Easter is right around the corner and while snowbirds in Florida return to their northern fold, a lot of travel is expected in the United States during the Easter period, like a post-pandemic effect.
The New York Times published an article on the subject last month, reporting that a significant increase in travel bookings, for the spring and summer seasons, had been seen by travel agents and operators. And the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), representing the global travel and tourism industry, predicts that bookings during the Easter period will increase by 130% compared to the same period in 2021. In sum, the WTTC not only expects outbound travel from the United States to increase, but also that travel and tourism to the United States will reach pre-pandemic levels in the current year, which could contribute about $2 trillion to the country’s economy. After two lean years, it’s rather welcome to fill the basket!
Relaxed restrictions
The easing of restrictions related to COVID-19, which is more part of everyday life around the world, is of course playing in the balance and gives hope to the travel industry of a strong comeback this year. According to the New York Times, the latter is already observing a marked interest among travellers for distant international destinations as well as for European cities. The article quotes the WTTC President and Chief Executive Officer as saying: “As travel restrictions ease and consumer confidence returns, we expect a welcome release from pent-up travel and demand. And the Easter celebrations can well testify to this! According to a report from Station 10 Tampa Bay, spring travel trends are expected to even surpass pre-pandemic trends. The expected phenomenon is due to more remote workers, giving parents and young adults the opportunity to travel this spring and summer. And we all know Florida is a real hot spot for that.
Numbers
In 2021, Florida welcomed approximately 122.3 million tourists, which is lower than the 2019 number of 131.069 million, but still up 54% from 2020. Of the 122.3 million travellers who visited the Sunshine State in 2021, 4.958 million of them were international tourists compared to 2.047 million in 2020, but down from the 9.801 million international tourists who visited the Status in 2019.
Canadian visitors
In 2021, only 580,000 Canadians visited Florida, compared to 1.358 million in 2020 and 4.988 million in 2019. If the predictions are good in terms of spring trends that should even exceed those before the pandemic, Florida will be filled with visitors from Canada who may come and eat their choco there or visit the Sunshine State in the summer!