TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Although Florida's beaches and
mega-attractions remain important for stimulating tourism, Visit
Florida officials continue to notice a trend toward "nature-based
activities and adventure travel," according to Frank Nocera, its
chief operating officer and executive vice president.
Visit Florida said its www.flausa.com Web site can be a resource for
special-interest itinerary planning.
It contains suggested itineraries that individuals can follow in
whole or in part, depending on their interest.
For example, a Multi-Cultural Heritage section was created that
contains in-depth information of interest to African-Americans,
Cuban-Americans and Native Americans and is coupled with a listing
statewide multicultural events.
Another Web service is the Nature, History and Culture section.
It enables visitors to create an individualized itinerary from
hundreds of outdoor, historical and cultural activities and events,
Nocera said.
"We've spent more than a year collecting this data, and our
intent is for it to be ever-expanding," Nocera noted.
The total of domestic, Canadian and overseas visitors to Florida
in 1999 was 59.5 million, up from 48.7 million in 1998.
However, in mid-1999 Visit Florida began using a different
method for estimating the domestic portion of the visitor
count.
Therefore, a year-by-year comparison is not necessarily
accurate.
An accurate comparison will be available when the 2000 visitors
are counted and contrasted with 1999's total.
According to Barry Pitegoff, research director, what is accurate
is the overseas portion of the total.
During 1999, Florida welcomed more than 6.1 million visitors
from overseas, an increase of about 1 percentage point compared
with 1998, based on preliminary figures supplied by the U.S.
Department of Commerce.