by Paul Heney
Last updated: 10:35 AM ET, Thu February 6, 2025
This years Florida Huddle and Encounter trade shows, being held at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala, featured more appointments per attendee than previous years.
There were 629 registered attendees at the combined events. For Florida Huddle, the numbers were slightly down from last years event (which was held in Miami) with 217 suppliers, 154 buyers, and 19 members of the media, including TravelPulse.
Jacob Pewitt Yancey, Visit Floridas Director of Consumer Insights and Analytics, shared 2024 data on international (non-U.S.) and overseas (defined as non-U.S. and non-Canada) visitation to the state, comparing data with both 2023 and 2019, the last full year prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The 2024 overseas visitation to Florida was 8.86 million, up from 8.31 million in 2023 and 7.02 million in 2022. From 2014 through 2019, the last normal year before Covid-19, the numbers averaged just under 10 million. 2019 itself saw 9.80 million visitors, putting last year within roughly 10% of the pre-pandemic level.
The top international destinations for Florida for 2024 were reported as:
- Canada
- United Kingdom
- Brazil
- Colombia
- Mexico
- Argentina
- Germany
- France
- Ecuador
- Bahamas?
Pewitt Yancey said that Mexican visitation has been a great story for Visit Florida over the last couple of years.
One of our big reveals [at 2024s Florida Huddle] was that Mexican visitation in 2023 was the highest it had ever beensince we started doing estimates for Mexican visitation. And then they took that number and said, You know what, let's bump that up by 15%. Thats just absolutely outstanding visitation from Mexico, he said.?
Another particularly bright spot was Colombia.
Colombia has been one of the huge, huge success stories of visitation to Florida over the course of the last few years, Pewitt Yancey said. They were really a rock for us for our international visitation. For a couple of years, when many of our other origin markets were at very close to zero visitation, they did just amazing things for tourism.
Final numbers for Canada, as well as domestic numbers, were not yet available, but are expected to be released soon.
Political winds and the sunshine state
Dana Young, President and CEO of Visit Florida, was asked about concerns with the newly announced tariffs, especially on whether this could affect future Canadian visitation to the state.?
First Ill say that we do not have any data on the impact of tariffs on foreign tourism, so I cant give you anything data related, Young said. What I can tell you is that we have had, over the years, political things that have happenedtravel bans and boycotts and things of that natureand we have not seen any meaningful impact on our visitation numbers. It is our hope that we will welcome our great friends from Canada and Mexico and Panama and everywhere else in the world. People love Florida. They want to come here on vacation. And based on the past, we have every reason to believe that they will continue to come here.
Dana Young, President and CEO of Visit Florida, left; and Loretta Shaffer, Ocala/Marion County Visitors and Convention Bureau Tourist Development Director, right. (Photo Credit: Photo by Paul J. Heney.)
Given the popular Florida markets with LGBTQ tourists, and the governmental pullback on anything considered DEI, Young was asked about whether Visit Florida would change anything around outreach to this segment of the market.
Our marketing has always prided itself on being inclusive, truly, of everyone. Our hospitality and the welcoming nature of our state is evidence in our unbelievable tourism visitation numbers that keep going up every year. Were not going to change that. Our marketing is going to look the same. We continue to be a great place for everyone, no matter who you love, where youre from, the color of your skin, the country youre from, any of that, and were not going to change that, she said.
Young, who announced her retirement in December, steps down on February 7th, and Craig Thomas, the current Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel, will take over as Interim CEO. Young said that her team has been working very closely with the governors office and the administration to make sure that they get the best personand that process is ongoing.
Theres been a lot going on, so its taking a little bit longer. But we are really blessed that we have Craig Thomas to step in as the interim CEO. Hes been with Visit Florida longer than I have, so hes going to do a great job. There will be that continuity there and stability that the organization needs. And I have every confidence that in the near future, we will have a very qualified person to run the organization ... Governor DeSantis and his team are very involved in this, she said.
Last summer, Visit Florida faced some controversy after the group removed the LGBTQ+ travel section from its website.
Ocala and Marion County
The Ocala area, located a two-hour drive north of Orlando and 45 minutes south of Gainesville, is one of the fastest growing parts of the country. The metro area was ranked as the most affordable in Florida in 2023, and Ocala International Airport has a five-year capital development plan underway.?
The area features several world-class venues such as the Florida Aquatics Swimming & Training complex and the World Equestrian Center (WEC), which sit on 2,000 acres and includes two state-of-the-art expo centers and several hotels.
Loretta Shaffer, Ocala/Marion County Visitors and Convention Bureau Tourist Development Director, explained that the WEC, has transformed Marion County and put us on the map, not only domestically, but internationally. She also said that the increase in shopping, dining, and entertainment options locally has helped.
Weve seen an immense amount of growth of entertainment and attractions such as The Forge (restaurant) and District Bar + Kitchenthose sort of entertainment venues increase [visitors] length of stay and really allow people to explore above and beyond Florida's natural wonders. Were known for having five gorgeous natural springs within Marion County and the Cross Florida Greenway and the Ocala National Forest, which makes up 40% of our land mass.
Looking to the future
Young noted that Florida is number one in market share amongst states for domestic travel, but she also explained that Visit Florida has some long-range plans in place.?
Our pre/post cruise strategy is something that we kicked off two years ago, but it really went into overdrive last year, and its only going to grow. That will be multi-year in nature. Weve been working with travel advisors and the cruise lines. We had been talking about doing this for years; we looked at the number of people taking cruises out of Florida and realized, if we could just keep them here two more days and give them a hint of Florida and give them reasons to come to Floridaand maybe not go on a cruise next timeit would be exponentially massive for our visitation numbers, she said.
She also noted that Visit Florida has been working on various itineraries that visitors can experience in and around cruise port cities, ala Fort Lauderdale and Port Canaveral. Theyve also been hosting fam trips for travel advisors, to that they can better talk about specifics, like cuisine and attraction/entertainment options for their customers.?
It was announced that next years Florida Huddle and Encounter will take place February 2-4, 2026, at Hilton Orlando in Orlando.
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