With
350 hotels and over 42,000 rooms – Miami is one of the largest hotel markets in
the nation. In addition to this, Tourism is the largest industry in the reason;
with over 12 million people visiting every year, where almost half of the
tourists arrive from outside of the country.
The
tourism industry earns the city of Miami over 17 billion USD and jobs in Miami for over 100,000 locals
within the food, entertainment and hotel industries. Just two years into the
great recession that hit the United States, the city of Miami was able to show
some extremely impressive numbers –
1. The Beaches of Miami were known
to host about 12.6 million overnight visitors.
2. Tourist expenditures amounted to
about 18.8 billion USD on shopping, transportation, accommodation and food.
3. The tourist related tax that year
amounted to 127 million USD.
All
these positive figures eventually boil down to one thing – More jobs in Miami.
With
Miami Jobs creation being one of the
top priorities of the local bodies, the tourism industry has been able to
provide a much needed boost to the employment market. With a systematic plan to
market the city as a preferred tourism spot, over 1.25 million Dollars were
spent on advertising the beaches of this city. This translated into tremendous
growth of jobs in the tourism sector as well as in the airline industry – with
new flights coming in from Amsterdam, Russia and Brazil.
Just
looking at the Brazilian Audience for example, with over 500,000 visitors
coming into Miami and spending over 1.1 billion USD here, the progress that
this industry is making has been a tremendous boon to Miami especially when the
rest of the country is still nurturing its wounds from the recession.
In
addition to this, with a range of popular events such as the Art Deco Weekend,
the Miami Fashion Week, South Beach Wine and Food Festival, and the Art Basel
Exhibition not only help boost tourism but also consequently help provide
employment to a range of skill sets across age demographics and skill sets.
Having
a lucky streak over the past few years, 2013 too, looks like a promising year
for employment in the tourism industry.