Destination analysis – Research Tourism Project

Florida: “The Sunshine State”

1 - INTRODUCTION

The state of Florida is a peninsula situated in the extreme south-east of the United States of America. It is part of the United States of America and is ranked 22nd state in size out of the 50 states. The peninsula is bordered by two states in the north: Alabama and Georgia. The Gulf of Mexico is situated on the western coastline and the Atlantic Ocean on the eastern one. The state has almost 2000km of coastline which makes it the state with the longest coastline in the US (apart from Alaska).
The “sunshine state has a population of approximately 18 millions of inhabitants and is ranked 4th in terms of size of population. There is a large Hispanic community living in Florida since one person out of five has a Spanish or Latino origin.
The largest city is Jacksonville (800,000 inhabitants), followed by Miami (400,000), then Tampa (300,000), St-Petersburg and Orlando (200,000). The largest part of the population lives in the southern part of Florida.
Tourism is the main economic resource of the state. The weather and the hundreds of kilometres of beaches attract approximately 60 million visitors to the state per year. Amusement parks make up the major part of tourism, Florida is considered as the world capital of amusement parks. Many beach towns are also popular tourist destinations, particularly in the winter months.

2 – TYPE OF TOURISM

Florida is one of the American states which economy is based upon the touristic activity. Once there, in addition to the image and idea that one has concerning the United States, especially Florida, tourists are looking for a new product, a product which makes them feel that they are really living a dream. The USA destination in general is always associated with lust and exoticism.
In Florida they are able to find it all. The reason is very simple: Florida offers a large range of diversified activities with