Surprise Surprise Florida Tourism Down

I think this is too complex to blame one thing or another specifically. Without understanding stat-by-state behavior of convention bookings, or state-by-state behavior of tourism, it is just speculation. One would have to break down tourism into groups that included factors like travel type, cost/day, venue (cruise ship, resort, etc), as well as income demographics.

I am not at all suggesting that DeSantis does or doesn't have some impact here, just that none of the conclusions that people want to make have any rigor behind them to truly understand the impact.

There is also an underlying cost in current society, due to the direction of popular trend, of profit vs. morals that plays out at every strata. That trend too can change depending on the direction of the current and become less antagonistic, so it may be more cohesive in the future.

The tourism business in Japan is blooming as a matter of fact it's busting to it seems it's very explosive here right now the fact that it's about 140 yen per dollar makes Japan pretty attractive place to go shopping also.

originally posted by: Kentuckymama
Maybe most people are spending all their money trying to keep the lights on and the kids fed. My grocery bill has doubled and the prices are still going up. I'm gonna say I'm not the only one dipping into savings for the basics right now. Vacation is out of the question as long as we can barely afford to eat at home.

You are right. Plus people are boycotting Disney because they are upset with the change and focus of their content.

Disney went price-hike crazy, just like most businesses. Vacations have become a luxury for more and more people as inflation has cut into their expendable cash and Disney priced themselves out of the market.

What nobody seems to want to address is work visas. If the US needs immigrants to keep our tanking economy going why not increase the number of work visas? It sure looks like another problem being created for political purposes that our representatives don't really want to solve.

In a more perfect world we'd stop the in-fighting and fight for better representation; people who would actually address the heart of the issue instead of throwing millions at the symptoms.

Tourism is down because it’s summertime, people generally don’t go to Florida to roast and sweat their you know what off. They tend to go north or out west.

Needless to say, Florida tourism is during the winter season.

a reply to: nugget1

What nobody seems to want to address is work visas. If the US needs immigrants to keep our tanking economy going why not increase the number of work visas?

You're missing the key draw businesses see in employing illegals, the fact that they're undocumented. Which means these companies can pay less and there's not really much the worker can do since reporting the employer would bring the worker to the attention of immigration.

Workers with work visas are documented and as a result these employers are required to pay them what their work is worth.

a reply to: carewemust

Hey! I grew up there and live there in and off when not in the Philippines.

Love it. But prices are rising. Cocoa/ cape Canaveral beaches are wonderful, and you don’t have to pay to goto the beach unlike the gulf coast around Tampa.

Universal studios is packed. Floridas economy is booming: Link

In the first three months of the year, the national economy grew by 2%. Florida grew by an annual rate of 3.5% — a sizable difference when talking about hundreds of billions of dollars of activity. And Florida's growth was the fastest among the biggest states like California, New York and Texas.

Disney is the one suffering from their woke-ness



The MSM doesn’t like Florida doing well so only tells half the story, as usual.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Personally, I think this is much more than just DeSantis and his policies. To be honest, his policies reflect the core values of most of the country. He is just one of the few willing to take on the cancel culture and stay the course.

Disney is a big part of Florida tourism and people are sick of the place and its woke bs. And after a couple years of build back better, with no building and no better, people don't have disposable cash for expensive vacations any more. Florida may be seeing some cancellations due to band-wagoning among the corporate woke world but Chicago is suffering a similar downturn and Chicago is a polar opposite to Florida. That tells me its much more than just the politics of the governor.

As for the illegals and the ramifications therein, illegal immigration is a huge problem in this country. Continuing to ignore it because of cheap labor is not going to solve the problem. This nation expends far more due to illegal immigration than it benefits from it and the gap between the two is massive. And it is always the tax payer who gets the bill, directly or otherwise, we pay for it over and over again. Its not the immigrant most people are opposed to, its the illegality.

We are as near to recession as we have been in a long long time. Discretionary spending is the first thing to get cut in most budgets, personal or corporate. This is in opposition to the substantial corporate profits of some industries, but they are building massive cash reserves, not reinvesting it. The cash reserves are insulation against recession which is a good indicator of how corporate America sees the current economy. Some corporations are very vocal about supporting bidenomics and woke agendas but they are still hoarding cash as an insulator against recession/depression. That is a great reflection of the current political/economic climate and how twisted things really are. We know its wrong, we know its going to cause far more problems than it will ever solve, yet we cave in and go along with it even though we know there will be severe consequences for it. It amazes me that corporate America can look a camera straight in the eye and say they support the current administration while simultaneously hoarding cash to insulate against a coming recession and/or depression.

originally posted by: ancientlight
Multiple reasons I'm guessing and nothing to do with De Santis.
Many are boycotting Disney , for obvious reasons, others because it's just too expensive.
A family of four , a 3 day stay in Disney and area would easily be more than a $1000.

