The amount of Canadians visiting Florida continues to rise

Canada has reclaimed the top rank as Florida’s main overseas market thanks to a quick turnaround that started in earnest in spring 2022.

At IPW 2023, Brett Laiken, vice president of marketing for Visit Florida, told Travelweek that the Canadian market “has basically recovered, or at least it’s about 99.8% of the way there.”

And the figures are just increasing. In 2022, 2.79 million Canadian tourists came to Florida. And 1.44 million Canadians visited in the first quarter of 2023, According to a recent article by Travelweek

It makes sense why Laiken refers to Canada as “a super important market.”

Lift is so important to a destination’s prosperity, so Laiken is particularly thrilled with the seven additional connections into Florida from Canada this year. “The seats scheduled are up from 2022, scheduled to be up 14%,” he remarked. “A lot depends on our ability to attract Canadians to the location.” Travel for pleasure is quite popular, particularly trips with friends and family.

“There are many more ways to come here now that there are more planes. We have various agreements with tour operators, which is quite beneficial. We also have partnerships with travel agents, he said.

In 2022, Florida had 137.4 million tourists overall from all markets. That’s a 5% increase from 2019.

If Visit Florida stopped its foreign promotion during COVID, Travelweek questioned Laiken.

“We took a beat, like, a breath, I don’t even think it was three months,” said Laiken. “Because we never left, the fact that we were the first ones back tremendously benefited Florida. Many, many of our rivals stopped marketing for a considerable amount of time. We think that our leadership in getting us into the market after COVID really paid off for us. And the benefits keep coming in.

Here are just a handful of Florida’s numerous fresh and remarkable options.

FLORIDA E-LEARNING PLATFORM WEBSITE

The e-learning portal for the tourist industry, Visit Florida, is regularly updated with information on new events, construction projects, culinary news, and other topics.

Accessible travel is a key area of concentration for Visit Florida, and the agent e-learning platform now has lessons on this important subject. According to Laiken, Visit Florida wants to be the #1 accessible destination since so many individuals are seeking for accessible travel options for both visible and invisible impairments. “Agents are able to tell clients with disabilities or additional needs some of the destinations with specific offerings for those specific needs,” the author explains. For us, accessibility is a fundamental tenet. Our objective is to be the top accessible destination.

For its partners, Visit Florida also provides an accessibility toolbox and has organized seminars on the subject. According to the Visit Florida team, 30% or more of individuals report having an additional need for travel of some kind. “How do we make sure that everyone can come on the trip and feel included and not maybe have to stay back at the hotel for a specific activity because it’s not accessible for them?”

Here is the website for Visit Florida’s online training program for travel agents.

BRIGHTLINE IMPROVEMENT

Tickets for Orlando, the newest station on Brightline’s high-speed train service, are now readily available. According to Laiken, it takes less than three hours to go from Miami to Orlando, including stops in Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, and West Palm Beach along the route. For us, that’s incredibly thrilling.

What comes next for Brightline’s growth? Tampa. So soon, Laiken adds, “you’ll be able to take Brightline from Miami to Tampa, which is quite handy. “And it’s special to us. Such a system doesn’t exist in the nation. It’s simply going to be a welcomed experience, particularly for many of our foreign travelers who are a bit more acclimated to traveling by train.

The traveler response to the new train service has been excellent, he said. Brightline has been in existence for a while. The Boca Raton station was added to the Miami to West Palm Beach route. Orlando’s terminal is located within the airport. People are thus really thrilled and eager for it.

CULTURAL SCENE

Florida has been included in the Michelin Guide for two years. While Florida’s culinary sector places a lot of emphasis on Miami, Orlando, and Tampa, all locations with excellent eating benefit. When so many other states were forced to close their borders because to the epidemic, Laiken observed that “many chefs relocated to Florida.” We thus have these elite cooks. Due to our growth zone, we have similar gastronomic choices to the Caribbean. Therefore, you also have those flavors and spices that come from Florida. Also, there are five ports. Due to our year-round ability to cultivate food, the items we import from South America arrive in Florida as fresh as they possibly can be. So, that’s why we’re happy about it.

The ‘You Gotta Try This: Chef’s Edition’ video series is another one produced by Visit Florida. According to Laiken, while interviewing cooks, they discuss their specialties and menus as well as additional places to visit.

ADVENTURE OUTDOORS

The extensive variety of recreational and adventure activities available in the Sunshine State is also highlighted by Visit Florida. The 4,000+ miles of multi-use trails in Florida for walking, riding, and mountain biking are being highlighted by Visit Florida in partnership with the state’s Office of Greenways and Trails (OGT), which manages trails and parks. More than 3,000 miles of waterways in Florida are available for boating, kayaking, and paddleboarding. In the next year, we’ll emphasize it and bring it to life a little bit more, according to Laiken.

As we’ve previously said, we have the ‘core and more’ so you have your mains – Miami, Orlando, and Tampa – but there is also ‘what’s beyond. Not even a long trip separates them. There is just so much, and we want to really highlight that. It may be 30 minutes outside the major city, where you can be in the springs, swimming with the manatees, ziplining… there is just so much. The variety of the location and the offers is something that many people learnt throughout the epidemic, so we’ll keep highlighting that, he said.

NAPLES & FORT MYERS RECOVERY FROM HURRICANE IAN

Southwest Florida “has recovered tremendously,” according to Laiken, after Hurricane Ian in September 2022.

The ad that aired for Naples as part of Visit Florida’s collaboration with The Weather Network “was fantastic,” according to Laiken. “There was a promotion associated with the contest, and 36,000 individuals participated, which was a record number of entries. Which to us just means that they think it’s back. It is tenacious. We were able to recover.

“Part of what [Naples has done] is that they didn’t wait,” he said. They just poured the money in and said, “We have to recover; there is no other option.” We are resilient, and I believe it is something that Canadians should be aware of. And there, we’ve recovered really well.

Tourists are also being welcomed in Fort Myers at the same time. There is a tiny area of Fort Myers Beach that has to be rebuilt, but there are still a lot of people there.

INSPIRATIONAL WORDS

Laiken and his crew were asked by Travelweek if they had any advice for Canadian travel agents who are recommending Florida to their customers.

Every time you return to Florida, you may have a different experience, is how we would put it, he added. “A trip to Florida is never the same.”

This article originally appeared on Travelweek

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