The best industry to invest in Florida is the Tourism industry
Tourism is Florida’s number one industry. It generates revenue mainly from hotel stays and travel expenditures. The Sunshine State is well-known for being home of some of the richest people in the United States and one of the most common travel destinations in the world. If you want to make an investment in Florida, there are many opportunities for entrepreneurs and investors to cash in on a piece of the Florida tourism cake.
Each year, about 100 million tourists visit the Sunshine State to explore its natural beauty and enjoy its outstanding rides and attractions. The revenue collected by the state from the tourism industry helps keep tax rates low for full-time residents. This circle of mutual benefit allows the government to support the “Visit Florida” program, from which Hotel owners and investors can get very appealing business outcomes.
As a result of the commitment of both the government and investors, the tourism-related market in Florida creates more than 121,000 jobs every year, nearly half of which are not related to the tourism industry. In other words, returns on investment made in Florida can help the state’s marketing efforts to ensure a sustained future growth.
As a top-ranked financial advisor at Merrill Lynch’s Miami office, Patrick Dwyer presents in this article some of the tourism-related business where you or your company could invest in Florida:
1 . Online Travel Providers
There is no need for you to move to Florida, you can handle your travel agency from any place in the world, all you need is to have an internet connection and have access to an online trading platform.
Web sites such as Orbitz or Expedia have been very successful in pulling traffic to their websites to book flights and bid for cheap, last minute travel deals. These companies have seen their profits grow 20 points over the past five years.
2. Cruising
With a growth between 5.6 to 6.9% and more than 6 million embarking passengers per year, Florida is on top of the U.S. cruise industry, being home to some of the world’s largest cruise ship companies. This business presents itself as a wonderful investment opportunity since about 7 billion dollars are spent every year by passengers, crew and cruise lines in Florida.
3. Hospitality
With about 100 million tourists visiting the Sunshine State every year, the hospitality business is one of the most appealing for entrepreneurs and investors in Florida. It is by definition Florida’s number one business and it has been blooming for the past years after U.S. last economic crisis.
Even though the hotel industry is dominated worldwide by a couple of leading international players, in Florida you can find many medium size players with hotels rich in history, family owned neat establishments, among other options. This means that as an investor there is no reason for you to fear the loss of your money. You will for sure have to compete with the big and medium guys, but there is a big probability for you to succeed in such a diverse market.
4 . Resorts
Florida is renowned for its many miles of white sand beaches and crystal-clear waters. If you are interested in investing in the hospitality business, but you want to play all your cards in the process, Florida is also they place for such eccentricities and luxuries. You can start your own resort, combining hospitality with day and night entertainment. Investing in a place that specializes in massive accommodation will allow your company to offer other services derived from having a resort, like hosting conventions or any type of giant gathering.
Some business advantage from investing in a resort in Florida is that it can be rather appealing for tourist since you can find a nice spot on the shoreline and offer waterfront activities.
5. Amusement Parks
Florida is home to eight of the top 20 amusement parks in the United States and three out of the top 20 water parks in the world. Florida is well known for being a pioneer state in this industry, so if this is the area where you want to invest, you probably won’t need to advertise your park as much as you would if you were to invest somewhere else. Apparently it sounds like you would have tons of competitors- which may be truth to some extent- but if you really are good at what you do, customers are granted, because they are already there looking for fun, prove is that in 2014, an estimated 62 million people visited the Orlando area looking for amusement parks and rides.
To learn more about the different types of investments you can make in Florida, you can click here.
