Canadians Love Their Florida Vacations: Here's How Much

We all know Canadians love their Florida vacations, but now we know exactly how much.

Speaking to reporters at this year’s Florida Huddle tourism and travel event in Jacksonville, which TravelPulse Canada is attending, Visit Florida officials said 3.512 million Canadians visited the Sunshine State in 2018, the last full year for which figures are available.

That’s 2% higher than 2017 numbers, but slightly behind the record set in 2013.

To put the 3.5 million visits in perspective, that’s more than the next three countries on the Visit Florida visitation list combined. The UK in 2018 sent 1.498 million visitors to Florida, while Brazil had 1.218 million and Colombia 598,000.

Of the Canadian visitors in 2018, a full 56% came from Ontario, while 28% came from Quebec.

Just over one-half (52%) of visitors were 55 and older.

Since 2013, Florida has experienced a 23.9% drop in automobile visits, but air visits have gone up 28.6%.

Officials displayed a chart of the top U.S. states visited by Canadians in the past two years. Florida and New York state were tied for the most, with 39% of Canadian visitors reporting trips to those two states in June of last year. Florida edged out New York for March of 2018, which isn’t surprising given the weather. California and Nevada were three and four on the list.

Of the Canadians who visited Florida in the past two years, 42% said they went to the Orlando area, compared to 36.4% for Miami, 33.2% for Fort Lauderdale, 22.3% for the Tampa Bay Area, 19.4% for Palm Beach, 15.9% for the Florida Keys and 15.5% for the Fort Myers area.

Tourism and travel officials, along with select Canadian industry figures and media, will take part in Florida Huddle over the next two days at the Prime Osborn Convention Center in Jacksonville. A huge opening party was held on Wednesday night at TIAA Bank Field, home of the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League, complete with a great band and comfort food that ranged from shrimp and grits to brisket and Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese.