Tourism in Florida rose 5.1 percent in the third quarter from a year ago, jibing with what was one of the best summers in Southwest Florida’s history. Visit Florida, the state’s tourism agency, said that preliminary estimates show 20.4 million travelers visited the Sunshine State from July to September. Florida also saw a boost in tourism-related jobs, with an increase of 5.4 percent, or 51,400 jobs, to just over 1 million positions. The biggest increase was in visitors form overseas. Visit Florida also said the state’s tourism industry appears to be recovering faster than the nation as a whole: hotel rooms sold in the state for the first nine months of the year are up 7 percent from a year ago, while the U.S. rate is up 5.3 percent.
