Record number of tourists heading to Florida

Florida keeps setting records on the number of tourists headed to the Sunshine State.

Gov. Rick Scott announced Wednesday that an estimated 65.5 million tourists came to Florida during the first six months of the year. That’s a 5.9 percent increase over the same time period in 2017.

State officials say that record increase was fueled by back-to-back record quarters during the first half of the year.

Most of those visiting Florida are coming from other states. The preliminary estimates report that 58 million people were domestic visitors, while 5.2 million came from overseas and 2.3 million came from Canada.

During his time as governor Scott has backed budget increases for Visit Florida, the state’s tourism marketing agency. But legislators have criticized the agency for some of its marketing contracts.