all traveling
from other states — came to Florida as businesses were shut down in April
and amid harried reopening efforts in May and June, according to numbers posted
Sunday by the Visit Florida tourism-marketing agency.
In
2019, Florida recorded 32.4 million visitors in the second quarter and 68.2
million for the first six months. For the first half of 2020, the state saw
that number drop 35.2%, to just 44.188 million visitors.
Florida
saw a 12.3% decrease in first-quarter tourism compared with 2019, a reduction
of 4.4 million visitors, as the pandemic started to take hold. In all, an
estimated 31.39 million visitors came to the state during the first quarter.
Florida
ended 2019 with 131.4 million visitors.
Among
the second-quarter 2020 numbers, Florida saw just 235,000 overseas visitors and
9,000 Canadians, per the numbers posted by Visit Florida.
The
state, which had been on a nine-year run of increasing tourist numbers,
estimated nearly 2.65 million overseas visitors in the second quarter of 2019
and 931,000 Canadians in the same time.
After
releasing the second-quarter numbers Sunday, Visit Florida added a note online
that the pandemic has impacted the way the numbers were estimated and that the
international figures released may be higher than the actual totals.
“Please
note that due to the unprecedented nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and the
impact it has had on data used to produce visitor estimates, the numbers
provided … are likely to face larger-than-normal revisions as new data become
available,” Visit Florida said in the note.
“Also
note that for Q2 2020, VISIT FLORIDA believes that the number of overseas
visitors to the state was actually 20,000-30,000, but the officially published
estimate was calculated using the standard methodology per request from the
principals of the Revenue Estimating Conference,” the agency note said,
referring to a state panel that analyzes economic data and revenues.
With
Florida continuing to add thousands of coronavirus cases a day, a sharp rebound
in the tourism industry isn’t expected soon.
Visit
Florida has set aside $13 million to market toward a tourism rebound. The
initial emphasis will be to get Floridians to explore other parts of the state
and to attract people in nearby states.
While
Florida has been working to reopen the economy since May 4, an increase of
COVID-19 cases and deaths starting in late June has slowed the effort,
amid continued negative news about the state and bars and breweries prohibited
from on-site sales of alcohol.
Last
week, Walt Disney World posted on its website plans to cut back hours
starting Sept. 8 as the Florida theme parks have reported more
cancellations than anticipated since reopening in the first half of July.
As July
came to an end, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine went on the NBC show “Meet the Press” and
warned that his state was at a crucial stage with COVID-19 cases rising and
“could become Florida.” Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf followed with his own
statement that “We don’t want to become Florida.”
At the
same time, Toronto Blue Jays President Mark Shapiro spoke against
moving baseball games to the team’s spring training facility in Dunedin because
of player health concerns. Canada’s international travel restrictions regarding
the U.S. required the team to find a home ballpark in the U.S. The team settled
on Buffalo, New York.
On Aug.
5, Christopher Thompson, president and CEO of Brand USA, warned members of the
Economic Club of Florida that international tourist spending in the United
States might not return to pre-coronavirus levels until 2024.
Thompson,
appearing at the Governors Club in Tallahassee, said that even with a vaccine
for the coronavirus, consumers will need to be confident about their health
while traveling and while at the destinations.
“Today's
environment is the worst we've ever faced,” Thompson said. “While the rest of
the economy is in a recession, the travel industry is in a depression.”
Thompson,
who served as chief operating officer and president of Visit Florida a decade
ago, said more than 50% of the hospitality industry is facing unemployment.
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