Dispatches from Florida Huddle: Younger Travellers and Higher Spending

Florida is attracting younger travellers than ever, and they’re spending more. A lot more.

Open Jaw sat down with VISIT FLORIDA President and CEO Dana Young for a one-on-one interview during day-long meetings at the Florida Huddle tourism event in Miami on 05FEB.

One of the great stats Young passed along is that the average age of visitors to Florida was 49 in 2019. That dropped – substantially – to 41 years in 2022, she said.

Not only are Florida visitors younger, but they travel differently; an important point for Canadian advisors who book trips to the Sunshine State.

“It’s great,” Young said. “It brings additional responsibility to VISIT FLORIDA to ensure that our marketing is appealing to that age potential, and we are. They don’t want to just go to Disney World; they want to do other things.”

VISIT FLORIDA says the average Canadian visiting Florida spent $1,059 in 2019. By last year, that had risen a full 32% to $1,400 per trip, even though the average length of stay was down from 17 days to 13 days.

Overall travel spending in Florida is up 11.3% over 2019, Young said. For the U.S. as a whole, it’s up 3%.

Young said Canadian advisors remain vital to Florida tourism. VISIT FLORIDA last year signed up 80 new Canadian agents as Florida travel specialists, she said.

They also continue trade events north of the border, working with groups such as Air Canada Vacations and the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies.

At her opening press conference to Florida Huddle with Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau President and CEO David Whitaker, Open Jaw asked Young what VISIT FLORIDA is doing to keep its number one international market chugging along.

“We are constantly updating our relationships and building new relationships and creating new projects with the trade,” she said. “Our advertising in Canada is always fresh and on spot.”

After previously only running the program in the U.S. Young said VISIT FLORIDA expanded its “Gift of Florida” campaign to Canada last year.

“People booked thousands of deals; book two nights, get the third one free, that sort of thing. From Canada we had 44,000 room nights booked in two months, and 221,000 by Americans.”

The Canadian impact on the Florida economy was $96.6 million USD, while the U.S. impact was a whopping $354 million. And all that from an investment of just $250,000, Young said.

“It’s astonishing,” she said.

Speaking during lunch at Florida Huddle on 05FEB, Young said 30% of all international visitors to the U.S. take a trip to Florida.

“Every traveller is looking for something different, and we have amazing variety,” she said. “There’s so much more to Florida than beaches and am