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This story was originally produced by WLRN, South Florida’s only public radio station at 91.3 FM, as part of a content sharing partnership with Miami’s Community News. Read more at WLRN.org.
American tourists are picking up the slack left by missing Canadian visitors to Florida. Yet, the Sunshine State’s tourism numbers would signal even more growth if tourists from north of the U.S. border were still coming as they have in similar years.
Total visits to Florida grew one-tenth of one percent through the third quarter of 2025, according to the latest data available from Visit Florida, the state’s tourism marketing agency. The slim increase represented 100,000 more visitors between January and September compared to a year earlier.
Enough travelers from other U.S. states — and from other foreign countries — were able to make up for the continued sharp decline in Canadians coming to Florida.
Florida attracts the bulk of its tourists from the 49 other states. More than 9 out of every 10 visitors to Florida live elsewhere in the U.S.
The most important foreign travelers have come from Canada, responsible for upwards of 3 million visitors a year. That is about a quarter to a third of all foreign visitors each year.
Canadian tourism was down almost 15% through the first nine months of last year. If a similar trend held for the fourth quarter, that would mean about a half million fewer Canadians came to Florida in 2025 compared to a year earlier. Such a decline would reduce Canadian tourism to its lowest level in three years, when the hospitality industry was booming thanks to a post-COVID-19 pandemic travel rush.
Few Florida destinations rely on Canadians more than South Florida, especially Broward County.
Canadian tourism took a dive in 2025 as trade tensions and political rhetoric from President Donald Trump and his administration crescendoed through the year.
While Florida-specific data is not available, the number of Canadians returning from overnight visits to America continued to plummet in September and October. There were 800,000 fewer Canadians crossing back over the border with the U.S. during those two months compared to a year earlier, according to data from Canada’s national statistics service.
It is not as though Canadians have lost their urge to travel internationally, though. The number of them returning to their home country from countries other than the U.S. increased over the same period.
Hotel occupancy was down 1.6% in November in Broward County. However, that was an improvement from the sharper drop in October. November marked the third straight monthly decline in revenue per available room, a key financial metric in the hospitality industry.
Visit Lauderdale, the county’s tourism development agency, said the declines “reflect the weakening economy and pressures on discretionary income spreading to the full spectrum of consumers.”
It did not single out the impact of the slowdown in Canadian tourism.
Hotels in the Keys continued reporting the highest average hotel room rates in the state at more than $300 in November.
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