Also, inflation, constant fear mongering fired by the MSM making people more anxious /stressed etc.
Air travel is horribly lately, especially since the scamdemic.

Excellent points AL, lots of factors come into play here.

Travel to Florida was also curtailed somewhat because of the sargassum seaweed blossom. Tampa Bay had a different huge algae bloom problem completely. Not to mention Disney feeds off its media division with brand recognition, movies, TV shows, etc. which so far has been mediocre at best this year.

Reports that condo beach rentals are down 30% for June and July, many developments had availability even during the week preceding and through July 4th.

wsvn.com...

(CNN) — A gargantuan mass of seaweed that formed in the Atlantic Ocean is headed for the shores of Florida and other coastlines throughout the Gulf of Mexico, threatening to dump smelly and potentially dangerous heaps across beaches and put a big damper on tourist season.

The seaweed, a variety called sargassum, has long formed large blooms in the Atlantic, and scientists have been tracking massive accumulations since 2011. But this year’s sargassum mass could be the largest on record — spanning more than 5,000 miles from the coast of Africa to the Gulf of Mexico.

“This is an entirely new oceanographic phenomenon that is creating such a problem — really a catastrophic problem — for tourism in the Caribbean region where it piles up on beaches up to 5 or 6 feet deep,” Lapointe added.

He noted that in Barbados, locals were using “1,600 dump trucks a day to clean the beaches of this seaweed to make it suitable for tourists and recreation on the beaches.”

The blob is currently pushing westand will pass through the Caribbean and up into the Gulf of Mexico during the summer, with the seaweed expected to become prevalent on beaches in Florida around July, according to Dr. Brian Lapointe, a researcher at Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute.

Lapointe said this year’s sargassum bloom began to form early and doubled in size between December and January. The mass “was larger in January than it has ever been since this new region of sargassum growth began in 2011,” Lapointe told CNN’s Rosemary Church.

www.msn.com...

Red tide? Seaweed blob? Nope, scientists are watching a different algae off Tampa Bay
Story by Max Chesnes, Tampa Bay Times • May 23

Florida researchers are watching an alga bloom drifting offshore of the Tampa Bay area — and no, it’s not red tide or a looming blob of seaweed.

Scientists are monitoring a patchy cloud of “sea sawdust” that has ebbed and flowed in the Gulf of Mexico for nearly a week, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. The blue-green algae species, known as Trichodesmium, is often found in tropical waters and blooms off Southwest Florida.

www.cbsnews.com...

During the COVID-19 pandemic and until last year, demand for vacation rentals soared, enabling owners like the Steinels to raise prices and fully book their properties for the summer. But this year, there is a decline in occupancy at popular summer vacation spots across the country.

Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Maui, Hawaii, Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, and San Diego, California have all seen a decline compared to last year, according to AirDNA, a tracking company that monitors the performance data of 10 million vacation rentals on platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo.

Steinel describes the financial considerations amid the evolving rental market as "nerve-wracking."

"We want to make sure that we're able to make some money too, you know, not just cover our overhead," he said.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: interupt42

Disney drop in numbers is not only in fl but accross the board. Their woke movies have lost billions. also disney plus has been losing subscribers.

Lots of conservatives complaining, how do you explain their loss of revenue?

Some are probably MAGA conservatives that vilified trumps once Golden Boy Desantis having the audacity to run for POTUS?

However as I have mentioned before becareful for what you wish or you just might get it. Getting rid of illegals will bring consequences.

I think we should definitely go hard after American business that hire illegals , but they are so embedded in our economy that we need to slowly implement the solution. Whether Desantis is being too aggressive we will find out. However , from my pov (in the medical and hospitality industries) down here the biggest issue I see is shortage of workers due to the cost of living and not so much due to illegals fleeing the area.

Construction is still as crazy as ever from my experience. I got a quote to add a back open patio not screened in on a property that I own that started at 257K . To add a pool it was starting at 175K. Those were quotes pre the changes Desantis implemented. To redo a dock it was 1.5 year out but that was most likely due to the hurricane. Currently I'm waiting on permit approval for a large tikihut that is taking the county almost 2 months to approve , because they are so overworked with permits.

