{"id":103796,"date":"2026-01-02T23:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T23:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/103796\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T23:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T23:11:09","slug":"florida-tourism-at-record-levels-for-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/103796\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida tourism at record levels for 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 Florida\u2019s tourism industry continued to soar in 2025, and it is being seen on our Space Coast.<\/p>\n<p>What You Need To Know<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitflorida.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Visit Florida<\/a>\u00a0says nearly 32,000,000 Americans traveled to the state last year<br \/>\n<br \/>Overseas visitation grew more than 3% to more than two million<br \/>\n<br \/>A key driver is Port Canaveral, which once again became the world\u2019s busiest cruise port, seeing 8.5 million passengers in 2025<\/p>\n<p>It is a boon to the state and local economy now and in the future.<\/p>\n<p>Larry Jackson, who has operated Cruise Holidays of Viera for more than two decades, is seeing it firsthand.<\/p>\n<p>It has been 22 years, and he still loves helping clients set up their perfect vacation. The year 2025 was its best year ever.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of people were booking a lot earlier than they were in previous years, so that really helps us out,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n<p>But with the demand comes challenges.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe love being able to put all the pieces together and make sure they have a wonderful vacation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Jackson\u2019s success mirrors the Florida tourism industry\u2019s record 2025 growth.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitflorida.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Visit Florida<\/a> says nearly 32,000,000 Americans traveled to the state last year.<\/p>\n<p>Overseas visitation grew more than 3% to more than two million.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are strategically focused on growing visitation from Latin America and Europe and maintaining Florida\u2019s No. 1 market share of domestic tourists, and our strategy is working,&#8221; said Visit Florida President Bryan Griffin.<\/p>\n<p>A key driver is Port Canaveral, which once again became the world\u2019s busiest cruise port, seeing 8.5 million passengers in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>The port is now home to seven\u00a0cruise brands with 1,000 sailings on 18 ships.<\/p>\n<p>It means millions for the local economy,\u00a0 providing provisions for the cruises. And port staff jobs.<\/p>\n<p>Jackson said that entire families are booking.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have two, three new ships coming in,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We were sold out a lot this summertime, on the big ships because the demand is so high.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But what does 2026 hold?<\/p>\n<p>Busier.<\/p>\n<p>Jackson said that if you want to travel, be proactive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe sooner you can make your plans, get your dates, get in touch with a travel adviser or cruise line and make those reservations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Visit Florida says 99% of the state\u2019s tourism-related industry is small businesses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 Florida\u2019s tourism industry continued to soar in 2025, and it is being seen on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[274,28,30,29,9143,115,139,135,278],"class_list":["post-103796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-app-top-stories","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-greg-pallone","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-tampa","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}