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Florida Hosted A Record Number Of Tourists In 2012

TALLAHASSEE (CBS4/AP) — A record number of tourists visited the Sunshine State last year.

Florida's tourism marketing corporation is reporting 89.3 million visitors came to the state in 2012.

Officials said Monday that the number of visitors in Florida last year represented an increase of 2.3 percent over 2011 when 87.3 million people visited.

VISIT FLORIDA — the state's quasi-public marketing arm — estimated in its annual report that 10.2 million overseas visitors and 3.6 million Canadians came to the Sunshine State in 2012. The firms said tourism- and recreation-related taxable sales increased 6.9 percent.

The agency reported the number of domestic visitors to Florida increased by 1.2 percent while more than 20 million Floridians took vacations inside the state's borders.

Tourism is one of Florida's most important economic drivers with more than 1 million people employed in a variety of industry-related jobs.

(TM and © Copyright 2013 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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