By Brian French | Florida Authority Network | September 29, 2026
Quick Answer
Florida’s visitor counts have slipped slightly in 2026 after a record 2025. That makes spending per visitor, not headcount, the new growth lever, and experiences are where that spending is going. Curated tours, culinary travel, boutique hotels and small corporate retreats are growing faster than travel overall, and much of that market is still run by small local businesses.
The Twist: Fewer Visitors Is Exactly Why Experiences Matter Now
For a decade, Florida tourism measured success in one number: how many people came. That number just stopped climbing.
Florida welcomed a record 143.3 million visitors in 2025. But in 2026, the trend flattened. Visit Florida estimated 34.01 million visitors from April through June, down 0.7% from the same quarter a year earlier, and tourism fell 1.4% over the first half of 2026. It was the second straight quarterly decline.
The decline is small, and the state still sits well above its pre-pandemic peak. But the implication for Florida businesses is large. When the number of visitors stops growing, the only way to grow tourism revenue is to capture more of each visitor’s wallet. And the category travelers are most willing to spend more on is experiences.
Even the attractions industry acknowledges the disconnect. The Florida Attractions Association noted that overall visitation doesn’t always translate into attendance, and pointed to lower visitor spending and shorter stays as continuing challenges.
The Numbers Behind the Shift
Visitor volume is flat. Early estimates put first-quarter 2026 visitation at about 39.9 million, roughly 1% below the prior year. Domestic travelers made up about 92% of visits, and about 62% of them arrived by car rather than plane.
Canada is the soft spot. About 721,000 Canadians visited in the second quarter, down 4.2% year over year. Gulf Coast communities that depend on long-stay Canadian winter visitors feel that loss most.
Experiences are outgrowing travel. A 2026 report from Arival and Phocuswright found that experience bookings grew 17% in 2024 versus 6% for travel overall. Growth has since settled to about 7% between 2024 and 2025, but the report projects experiences will keep outpacing most other travel categories. Arival and Phocuswright value the global experiences market at $271 billion in 2025.
The market is still offline. Here’s the number that matters most to small operators: only 33% of tours, activities and attractions were booked online in 2025, versus 64% of travel overall.
The FAN Wallet Math: What Small Spending Gains Are Worth
Because visitor counts are flat, FAN modeled what modest increases in per-visitor experience spending would mean statewide, using 2025’s 143.3 million visitors as the base.
| Extra spend per visitor | Statewide impact |
|---|---|
| $10 | $1.4 billion |
| $25 | $3.6 billion |
| $50 | $7.2 billion |
FAN illustration: 143.3 million visitors × added spending. Not a forecast.
The point isn’t the exact figure. It’s the scale. A single added food tour, kayak trip or cooking class per visitor would dwarf the revenue lost to a 1% dip in visitation. That’s why the reinvention of Florida tourism is happening at the small-business level.
Mega-Attractions Are Now the Anchor, Not the Whole Trip
Florida’s theme parks aren’t going anywhere. Universal’s Epic Universe opened in Orlando on May 22, 2025, the first major new U.S. theme park in roughly two decades. Comcast attributed an 18.7% year-over-year revenue jump in its theme park division to Epic Universe’s first full quarter.
But the broader attendance picture is flat. Disney saw roughly a 1% dip in U.S. park attendance in fiscal 2025, even as resort occupancy rose about 1%.
Watch next month: The Themed Entertainment Association’s 2025 attendance report, expected in October 2026, will be the first to measure Epic Universe’s full impact on Orlando. If total Orlando park attendance grew less than the new capacity added, that’s further evidence that visitors are spreading their time and money beyond the gates.
The practical takeaway for local businesses: the parks bring visitors to Central Florida, but visitors increasingly build the rest of the trip themselves. That’s the opening for everyone else.
Culinary Tourism: Michelin Goes Statewide
Nothing captures Florida’s experience economy better than food. Culinary experiences, such as food tours and cooking classes, rank among the fastest-growing experience categories for U.S. travelers, according to Arival.
Florida’s restaurant scene just got a major credibility boost. In May, the Michelin Guide released its first selection covering the entire state, with inspectors traveling from the Panhandle to Key West. The guide recognized 200 Florida restaurants in total.
Regional highlights:
- Orlando now counts 61 Michelin-recognized restaurants, including six starred venues, 14 Bib Gourmands and 41 Recommended spots.
- Tampa Bay kept four starred restaurants (Ebbe, Kōsen, Koya and Rocca), and 11 other local restaurants earned new spots in the guide, including picks in Sarasota, St. Petersburg and Lakeland.
- South Florida added two new starred restaurants, Mutra in North Miami and Emelina in West Palm Beach.
