Florida Tourism Slips 1.4% as Canadian Visits Fall Nearly 14%

A second straight quarterly dip

Florida's tourism streak has stalled. The state set a record of 143.3 million visitors in 2025, but now it has posted two quarters in a row of year-over-year declines. That points to a shift in how both American and Canadian travelers are spending their money.

Visit Florida, the state's tourism marketing agency, estimates 34.01 million people visited from April through June. That is 0.7% fewer than in the second quarter of 2025.11 For the first half of the year, the state had about 73.5 million visitors, down 1.4% from roughly 74.5 million a year earlier.11 The first quarter set the pattern. It brought 39.88 million visitors, about 1% fewer than the revised count for early 2025.1

The headline numbers are small, and state officials have leaned on that. But the details show a slowdown with several causes. Domestic travelers are being squeezed by prices. Canadians are pulling back sharply. International demand is shifting in ways that create winners and losers inside the state.

The domestic traveler is tightening up

Domestic visitors make up the vast majority of Florida's tourists, so they matter most to the state's tourism economy. More than 90% of first-half visitors came from other parts of the U.S. Domestic visits totaled 67.33 million over the six months, compared with 68.2 million a year earlier.19 That is a small decline in percentage terms. Because the base is so large, though, it means almost 900,000 fewer domestic trips. In raw numbers, that is a bigger loss than the more widely reported Canadian drop.

Visit Florida President and CEO Bryan Griffin was unusually direct about the cause. At a board meeting in West Palm Beach, he said American travelers are "tightening their belts" because of higher costs and are being more careful with their budgets.2 He used that point to argue that the agency's marketing matters more than ever for keeping Florida on travelers' lists.2

Gov. Ron DeSantis pointed to a more specific cost: gas. In remarks at a press briefing, he said high pump prices are keeping some families closer to home. Many of Florida's drive-in visitors come down Interstate 75, and families hesitate when gas goes above about $4 a gallon.3 He also mentioned inflation and tighter household budgets as reasons people are rethinking expensive trips.3 In Palm Beach County, local coverage likewise named inflation, gas prices and a cold Florida winter as pressures on travel.15

This is a point where coverage of the slowdown has underplayed things. Much of the national framing centers on Canada and politics. In practice, the domestic pullback is the biggest single factor in the totals. It reflects the same consumer caution showing up across discretionary spending: people are still traveling, but fewer are making the trip, and some are choosing closer or cheaper options.

Canada: the sharpest drop, and the most politically charged

The most dramatic number comes from Canada. About 1.68 million Canadians visited Florida in the first half of 2026, down 13.9% from the same period of 2025.11 That works out to roughly 270,000 fewer Canadian visitors.13 It also follows a decline of nearly 7% in 2025, the first annual drop in Canadian visits since the pandemic.12

This matters more than the share of total visitors suggests. Canadians accounted for about 25% of Florida's foreign visitors in 2025, more than twice the share of Brazil, the next-largest international market.14 Canada is also the only major market still below pre-pandemic levels. In the first half of 2019, about 2.29 million Canadians came to Florida, roughly 610,000 more than this year.16 Canadian visits peaked at about 4.1 million in all of 2019.1

The explanation is where reports diverge most. Several outlets tie the decline directly to President Donald Trump's trade policies and his repeated description of Canada as the "51st state."1117 A July report from Statistics Canada described "a persistent shift away from the United States" in Canadians' travel preferences.11 It also called the drop in U.S.-bound travel the deepest and longest on record outside the pandemic, with 11 straight months of year-over-year declines.19 DeSantis himself acknowledged that tension between the two countries has played a role, pointing to trade disputes and national rhetoric.3

The more careful reporting adds a caveat. Visit Florida's numbers cannot show how much of the Canadian drop comes from politics and how much from inflation and household finances.1119 Visit Florida has offered no explanation of its own for the decline.13 Other analyses point to Canada-specific costs, including rising accommodation prices in Florida and expensive travel health insurance for older Canadians.10

The evidence supports politics as a real cause, though not the only one. The Canadian decline is several times larger than the domestic one, even though both groups face similar Florida prices. Statistics Canada also describes the shift as aimed at the United States in particular, not at travel in general. A pure affordability story would not explain that gap. Still, saying the 13.9% drop is caused by rhetoric alone goes beyond what the data can show.

There is also some sign the decline is slowing. In the second quarter alone, Canadian visits fell just 4.2%, to about 721,000.11 That is a much smaller drop than the six-month figure, which suggests the steepest losses came during the winter snowbird season.7 Palm Beach County even reported a 1.8% rise in Canadian visitors over the first half.7 Some Delray Beach business managers described the Canadian decline as fairly mild so far.15

Overseas visitors: a partial cushion, unevenly spread

Overseas travel is the closest thing to a bright spot, though it weakened late in the period. Overseas visits were 2.2% higher for the first half of the year.11 In the second quarter, however, they fell 3.7% to about 2.21 million.11 DeSantis highlighted continued demand from Europe and Latin America for beach and theme park trips.3

That strength is not spread evenly. One analysis of Caribbean-linked arrivals found Fort Lauderdale down 10.5% through June, while Miami rose 3%. The authors read this as demand moving between gateways rather than disappearing.9 For hotels and restaurants in the losing cities, that distinction offers little comfort.

The spending stakes

The visitor counts translate directly into money. Out-of-state visitors spent about $134.9 billion in Florida in 2024.1 At that scale, even a 1% to 2% drop in visits takes real revenue away from hotels, attractions and restaurants. It also cuts into the sales-tax collections that help Florida get by without a personal income tax.

Canadian snowbirds are especially valuable per person. They tend to stay longer, rent condos, buy groceries and hire local services.10 One trade publication estimated that the first-half Canadian decline cost Florida more than $400 million. That figure rests on an assumed $1,500 average spend per visitor, so it is a rough illustration rather than a measured loss.10

Griffin has framed tourism's value in local terms. He has said travel makes a big difference for main streets, restaurants, hotels and attractions across the state.11 That is the level where a slowdown that looks small statewide can feel much larger, especially in places that depend on snowbirds or on one airport's traffic.

Reading the slowdown

Officials are presenting the numbers as a brief plateau after a record year. DeSantis has stressed that Florida still draws millions more visitors than before the pandemic.3 That is accurate. The 2019 total was about 131 million, well below current levels.11 State economists, however, are watching the slowing growth closely.11

Taken together, the evidence points somewhere between "nothing to see" and "crisis." The post-pandemic boom that took Florida from 79.4 million visitors in 2020 to a record 143.3 million in 2025 has run its course.1 Growth in 2025 was only 0.2%, so the slowdown was visible before 2026 began.1 What is new is that two separate pressures are hitting at the same time: cautious American consumers dealing with prices and gas costs, and a Canadian market turning away from the U.S. for reasons that go beyond money.

The real test will be the coming winter season, when Canadians traditionally head south in large numbers. Nobody yet knows whether the trend will continue.19 Visit Florida plans heavy seasonal marketing to win back northern visitors.3 If inflation eases and gas prices drop, domestic travel will likely recover first. A Canadian rebound depends partly on things Florida cannot control, including trade relations and the tone coming from Washington. For now, the clearest sign is the size of the domestic decline, which shows that American travelers are spending more carefully.