Here's the full story from Friday's Orlando Business Journal, just to avoid any more misinformation being spread here. The first three months of 2006 show a 0.1million 'fall' in tourist numbers from 2006 to 2005, but, as everyone knows, Easter was in April this year rather than March last year. That means the comparison year-on-year is slightly false, as last year's figures include the whole of Spring Break and the big Easter period, while this year's don't include the main Easter Period. The biggest drop in this period was shown by Floridians taking a break in their own state. Overseas visitation remains at the same levels as last year. In fact, Orlando Sanford Airport continues to grow its overseas business, and the figures there continue to rise. The Travel Industry Association of America is also reporting tourism figures as 'mainly flat' for 2006, which means no significant increase, but certainly no drop. So let's not have any more 'UK visitation to Florida is dropping' shock, horror stories, because they are simply a load of ill-informed codswallop.
Orlando Business Journal - May 26, 2006, by Bob Mervine, Staff Writer
Tourists continue to flock to Florida, but preliminary figures for the first three months of 2006 show a slight decrease when compared with the previous year, unlike increases noted each year since 2001.
The report, released Friday by Visit Florida, the state's public-private tourism entity, shows an estimated 23.2 million people came to the Sunshine State in the January-through-March period of this year, compared with 23.3 million last year.
A spokeswoman for the agency says the 100,000-person drop is statistically equivalent, because of methodology used to compile figures that are not yet final.
The numbers match unofficial, anecdotal information from tourism industry sources in Central Florida. The only significant reports of business improvement for the period came from Walt Disney World, which was previewing a major new attraction during that time.
While resort tax collections have been comparable or slightly better than last year, higher room rates -- resulting in higher tax amounts -- are the reason for the higher numbers and not more visitors.
While Canadian visitation increased 2 percent, the report says, the number of Florida residents taking a pleasure trip was down 4.7 percent.
Of Floridians who did vacation, those staying in-state decreased by 3.4 percent, representing a decrease of an estimated 368,000 in-state-person trips.
Out-of-state drive vacationers increased by .04 percent, and there was a slight decline in those traveling to Florida by air, 54.9 percent compared to 55.2 percent last year.
Research for the report, says Visit Florida, was collected at the state's 14 airports. Non-airline data comes from reports by TNS TravelsAmerica and D.K. Shifflet and Associates.
The state says final estimates will be released when completed data is received for all estimates in the report.
I am going in June and got a reasonable charter flight through my agent but even that was more than I have ever paid before.
- must be an industry wide thing.......... 
