Writer: Gabriela Enamorado
2 min read November 2022 — Visitors continued to favor Florida for their getaways in the third quarter of 2022, boosting overall tourism in the state, with the Greater Fort Lauderdale region among the popular destinations, according to newly released figures by Visit Florida, although international arrivals remained below pre-pandemic numbers.
The state attracted 35.1 million total in-person visits during the third quarter of 2022, a year-on-year increase of 6.9% and the highest third-quarter visitation rate on record for the state. Most of these consisted of domestic visitors, who made up 93% of total visitation.
Domestic enplanements were up by 2.4% in 3Q22, with total enplanements to Fort Lauderdale at 3,762,165, a 2% increase from 2021.
Among international visitors to the state, those from overseas accounted for 5.5% with Canadians making up 1.5%, according to Visit Florida. While both figures remained below pre-pandemic levels, they represented substantial increases from 2021 — 85.5% and 442.2%, respectively — when international air travel remained banned due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite the slight increase in overall enplanements to Fort Lauderdale, domestic enplanements to the region experienced a decrease of 6.8%, at 2,876,909 compared to 2021’s 3,085,251.
While Greater Fort Lauderdale remains a popular tourist destination in line with Florida’s overall growth throughout the past three years, the “Hot Lauderdale” increase of 2021 has softened back to more traditional numbers for the area, according to a report by Visit Lauderdale. In 2021, as most of the country was still experiencing COVID-19-related restrictions, Broward County, as well as the rest of Florida, was an appealing destination due to the state’s softer stance on pandemic restrictions, which allowed the regional hospitality sector to show tremendous recovery.
Ahead of the holiday season, hotel occupancy in Broward County in October was at 71.8%, a 12.9% increase from the same time last year, according to a Visit Lauderdale Hospitality report. Hotel occupancy across the state was up by 10.3% compared to last year, according to the report by Visit Florida. That same report stated that hotel demand was up by 9.2 in Q3%.
Greater Fort Lauderdale area hotels have continued to see higher revenue as daily hotel rates have gone up, Stacy Ritter, president and CEO of Visit Lauderdale, told Invest: earlier in the year. “We’re collecting more tourist development tax dollars than we were in previous years because the daily hotel rates have gone up. It has been extraordinary. We expect this calendar year to be very strong and also 2022, especially as business travel starts to come back.”
The rise in tourism has a knock-on effect for related businesses in the area, with restaurants experiencing more traffic. Restaurant dining room volumes, measuring guests by walk-ins, online reservations and phone reservations, experienced a significant spike in September 2022, rising to 227,000 restaurant goers, according to Visit Lauderdale.
Cruise passenger numbers at Port Everglades have also had a significant spike, given that cruise travel has ramped up since the pandemic shutdowns. Fort Lauderdale cruise passenger numbers were as high as 266,299 in March 2022. In March 2021, total cruise passenger figures fell as low as 2,788 amid the pandemic. The total number of cruise passengers for 2022 so far is estimated to be around 1.3 million passengers, a 1,023% increase from the previous year, according to the Visit Lauderdale report.
The Greater Fort Lauderdale tourism and hospitality sector is going strong and is predicted to continue to move forward steadily throughout the remainder of the year and going into 2023, according to the Visit Lauderdale report.