Houses prices are still at all time high down here and we are still getting implants from the democrat states, although the sales are taking longer to execute.


To be clear I think Desantis did a great job in Fl during covid but I don't agree with everything he is doing. I don't like the fact he lowered the time frame for abortions and think he should have left it as it was. Also I praise him for actually doing something about the illegals but I question if its to fast of a solution. So far it doesn't appear to be the case from my anecdotal pov from my area anyways.

Has nothing to do with the fact our economy is complete # and most Americans can’t even make a $400 emergency.

Nope just conservatives bad blah blah blah. Getting so sick and tired of this #.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Talk to me in December. This is the slow time for tourism in Florida. I lived there for several years. If you look at Disney, all of their locations are having poor attendance at this time. One of their major problems is that you have to reserve everything ahead of time. Not just park tickets, but, access to all of the rides, shows and restaurants. I'm not even counting the people who are boycotting Disney. My Cousin works for a travel agency. In the past Disney was one of her highest bookings, not so much the last few years.

originally posted by: Kentuckymama
Maybe most people are spending all their money trying to keep the lights on and the kids fed. My grocery bill has doubled and the prices are still going up. I'm gonna say I'm not the only one dipping into savings for the basics right now. Vacation is out of the question as long as we can barely afford to eat at home.

Yeah, it has nothing to do with Desantis... it is the lingering effects of the economy. People are tightening up their spending. Who wants to drop $10,000 or more to go to Disney World right now?

a reply to: greendust

San Francisco stole the pedo tourists from Disney, interesting.

a reply to: JAGStorm

My wife and I were down in 30A last month for vacation and it seemed even more crowded than in past years. Rosemary Beach...packed, Seacrest Beach...packed, Seaside...packed. The Emerald Coast doesn't seem to be hurting. Maybe Disney revenue is down because of their woke ideology?

originally posted by: JAGStorm

This is about Desantis and Florida and the battle between him and Disney, illegals and all the ramifications.

I saw this coming a mile away. Many American don’t want to admit WHO keeps the wheels turning.
Who really works the jobs we REALLY don’t want. They want us to want those jobs but we don’t. Even when they are offering a lot of money, we don’t want them.

Guess who does…. Illegals.. but we don’t want them either. So here we are.

Some are saying Desantis attacked all that is Florida, Disney, Bud Light, Illegals, what’s next gators?

Or maybe it's because no one can afford a vacation these days. A 4-day pass is now 400 bucks, add in 4 nights of hotels, and eating out is like 2x now, plane tickets are high, etc. We are talking about a family of 4 for 4 days at Disney is about 7k+ after all is said and done.

As to illegals, we need about 3 million seasonal workers. If you see illegals in construction, lower-pay jobs, etc. That is a business scraping profits off of underpaid human trafficking. A company the size of Disney will not have illegals working there. I really don't know any Americans that are cheering for the record-crossing numbers of 1.7 million in 2021, just to be broken in 2022 with 2.7 million.

originally posted by: peter_kandra

My wife and I were down in 30A last month for vacation and it seemed even more crowded than in past years. Rosemary Beach...packed, Seacrest Beach...packed, Seaside...packed. The Emerald Coast doesn't seem to be hurting. Maybe Disney revenue is down because of their woke ideology?

The Panhandle area is doing really well too. It could also just be Disney...

Universal's theme parks posted revenue of $7.5 billion in 2022, up nearly 50% over the year prior, with revenue up 12%, to 2.1 billion in the fourth quarter of the year.

Adjusted EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization] was up to a record $2.7 billion in 2022, rising 16% to 782 million in the fourth quarter.

The net margin for 2023 is a 10-year high mark too, so yes it might just be Disney.....

a reply to: JAGStorm

It's not just Orlando, Miami-Dade and Broward tourism numbers are down as well. I have heard that what should be around 90% occupancy hotel for this time of year are down to 60% occupancy. Florida's money maker is tourism and he's messing that up. Billions of dollars lost. Desantis is bad for business.

a reply to: Xtrozero

Just because a company is large doesn't mean illegals aren't working there!

I personally know of 2 Amazon delivery drivers that are not legal citizens.

I when I worked at the base, I reported seeing one of the software contractors we had staying late in the building too often when work requirements didn't require that much overtime. Turns out he was a chinese citizen living in the building after work! He slept in a van, cooked in the lunchroom microwave and shaved and spongebathed in the mens room.