PALM COAST, Fla. – Tourism insiders are carefully watching Florida’s numbers as the economy continues an ebb and flow around the election, tariffs, and social justice activism that influenced travel plans for some over the past two years.
Sharing his perspective, tourism economist Brian London spoke at the Flagler Tiger Bay Club on April 16 to a sold-out crowd, interested in learning more about the short and long-term impacts on visitation to the Sunshine State.
Florida By the Numbers
London’s talk came on the heels of the February 12th announcement from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis touting 2024 numbers and a record-breaking 142.9 million visitors.
“The results are clear—Florida is the best place to visit, live, and do business,” said Governor Ron DeSantis in the release. “Another record-breaking year is proof that leadership matters, and the Free State of Florida is a model for the nation.”
The Florida Department of Commerce added Q1 2025 numbers, on April 7.
“The state’s tourism performance also remains strong on the global stage. In the first two months of 2025, Florida saw a 0.5% increase in Canadian air visitation, outperforming the national trend, which showed a 2.3% decline in Canadian travel to the U.S., and a 6.5% increase in overseas visitation, with notable gains from the United Kingdom, Brazil, and Argentina.”
Influences on Travel and Tourism
London spent time focusing on controllables for local tourism leaders, based on decades in the tourism industry.
“Interestingly, I’m interested in behavioral economics,” said London. “I’m interested in why people or businesses or agencies make the decision that they do.”
“What’s exciting about this is there are some things we can control. These are internal things to make life easier for us time, talent, treasure, and tribe,” he said, noting an ever increasingly overscheduled society and how decisions are made about how, when, and where to travel.
“From a behavioral economics standpoint, what’s interesting about these (four) things is although you can control them, it turns out there’s way bigger influencing factors that you cannot control. This is where the future of Florida tourism gets interesting, when you start to mix in these six additional categories – economics, demographics, lifestyle, technology, regulations, and geo-politics.”
As a business consultant and active member of a number of boards impacting tourism, arts and culture, Flagler Tiger Bay Club President Jay Scherr found value in the discussion with a follow up for the community.
“Really, ideas on what the future of tourism looks like and also how we as a community can look at getting involved and balancing growth and driving tourism itself. So, what can we do as individuals to help out? I think he really gave us some good insights to think about. Me personally, I think about TDC and what we can do, each of us, to engage with TDC to help them out, which ultimately helps all of us out,” said Scherr.
“It’s really about how we can get involved ourselves. That to me was one of the biggest takeaways.”
Up Next
The Flagler Tiger Bay Club will host distinguished attorney and Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America (2025) Jesse Panuccio, the former acting U.S. Associate Attorney General, who will address the topic of executive orders on May 21 at the Hammock Dunes Club.
“This is really going to be an exciting and incredibly insightful meeting. I have a gut feeling that this event is going to sell out very quickly,” said Scherr. “The topic is obviously timely – there’s a lot going on right now, we’re seeing hundreds of presidential executive orders.”
“The interesting thing is his approach, that aligns with Tiger Bay, is that it’s not partisan. We have to look at them from a factual perspective and really look at what are the challenges with those and what are the true implications, and how does that affect the courts. I think everyone in this room is going to be interested in what he has to say, and he is the person to be able to speak to these.”
Details and registration are available at www.FlaglerTigerBayClub.com.