- Sustainability: Tampa’s Fat Beet Farm Kitchen and Bakery earned a Michelin Green Star for sustainable gastronomy.
Why this matters beyond restaurants: Michelin recognition creates demand for food tours, chef-led classes, farm visits and culinary-themed stays. The small businesses that package those experiences (tour operators, farms, markets and specialty food producers) benefit alongside the restaurants themselves.
Boutique Lodging: Character Over Scale
Travelers seeking experiences also want lodging with a sense of place. Florida’s 2026 hotel pipeline shows developers leaning into design, history and local identity.
Gulf Coast: The Luce, a 200-room Tribute Portfolio hotel in St. Pete Beach, joined Marriott’s collection of independent, character-driven hotels this year. It opened in June 2026 on the former Postcard Inn site across 9 beachfront acres.
Tampa’s historic reuse wave: Tampa’s boutique pipeline is built around its past. A century-old West Tampa cigar factory is being converted into The James Hotel, a roughly 70-room design-driven boutique hotel. In Ybor City, The Inn at El Reloj is restoring the 1910 Sanchez y Haya building into an 11-room inn targeted for late 2026.
Luxury: Pendry is making its Florida debut in Tampa, pairing a five-star hotel with a 38-story condo tower, with an opening listed for late 2026.
The small-business angle: Boutique hotels rarely offer everything in-house. They rely on local partners for tours, transportation, private dining, spa services, charters and event production. Each new boutique property expands the market for local experience providers.
Corporate Retreats: The Destination Becomes the Reward
The corporate side of experiential travel is shifting toward smaller, more curated gatherings. Meeting planners now treat the destination itself as part of the incentive. In a September 2026 Florida report, one planner explained that for incentive travel, the destination itself becomes part of the reward, and noted that many corporate clients see Florida as an alternative to international incentive destinations.
Where groups are going: Planners report that more corporate groups are looking beyond Miami for Florida incentive trips, with Sarasota emerging as a Gulf Coast alternative. Mid-size resorts matter here. On Clearwater Beach, Opal Sands Resort & Spa and Sandpearl Resort remain popular for executive meetings and incentive groups wanting a walkable beach setting.
What groups want: Culture-building retreats increasingly call for shared experiences such as on-the-water activities, culinary events and wellness programming, rather than ballroom time.
Where small businesses fit: A 40-person executive retreat needs a charter captain, a private chef, a team-building facilitator, a wellness instructor, a photographer and ground transportation. Few resorts provide all of that. Local specialists who can deliver for groups, reliably and with proper insurance, can build a steady B2B revenue stream.
The Small Businesses Positioned to Win
Based on the trends above, these small-business categories have the strongest tailwinds in Florida right now:
- Food tours and cooking classes, especially in Michelin-recognized neighborhoods in Miami, Orlando, Tampa and St. Petersburg.
- Eco and water experiences, including kayak and paddleboard tours, springs trips, sailing charters and wildlife excursions.
- Heritage and cultural tours, such as Ybor City cigar history, Cuban and Caribbean culinary heritage and historic district walks.
- Wellness experiences, including yoga retreats, spa collaborations and outdoor fitness programs that hotels can bundle.
- Group-experience specialists for corporate retreats and incentives, including private chefs, event producers and team-building operators.
- Boutique and independent lodging, from small inns to converted historic buildings.
How Small Operators Can Capture More of the Wallet
1. Get bookable online. With only a third of experiences booked online, a simple real-time booking system is a real competitive advantage. Operators who require phone calls lose travelers who plan on their phones.
2. Partner with lodging. Boutique hotels and vacation-rental managers want curated local experiences for their guests. A referral or commission arrangement can fill slower days.
3. Build a group product. Create a version of your experience for 15 to 50 people, with clear pricing, insurance documentation and a planner-ready one-page sheet.
4. Target the drive market. With most domestic visitors arriving by car, regional travelers from Georgia, the Carolinas and within Florida are a large, repeatable audience for weekend experiences.
5. Plan for the Canadian gap. Gulf Coast operators who relied on long-stay Canadian winter visitors should diversify toward domestic retirees, drive-market families and corporate groups before peak season.
Brian’s Take
In my money-management days, I learned to watch the moment a growth story shifts from volume to margin. That’s what’s happening to Florida tourism in 2026. Visitor counts are flat, and the state’s tourism economy now has to grow the way mature businesses do: by selling more to the customers it already has.
That’s good news for small operators. The theme parks own the gate, but nobody owns the afternoon after the park, the dinner reservation, the sunset sail or the executive team’s day on the water. Those purchases happen locally, often from businesses with fewer than 20 employees.
