Florida- The Sunshine State

Introduction

Florida was occupied for thousands of years by the indigenous Native Americans before the Europeans first arrived in 1513, starting settlements later in the 16th century. It was put under English control in 1763, but was regained by Spain 20 years later; it finally ceded to the United States in 1819 and gained statehood in 1845. The 2008 population estimate stood at 18,300,000. The state's birth rate is 13.1 and the fertility rate is 2.09 children per woman, only very slightly lower than the rate for the entire country, and significantly lowers than many others nearby states (Green, Elma, 2007).

Discussion

Florida - A Place to go

After having to squeeze more dollars out of the same number of visitors for most of the 1990s, the state's tourism industry has finally begun to see an upswing in the head count. "We had 43 million visitors in 1996 and hope to have 43.5 (million) or more this year," says Austin Mott, president and CEO of the Florida Tourism Industry Marketing Corporation, now called Visit Florida. More good news: The 1% increase in visitors during 1997 will be followed by a 4.1% increase in 1998 and 3.5% in 1999, according to the Florida Legislative Consensus Estimating Conference, an industry group (Gray, 2003).

Also helping, experts say, has been growth at the state's airports. For example, a $1 billion expansion at Orlando International has helped offer tourists easy access to the area. In addition, hotels in both Tampa and Orlando have average room rates that are considerably below the national average of $106 a night, keeping a trip to Florida affordable. Tampa averages $77 a night, while in Orlando, the average nightly rate is only $40.75, according to Mark Bonn, a

But Mott and others concede that "the number one reason more people are coming to Florida is the economy, which is good worldwide." According to Allan Bense, chairman of Bay County's Tourist Development Council: When the economy's good and Americans have stable jobs, they feel comfortable taking vacations(Weekly News, 2010)

With the number of visitors now increasing, the issue will shift in 1998 to whether the state is building too many hotel rooms for those who come. Orlando economist Henry Fishkind sees warning signals in the traditionally boom-and-bust business. There are clear signs of speculative excess in hotel building, We have this phenomenon, once again, of money chasing deals, particularly in the REIT financing of hotels and apartments (Larmondin, 1997).

Tom Waits, president and CEO of the Florida Hotel and Motel Association, disputes Fishkind's analysis, saying it's too soon to tell. "We do have a lot of hotels opening, but building just really started up again 18 months to two years ago. It's too soon to tell now, but by the end of the year we should have a better idea of how much of an increase there will be."

Whether future visitors will continue to spend as much as the current tourists is also a question mark. But Waits and other say ...