florida's communications overview visit florida pr cvbs and state apparatus
Visit Florida is the state's official tourism marketing corporation, a public-private partnership based in Tallahassee. It promotes a state that drew a record 143.3 million visitors in 2025, according to Visit Florida's preliminary estimates. Regional convention and visitors bureaus (CVBs) run local campaigns underneath it, and PR agencies win Visit Florida work through market-by-market requests for proposals (RFPs).
Growth has flattened. Visit Florida estimated about 39.9 million visitors for the first quarter of 2026, roughly 1% fewer than the same quarter a year earlier, WJHG reported. A PR team pitching Florida now sells against a flat visitor count, not a rising one.
Updated October 8, 2026. Part of EPR's State Communications series, with companions on Hawaii and California.
How many people visit Florida, and is that number still growing?
Florida welcomed 143.3 million visitors in 2025, up 0.2% from 2024, which Visit Florida counts as a record year. Four data points show where the curve sits now.
Domestic travelers made up 91.5% of 2025 visitors, or 131.1 million Americans. Overseas visitors were 6.5% and Canadians 2%, per the same Visit Florida estimates. The United Kingdom sent 1.2 million visitors in 2025, up 5.9%, according to Pax News.
Brazil is now Florida's second-largest overseas market, and Universal Epic Universe opened in Orlando in May 2025, with an expected $2 billion first-year economic impact, ClickOrlando reported.
Who funds Visit Florida, and how much?
Visit Florida is funded by the State of Florida and by private partners, according to the corporation's own 2024 Canada RFP. For fiscal year 2026-27, the House and Senate both set aside $80 million, the same level as the current year, Visit Florida CEO Bryan Griffin told the executive committee in May 2026, per WLRN and the News Service of Florida.
Visit Florida's agency RFPs ask contractors to help build cooperative advertising and promotions that support the corporation's required private match. An agency pitching Visit Florida should price its plan around partner revenue, not only earned media.
How do Florida's regional CVBs divide the marketing work?
Florida's regional CVBs market their own destinations under the Visit Florida statewide brand, so a pitch that works for Orlando rarely works for the Keys. The table shows what each region leads with.
Region
Anchor draws
Typical PR angle
Orlando and Central Florida
Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando, SeaWorld, conventions
Park openings, family travel, meetings business
Greater Miami
PortMiami cruises, South Beach, Art Basel Miami Beach
Luxury, cruise, Latin American cross-border travel
Tampa Bay
Busch Gardens, the Florida Aquarium, Gulf beaches, pro sports
How does Visit Florida hire PR and advertising agencies?
Visit Florida hires agencies through separate RFPs and reviews for each market and each job, not through one statewide contract. The record shows four different procurement tracks.
Scope
What the record shows
Source
Domestic PR agency of record
DKC Public Relations was named to oversee domestic communications, media and influencer relations
Each RFP expects the agency to work with Visit Florida's other agency partners and to speak for the corporation only when directed. Agencies that win do so on market-specific media lists, not on a generic Florida deck.
What communications risks do Florida tourism teams plan around?
Florida tourism teams plan around three recurring risks: hurricanes, state-level political fights and shifting international numbers.
Hurricanes. The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, a window the National Hurricane Center chose because it covers about 97% of Atlantic storms, Fox Weather reported. Florida tourism messaging plans cover half of every calendar year.
State-versus-employer disputes. In March 2024, Disney and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District settled the state-court lawsuits over development agreements signed with the former Reedy Creek district, per the Florida Phoenix. Disney's separate federal retaliation suit, which a federal judge had rejected, was a different case and went to appeal.
Revised numbers. Visit Florida first estimated 2.904 million Canadian visitors for 2025, then revised the figure to 3.174 million after an Ontario border kiosk undercount, according to WJHG. A preliminary figure that is later corrected can drive a week of negative headlines, so label every early estimate as preliminary and name the quarter.
Which PR agencies serve Florida's institutional clients?
Florida's state, regional and destination clients draw on agencies based in Tallahassee, South Florida and Tampa Bay. The table lists the firms EPR tracks in each tier.
5W AI Communications (5WPR) announced in July 2026 that it is relocating its headquarters to Florida, with offices at 100 SE 2nd Street in Miami and 110 South 12th Street in Tampa and 35 people in the state at the time of the announcement. EPR covered the move in 5W's Florida headquarters announcement, and 5W describes its Florida work on its Miami PR agency page.
A Florida tourism PR team should pitch by region, cite Visit Florida's quarterly estimates by name and build one media list per CVB market. A statewide pitch fits none of the six regions in the table above, and a flat first quarter means editors want a fresh angle, not a record-year recap.
Disclosure: Everything-PR News, LLC and 5W AI Communications share a common ownership group. Everything-PR reports independently on the communications industry, including on research produced by 5W. Editorial decisions are made by Everything-PR's editorial team.
Visit Florida is the state's official tourism marketing corporation, a public-private partnership headquartered in Tallahassee. It runs statewide campaigns, cooperative advertising with tourism businesses and international PR and travel trade programs, alongside Florida's regional CVBs.
How many tourists visited Florida in 2025?
Florida welcomed 143.3 million visitors in 2025, a record and 0.2% above 2024, according to Visit Florida's estimates announced by the Governor's office in February 2026. Domestic travelers made up 91.5% of the total.
How much money does Visit Florida receive from the state?
The House and Senate budgets for fiscal year 2026-27 each carried $80 million for Visit Florida, the same level as the prior year, according to CEO Bryan Griffin as reported by WLRN in May 2026.
How does Visit Florida hire PR agencies?
Visit Florida issues separate RFPs by market and function, including UK and Ireland and Canada PR, travel trade and sales contracts, and has named agencies of record for domestic PR and for advertising after reviews.
Is Florida tourism still growing?
Growth has slowed to a plateau. Calendar 2025 rose 0.2%, and Visit Florida's first-quarter 2026 estimate of about 39.9 million visitors was roughly 1% below the first quarter of 2025. Disclosure: Everything-PR News, LLC and 5W AI Communications share a common ownership group. Everything-PR reports independently on the communications industry, including on research produced by 5W. Editorial decisions are made by Everything-PR's editorial team.
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EPR Editorial Team
The Everything-PR Editorial Team is the staff byline for news, analysis and features on communications, reputation, AI visibility and digital discovery. Everything-PR has published since 2009. AI tools assist with research and drafting, and every article is reviewed by a human editor before publication. Coverage follows the Editorial Policy, and substantive corrections are noted on the article under the Corrections Policy.
