Visit Florida's return on investment is 58 cents for every dollar spent on marketing as COVID-19 shuts the door on the state's tourism industry, according to a new analysis from state economists. decreased.
But the analysis predicts that Visit Florida's economic revenue will return to pre-pandemic levels as tourists return to beaches, theme parks and other tourist attractions.
The analysis, released Tuesday by Congress' Office of Economic and Demographic Research, covers the 2019-2020, 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 fiscal years. The pandemic hit in early 2020, shutting down large parts of the tourism industry and having long-lasting effects on issues such as international travel.
Visit Florida, a public-private agency, receives state funding to lead tourism marketing efforts. This report seeks to measure the economic return, or return on investment, of money paid to Visit Florida.
The analysis found that the return on investment for the three fiscal years was significantly lower than the previous three years, when it was $3.27 for every dollar spent.
Economists are blaming the pandemic for the pandemic, as leisure and hospitality jobs have fallen and tourist numbers have plummeted. As an example, visitor numbers fell from a then-record 131,069,000 in 2019 to 79,397,000 in 2020.
read more: Broward Commissioners Reject Proposal to Use Tourism Funds for Affordable Housing
“The overall decline in ROI (return on investment) is further exacerbated by a sharp drop in ROI to 0.11 in FY 2021-22,” the analysis said. “While overall tourist numbers had recovered to near pre-COVID-19 levels by that time, their composition was very different and still reeling from the impact of the pandemic shock.”
To revive the industry after the initial shutdown, Visit Florida focused first on getting Floridians to visit other parts of the state and attracting Americans driving in from other parts of the country. The agency then tried to bring back international travelers.
The overall number of tourists increased to 121.838 million in 2021, 137.4 million in 2022, and 135.02 million last year. In 2023, the number of international and Canadian travelers remained just below his 2019 total.
Tuesday's analysis attributed the rebound to increased advertising by the state's beaches and theme parks.
“Based on Visit Florida’s share of total tourism advertising spending, it had approximately 3.45 million, 4.66 million, and 4.3 million visitors in 2019-20, 2020-21, and 2021-22, respectively. ” said the analysis. “The remaining marketing-influenced visitors are due to the efforts of four other major marketing contributors: local governments, local private organizations, Visit Florida private organizations, and theme parks.”
A Visit Florida spokesperson said Tuesday that the agency is reviewing the report.
During the three-year period analyzed, Visit Florida received $50 million annually from Congress, plus additional matching money from private partners. In the 2021-2022 fiscal year, the agency received an additional $30 million in federal pandemic-related funding.
The analysis estimated that Disney, Universal Studios, and SeaWorld spent $787.9 million on marketing during the study period, which “accounted for 33.5 percent of all major tourism marketing efforts in the state.” That's what it means.
As an indicator of the impact of COVID-19, attendance at Disney's Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios declined in 2020 from 58.58 million in 2019, according to state statistics. The number of people increased to 18.67 million. SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, both owned by the same parent company, grew from 8.82 million to 2.88 million. During the same period, Universal real estate in Florida increased from his 21.29 million properties to his 8.1 million properties.
By 2022, Disney's attendance will reach 47.06 million, SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa Bay's attendance will reach 8.5 million, and Universal's attendance will reach 21.7 million.
Estimated spending by theme parks does not include funds provided to Visit Florida, local governments, or direct sales organizations.
Lawmakers included $80 million for the Florida visit in their proposed budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, which begins July 1. The budget proposal has not been sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis for approval.
In the aftermath of the pandemic, economists looked at a 10-year period and said, “The current working ROI of 3.3% is more reflective of the long-running Visit Florida program and will be used in all forward-looking analyses.'' It should be done.” ”
