60.7 million tourists came to Florida during first six months of 2017

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The number of tourists visiting Florida continues to grow.

Gov. Rick Scott will announce Tuesday that an estimated 60.7 million tourists came to the state during the first six months of the year. That’s a 4.1 percent increase over the same time period in 2016.

Scott plans to highlight the new numbers during a visit to the Florida Aquarium.

A breakdown shows that the increase is due primarily to a growing number of visitors coming from other states. But the number of tourists coming from overseas countries and Canada has dipped slightly.

Scott has backed budget increases for Visit Florida, the state’s tourism marketing agency. Earlier this year GOP legislators had threatened to cut funding by two-thirds but reached a deal with Scott to keep the agency budget intact.

Peter Schorsch is the President of Extensive Enterprises and is the publisher of some of Florida’s most influential new media websites, including SaintPetersBlog.com, FloridaPolitics.com, ContextFlorida.com, and Sunburn, the morning read of what’s hot in Florida politics. SaintPetersBlog has for three years running been ranked by the Washington Post as the best state-based blog in Florida. In addition to his publishing efforts, Peter is a political consultant to several of the state’s largest governmental affairs and public relations firms. Peter lives in St. Petersburg with his wife, Michelle, and their daughter, Ella.