Florida's tourism industry is on pace for another record year.
Visit Florida, the state's public-private tourism agency, released a preliminary estimate this week showing the state had 21.9 million visitors in the third quarter of 2012.
That's a 3.5 per cent increase over the same four-month period last year.
Direct travel-related employment, though, increased only 1.5 per cent, adding 15,000 jobs in July through October.
Tourism and recreational sales totalled $49 billion in the third quarter, a 7.5 per cent increase from the same period in 2011. Hotel occupancy increased 1.7 per cent and average room rates increased 3.3 per cent.
