{"id":1300596,"date":"2022-02-15T17:52:39","date_gmt":"2022-02-15T22:52:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1300596"},"modified":"2022-02-15T17:52:45","modified_gmt":"2022-02-15T22:52:45","slug":"free-state-of-florida-sunshine-state-sees-highest-level-of-domestic-visitation-in-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/free-state-of-florida-sunshine-state-sees-highest-level-of-domestic-visitation-in-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Free State of Florida: Sunshine State Sees Highest Level of Domestic Visitation in History"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffree-state-of-florida-sunshine-state-sees-highest-level-of-domestic-visitation-in-history%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1300596&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">Florida saw the highest level of domestic visitation to the state ever in 2021, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced on Tuesday. The news serves as a massive statement as Florida forged the way for others to follow in opening their states and allowing people to exercise their choice throughout the pandemic, unlike blue states, which continued to implement lockdowns, restrictions, and heavy-handed vaccine and mask mandates.<\/p>\n<p>Florida saw 117.7 million domestic visitors in 2021 \u2014 the same year that far-left officials, leaders, and commentators continued to criticize the governor\u2019s approach to the pandemic as he prioritized liberty over mandates and rules.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>According to the governor\u2019s office, tourism in the state in both Q3 and Q4 last year exceeded the same quarter in 2019, prior to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic. In Q4 alone, Florida saw 30.9 million visitors\u2013 &nbsp;seven percent higher than 2019\u2019s levels. As a result of this historic influx of visitors, hotel revenues reached their highest record ever in 2021, garnering $17.3 billion:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_19895218\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/FL.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19895218\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/FL.jpg\" alt=\"FL tourism screenshot, courtesy of DeSantis office\u2019\" width=\"612\" height=\"792\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Courtesy of Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 office.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>All of these figures confirm what the governor has been saying for months: People are flocking to Florida because it is a free state. Even pro-restriction Democrats have been spotted in the Sunshine State in recent months, escaping extended lockdowns as well as mask and vaccine restrictions throughout the pandemic, despite offering constant criticism of the state. Past Sunshine State vacationers include <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2021\/12\/31\/aoc-relaxing-in-miami-beach-as-omicron-surges-in-new-york\/\">Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/johncardillo\/status\/1397303106610868224?s=20&amp;t=znNTmCtVcRo0GZFB72GJ4w\">Philadelphia Mayor&nbsp;Jim Kenney (D)<\/a>, &nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2021\/04\/19\/gretchen-whitmer-traveled-florida-month-ago-calling-residents-not\/\">Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D)<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/capitolwatch\/status\/1476986856311033862?s=20&amp;t=znNTmCtVcRo0GZFB72GJ4w\">Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D)<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2022\/01\/05\/pro-mandate-rep-eric-swalwell-spotted-maskless-in-florida\/\">Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA),<\/a>&nbsp;and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2022\/01\/17\/desantis-team-trolls-democrats-escape-to-florida-merch\/\">CNN\u2019s Don Lemon<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>DeSantis\u2019 team has called attention to this trend in recent months, highlighting the blatant hypocrisy of leftists who continue to criticize the state yet shamelessly flock there for refuge:<\/p>\n[embedded content]\n<p>The figures, however, do not come as a shock to conservative supporters of the popular Florida governor as thousands have made a permanent move to the state over the past two years in the light of the pandemic. History was made in November&nbsp;as Republicans <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2021\/11\/21\/exclusive-theres-too-much-at-stake-florida-gop-vice-chairman-says-republicans-are-going-back-to-work-after-overtaking-democrats\/\">overtook<\/a> Democrats in registered voters in the state.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe lockdowns turned them into Republicans because they say \u2018I cannot fathom,\u2019 people say, \u2018I was a Democrat because of education, and I\u2019m in California and they\u2019re locking my kids out of school. I come to Florida, they [are] in school, people are free, people are happy.\u2019 So I think this whole process has caused some people to reevaluate some of their prior commitments,\u201d DeSantis <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2021\/05\/27\/gov-desantis-overwhelming-number-of-people-moving-to-florida-registering-as-republican\/\">said<\/a> in May 2021.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd if you have a political party that puts the interests of teachers\u2019 unions over the interests of kids being able to just access an education at all, that tells you all you need to know about the modern Democrat party,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, Americans have pointed to a variety of reasons for flocking to Florida, including the governor\u2019s commitment to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/law-and-order\/2022\/01\/24\/florida-sheriff-thousands-are-fleeing-blue-states-and-moving-to-florida-because-it-is-more-safe\/\">law and order<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2021\/12\/22\/americans-explain-why-theyre-flocking-to-florida-ron-desantis-is-a-law-and-order-governor\/\">personal freedom<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFlorida has become the escape hatch for those chafing under authoritarian, arbitrary and seemingly never-ending mandates and restrictions,\u201d DeSantis <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2022\/01\/11\/gov-desantis-delivers-state-of-state-florida-americas-liberty-outpost\/\">said<\/a> during January\u2019s State of the State address, identifying Florida as \u201cAmerica\u2019s liberty outpost.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Florida saw the highest level of domestic visitation to the state ever in 2021, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced on Tuesday. The news serves as a massive statement as Florida &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1300596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1300596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1300596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1300596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1300596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1300596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1300596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}