The Zika virus is set to do more harm to Florida's economy than once thought. The Sunshine State is already hurting for money in order to quell the number of mosquitoes in the area, turning to the federal government for aid, and now, unsurprisingly, new numbers have shown that the state's tourism industry is set to take a big loss in the coming months.
According to recent analysis by travel insurance provider Allianz Global Assistance, the number of people planning to travel to the Florida during the fall and winter has dropped by nearly 15 percent. This, of course, was prompted after it was reported that the Zika virus was locally transmissible in the state and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a travel warning for people planning to travel to South Florida.
For the analysis, the agency reviewed more than 900,000 travel plans made by Americans during August 2016 for mid-November 2016 through mid-April 2017, then compared these to travel plans made within the same period in 2015.
The result? Booked flights to the state of Florida as a whole was down 14.9 percent. Specifically, it found that booked flights to Miami - which was hit the hardest by reported cases of Zika - was down 29.1 percent, Tampa was down 32.8 percent and Palm Beach was down 15.5 percent.
"The publicity surrounding the discovery of locally transmitted Zika virus cases in South Florida has had an immediate and dramatic impact on the intent of travelers to book vacations to Florida during the peak travel season," Daniel Durazo, director of communications at Allianz Global Assistance USA, said in a statement.
Unfortunately for Florida, things don't look like things will improve anytime soon. The CDC recently lifted the travel warning for the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami-Dade County, but still cautioned pregnant women about traveling to the city and surrounding areas.
What does this mean for the Sunshine State economically? Well, as one might expect, quite a bit. According to Visit Florida, the state's official tourism marketing corporation, in 2015 tourism resulted in $89.1 billion in spending, generating 23 percent of the state's sales tax revenues. A 15 percent drop isn't going to kill Florida, but the state will definitely feel its effects.
So where are tourists heading now that they're steering clear of Florida? Travel experts say they could be going to Arizona, Southern California, or headed up north to New England and Canada.
