U.S. travelers continue to bolster Florida’s tourism industry, while the state hopes to make up for a decline in Canadian visitors by drawing people from other countries.
Visit Florida on Tuesday estimated 34.435 million people traveled to Florida from April 1 through June 30, up from 34.279 million people during the same period last year. The estimate for this year would be a second-quarter record, according to the state tourism-marketing agency.
U.S. travelers made up 31.499 million of this year’s total, or 91.5 percent, up slightly from 31.419 million during the second quarter of 2024. Visit Florida estimated 2.295 million overseas travelers during the quarter this year, an 11.4 percent jump from the same period in 2024. But the estimated 640,000 Canadian visitors to Florida during the quarter marked a 20 percent drop from 2024.
“I know the nation is seeing some Canadian visitors not traveling at the moment, but Florida actually is seeing an increase in visitors from other places, including Brazil, which I think it’s part of that overseas visitation increase, and it’s something that we’re really monitoring and looking to see if we can shift some efforts there to continue that good trend,” Visit Florida President and CEO Bryan Griffin told members of the agency’s Executive Committee on Monday.
Florida has struggled since the COVID-19 pandemic to rebuild its numbers of overseas and Canadian travelers. Overseas travelers made up 6.7 percent of the estimated visitors during this year’s second quarter, while Canadians made up about 1.9 percent.
In 2019, before the pandemic, overseas travelers accounted for 7.4 percent of Florida visitor totals and Canadians were at 3.11 percent.
Tourism from Canada is down this year amid controversies about issues such as the U.S. imposing tariffs and President Donald Trump floating the idea of annexing Canada.
Statistic Canada, Canada’s national statistical agency, on Aug 11 reported that preliminary numbers of international arrivals to Canada in July including Canadian residents and non-residents were down 15.6 percent from July 2024 and marked six consecutive months of year-over-year declines.
Canadians returning by car from the United States in July were down 36.9 percent from the same period in 2024 and numbers of people returning by air were off 25.8 percent, according to Statistic Canada.
Florida drew an estimated overall total of 75.394 million tourists during the first half of this year, or 0.1 percent lower than during the first half of 2024.
The decrease came after Visit Florida revised first-quarter numbers.
An initial estimate released in May said 41.193 million people visited Florida during the first quarter, which would have been even with the first quarter of 2024. The revised 2025 first-quarter count was 40.959 million.
The state’s 2025-2026 budget, which took effect July 1, included $80 million for Visit Florida, the same as in the previous fiscal year.
–Jim Turner, News Service of Florida
Lee says
I have to laugh at the way they measure by flights inbound to Florida when at least a quarter of them are part time residents here and travel back and forth to there homes or family elsewhere…I know many that go back & forth 2–3 times a year. Not tourists.
The dude says
Meanwhile:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/florida-now-2nd-most-financially-164500255.html
So either the numbers are incorrect, or the money flowing in from this “record” number of visits is not being used to make the lives of Floriduh residents better.
I say it’s both. You can’t trust anything MAGA says, and meatball Ron is more interested in spending bed tax dollars on flying immigrants from other states to other states, than he is in lowering our taxes, water, and power bills.
Ed P says
The aging of the Canadian snow birds might be the single largest factor. Most are baby boomers and the travel could be a contributing factor, along with emergency health care costs during their visits.
Sherry says
Data released by the U.S. government confirms a similar slide in Canadian travel. Canadians made just over 7 million visits to the U.S. between January and May, according to statistics published by the International Trade Administration. That’s a nearly 17% decrease compared with the same period in 2024, data shows.
Laurel says
Ed P: Seriously?
Ray W, says
On August 2nd, CRE Daily reporters cited to a Wall Street Journal article as a base to its assertion that “a wave of Canadian property owners is retreating from the US vacation property market, …” But there is no one particular reason for them to do so, according to the authors.
As the Canadian dollar is at or near a 22-year low compared to the US dollar, as of the writing of the article, selling a home in America and taking the money into Canada can yield significant additional value. And, since a strong US dollar means that paying property taxes and HOA fees means a significant loss to those holding Canadian dollars, selling a Canadian-owned home can add even more value. Whether the exchange rate volatility is driving a lot of the home sales is not addressed by the authors, but the issue might provide the tipping point in personal financial decisions. As the U.S. dollar is down some 9% in value compared to a basket of other national currencies, a Canadian who purchased a home years ago might see a 9% currency exchange profit on top of any other potential profit obtained by selling now.
Another point raised in the article is that some Canadian home sellers are reporting that Americans are becoming hostile to Canadian. Condo association meetings, already sometimes tense, are dividing homeowners, with political tensions rising between neighbors. The reporter wrote of one Canadian shopper telling of being told to go home after his conversation in French was overheard in a grocery store.
Indeed, it is reported that some Canadians who own US homes are selling them out of fear or a feeling of a lack of security.
Some Canadians are offended by tariffs imposed on good produced in Canada. Others don’t like the rhetoric coming out of the White House about Canada becoming a 51st state.
For some, border detention stories cause hesitancy in visiting the US.
According to the story, Florida and Arizona have comparatively high numbers of Canadian homeowners, with Arizona having nearly 20,000 Canadian-owned homes. Wrote the authors, “[b]ut now, cross-border legal firms are seeing a tenfold increase in Canadians seeking to off-load their homes.”
In Scottsdale, Arizona, property listings of Canadian-owned homes have jumped to nearly 700 in 2025’s first quarter, up from around 100 in 2024. In the same city, the number of Canadians looking to buy new homes is down 40% over last year.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
In my estimation, there are often multiple reasons why anyone would decide to buy or sell, Canadian or American, though I have to agree that sometimes any one reason will do.
Yes, as one commenter put it, as Canadians age, their decisions, both financial and medical, might change. I have been making a similar argument for a long time. As American-born workers, mostly Baby Boomers, have been aging out of the workforce, the demand for immigrant labor has increased. There is little debate among economists that over the past five years or so, due to the indisputable fact that growth in the number of new American-born workers entering the workforce has flatlined, we have needed every one of the millions of our new immigrants to power our economic recovery from the structural damage caused by the pandemic.
But one thing is certain. If one nation’s political leader decides it appropriate to treat the entire populace of another nation like crap, there is likely to be fallout, and possibly long-term fallout.
Our president claims that Canadians have been treating Americans like crap for years and that retribution is apropos. I remain unconvinced of the quality of his reasoning process, mainly because in a trade-agreed marketplace, such as the one agreed to in 2018 between the U.S. and Canada, the now enlightened free-market economy decides whether a trade deficit or surplus occurs, but no one can doubt that his form of retribution treats the ordinary Canadian like crap.
The fallout is likely to impact quite a few Americans right in their pocketbook. Leaders, political and business, of small American border towns are begging their neighbors to come back. If too many Canadian-owned homes flood into the Scottdale, Arizona, marketplace, dropping home prices will likely occur, supply and demand being what it is. Scottsdale buyers will benefit. Scottsdale sellers will not.