The operators who win will be the ones travelers can find and book easily. When two-thirds of experiences are still booked offline, simply being discoverable and bookable puts a small business ahead of most of its competitors. I’d also watch the TEA attendance report next month closely. If Orlando’s park attendance didn’t grow as much as Epic Universe’s new capacity, it confirms that visitors are spreading their time around, and the experience economy is where it’s landing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Florida tourism growing in 2026?
Not in visitor count. Florida saw a 0.7% decline in the second quarter and a 1.4% decline for the first half of 2026, after a record 143.3 million visitors in 2025.
What is experiential travel?
Travel built around activities and local immersion, such as food tours, cooking classes, eco-tours, cultural experiences, wellness retreats and boutique stays, rather than sightseeing alone.
Are tours and activities growing faster than travel overall?
Yes. Experience bookings grew 17% in 2024 versus 6% for travel overall, and the category is projected to keep outpacing most travel segments.
How many Florida restaurants are in the Michelin Guide?
The 2026 statewide guide recognized 200 Florida restaurants, including 26 with Michelin stars.
What percentage of tours and activities are booked online?
About 33% in 2025, compared with 64% of travel bookings overall.
Why are fewer Canadians visiting Florida?
Canadian visitation fell 4.2% in the second quarter of 2026. Reporting has linked the decline to inflation and backlash over U.S. trade policy.
Where are corporate groups holding retreats in Florida?
Beyond Miami, planners report growing interest in Sarasota and the Gulf Coast, along with mid-size beach resorts in Clearwater Beach and destinations throughout Central Florida.
Sources and Further Reading
- FOX 35 Orlando, “Florida tourism dips again as Canadian visitors decline sharply”: https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/florida-tourism-dips-again-canadian-visitors-decline-sharply
- WJHG, “Florida sets new tourism record in 2025; early 2026 visits hold steady”: https://www.wjhg.com/2026/05/26/florida-sets-new-tourism-record-2025-early-2026-visits-hold-steady/
- News Service of Florida via MyPanhandle, “Florida Tourism Drops in Second Quarter”: https://www.mypanhandle.com/news/florida/florida-news/florida-tourism-drops-in-second-quarter/
- Florida Attractions Association, “Yes, but… Florida Breaks Its Own Record Again”: https://floridaattractions.org/FAA-News/13533713
- Phocuswright, “Tours and activities are outgrowing travel overall. Distribution hasn’t caught up.”: https://www.phocuswright.com/Travel-Research/Research-Updates/2026/tours-and-activities-are-outgrowing-travel-overall
- Arival, “4 Findings for the Experiences Market in 2026”: https://arival.travel/article/4-findings-for-experiences-market-2026/
- Arival, “Travel Experiences 2026: Market Sizing, Operator and Consumer Behavior Highlights”: https://arival.travel/research/travel-experiences-2026-market-highlights-report/
- WorldAtlas, “Most Popular Theme Parks By Attendance”: https://www.worldatlas.com/places/most-popular-theme-parks-by-attendance.html
- FOX 13 Tampa Bay, “Florida MICHELIN Guide 2026: Tampa restaurant wins Green Star”: https://www.fox13news.com/news/florida-michelin-guide-2026-tampa-restaurant-wins-green-star
- Visit Orlando, “Orlando Restaurants Shine in 2026 MICHELIN Guide Florida”: https://www.visitorlando.org/about/corporate-blog/post/orlando-restaurants-shine-in-2026-michelin-guide-florida/
- WTSP, “Four Tampa Michelin Star restaurants maintain their status, 11 others earn new spots in the guide”: https://www.wtsp.com/article/life/food/tampa-michelin-star-restaurants-florida-new-2026/67-f8b84494-aac8-449f-85ad-a3d0281a9a86
- Resy, “The Resy Guide to the 2026 Michelin Winners in Miami”: https://blog.resy.com/2026/05/michelin-miami/
- Wikipedia, “List of Michelin-starred restaurants in Florida”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Michelin-starred_restaurants_in_Florida
- Travel Daily News, “The Luce to open early 2026 under Marriott’s Tribute Portfolio”: https://www.traveldailynews.com/hotels-lodging/the-luce-st-pete-beachs-newest-coastal-lifestyle-retreat-to-open-early-2026-under-marriotts-tribute-portfolio/
- Stay In The New, “New Hotels in Florida 2026”: https://www.stayinthenew.com/new-hotels-in-florida-2026
- NewHotels.io, “New hotels in Tampa”: https://www.newhotels.io/destinations/united-states/tampa
- The Meeting Magazines, “Florida: Raises the Bar for Meetings & Incentives”: https://www.themeetingmagazines.com/cit/florida-2026-09/
- Events of a Lifetime Productions, “Where to Host a Luxury Corporate Retreat in Florida”: https://www.eventsofalifetimeproductions.com/blog/where-to-host-a-luxury-corporate-retreat-in-florida
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