{"id":126132,"date":"2026-01-21T08:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T08:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/126132\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T08:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T08:26:08","slug":"miami-tourism-likely-to-be-on-par-with-last-years-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/126132\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami tourism likely to be on par with last year\u2019s numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\tWritten by Kelly Sanchez<\/a> on January 21, 2026<\/p>\n

\"www.miamitodaynews.com\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Advertisement\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Miami<\/p>\n

The Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau (GMCVB) is projecting total visitation in the county in 2026 to potentially be on par with 2025, with a slight dip in international visitors.<\/p>\n

A projected increase in visits by Floridians who live outside of Miami-Dade and Broward counties should offset any declines in international visitation, according to the bureau.<\/p>\n

Reserved 2026 hotel occupancy as of Jan. 5 was 30% for Jan. 15 to May 15. For the entire year of 2026, reserved hotel occupancy as of Jan. 5 is 17% \u2013 a 1% increase from last year and 6.3% year-over-year growth.<\/p>\n

A number of global sporting events will take place this spring. They include the Miami Marathon and Half Marathon, Formula E, the World Baseball Classic, Wodapalooza, Miami Open Tennis, PGA Tour Cadillac Championship and the F1 Miami Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a big event town and these big events will help us fend off any headwinds, whether it\u2019s one specific country or a downturn in the economy of a country,\u201d said bureau CEO and President David Whitaker. \u201cThe key is you can\u2019t have all your eggs in one basket. The other key is, it\u2019s not just leisure vacationers, which we love. But big events bring huge crowds, they bring brand identity, sports and recreation and fitness.\u2026 It checks all the boxes.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to those events, major conventions will be held here in the first half of this year alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is going to be one of the busiest first six months ever, with 11 major citywide conventions that are in the building \u2026 that\u2019s just through May,\u201d he said. \u201cIt proves how important these conventions are to building stability around the economy because, whether leisure travel is up or down, a market is up or down, to have the predictability of a major sporting event that\u2019s going to attract tens of thousands of people or a major convention that\u2019s going to guarantee to attract tens of thousands of delegates, that\u2019s the kind of stability and predictability that you can build around to maintain rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re so excited,\u201d he continued, \u201cbecause it\u2019s not just who can fill a room for $49 a night but it\u2019s filling rooms with predictable convention delegates, sports fans, helps hotels yield around that so that they can charge a higher premium for unsold rooms; thus, the ADR goes up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Whitaker added that providing quality experiences in all areas is a top priority, and \u201cthat\u2019s why this industry, the tourism and hospitality industry, is so vital to our economy even in the uncertain times that we\u2019re facing about the economy and about international travel in general.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, we don\u2019t rest on our laurels,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we\u2019re going to charge a high premium for the hotel room, we have to make sure that their experience is nothing but the best level. That\u2019s why it\u2019s as important as it is to have a great hotel room as it is to have a great restaurant and great events and great art and culture and music festivals and shopping.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Whitaker also said that the Grand Hyatt Miami Beach Convention Center Hotel, opening in November 2027, will add an element of convenience<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a hotel that\u2019s connected to the center is for convenience. It\u2019s weather resilient in terms of a rainy day or a hot afternoon in August in the summer,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can put 600 people in a block under one roof \u2026 and that\u2019s better for the meeting planner; that\u2019s better for the clients when they walk across the skybridge into the convention center. It\u2019s right there at the foot of Miami Beach, so that\u2019s a game-changer.\u201d<\/p>\n

At this time last year, Mr. Whitaker said, \u201cthere was great uncertainty, especially as it relates to Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the first eight months of the year, and again, we never like to use the word down, but who would\u2019ve predicted that we were down only 2% international year-to-date \u2026 and that\u2019s just January through August,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Whitaker said people were predicting numbers would be down significantly lower.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that we\u2019re only down, if you will, 2% is really encouraging, speaks to the resilience of the destination, speaks to the popularity of the destination, speaks to the, not having all of our eggs in one basket even though we\u2019re the second-busiest international airport in the country and only behind New York as the second-most number of international arrivals,\u201d he said. \u201cTo have survived that, if you will, is encouraging and, more importantly, we are now on the precipice of a future, a new year that\u2019s just getting kicked off.\u201d<\/p>\n

With sporting events and conventions ahead, upward fluctuations of current numbers are a possibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cDestinations aren\u2019t built over weeks and months; they\u2019re built over years,\u201d Mr. Whitaker said. \u201cThe brand reputation of Miami has never been more exciting in terms of it\u2019s not just a party town. It\u2019s not just a beach town even though the beach is critically important. We\u2019re a full, year-round, multifaceted destination welcoming the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Written by Kelly Sanchez on January 21, 2026 Advertisement The Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau (GMCVB) is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":{"0":"post-126132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hialeah","8":"tag-hialeah","9":"tag-hialeah-headlines","10":"tag-hialeah-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126132","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=126132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}