Chris Joseph
Florida Is Breaking Tourism Records This Year
Chris Joseph | August 14, 2013 | 4:22pm
Florida might be the ass of everyone's jokes, what with our daily dose of crazy news, corrupt government officials, dumb gun laws, dumb marijuana laws, and the whole Zimmerman verdict and whatnot.
But we still kick major balls when it comes to people coming to visit our beautiful state, what with all the beaches, all the night life, all the palm trees and all the sexy.
Florida's tourism marketing agency announced that over 23 million tourists hit up the Sunshine State so far this year, which is now a second quarter record.
Compared to this time last year, that's a 2.6 percent rise.
Tourists are coming in droves, particularly from overseas, and have so far spent $33.2 billion while here -- a 5.5 percent rise from last year.
Officials say that domestic visitors are being outnumbered by foreign tourists, which also gave the state a record first quarter, up 4.2 percent from 2012.
Will Seccombe, the President and CEO of Visit Florida released a statement:
"Following up two consecutive record years with back to back record quarters so far in 2013 proves we are well-positioned to make Florida the No. 1 travel destination in the world."
Gov. Rick Scott chimed in and said Florida's tourism industry is "critical to Florida families as it serves as a vital source of revenue to the state and a key driver of employment."
So buck up, Florida.
While people are quick to crap all over our otherworldly bizarreness, they're still coming down and pumping their cash into our economy in droves.
Suck it, Ohio!
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