In April 2026, tourism and recreation taxable sales totaled over $340 million in the Florida Keys.
A 7.2% decrease in cruise ship passengers was recorded between April 2025 and April 2026.
In April 2026, tourism and recreation taxable sales totaled over $340 million in the Florida Keys.
A 7.2% decrease in cruise ship passengers was recorded between April 2025 and April 2026.
MONROE COUNTY — The Florida Keys continue to be a premiere destination for travelers, according to the latest tourism data from Visit Florida Keys & Key West and the Key West Chamber of Commerce.
The latest available data that includes through April 2026 reveals areas of improvement and decline, but maintains a healthy tourism economy for the Keys so far this year.
Data gathered from various sources include hotel occupancies, cruise ship passenger counts and port calls, ferry passenger counts, airport passenger arrivals, bed tax data, labor force data and sales tax data.
Available cruise ship data from 2016 to April 2026 was sourced from Key West’s Port Operations Office.
While cruise ship passengers counts have had a gradual increase each month this year, April saw a 14% drop off, with March passenger counts totaling to 57,664 and April passenger counts of 49,409.
April’s passenger counts also decreased 7.2% from last year around this time, as April 2025 passenger counts totaled to 53,240.
Cruise ship port calls, which refers to the number of scheduled stops at the port, totaled 21 for April 2026, which is one more than last year. April had two fewer port calls than March, which had 23. Year-to-date port calls is 85, which is slightly less than it was last year at this time with 91.
While ferry passenger arrivals had a gradual increase from January to March of this year, April had a significant drop of about 41% from March. Comparing this data to previous years, it is a common trend for there to be a drop off from March to April, with March typically being the peak month for passenger arrivals.
April 2026 arrivals were down 12.6% from April 2025.
The year-to-date ferry passenger arrivals totals to 32,396, according to the data. This is about 6% less than than last year with a total of 34,489 by this time.
One of Monroe County’s strongest indicators for the health of the tourism economy has been Key West International Airport this year, which continues to renovate space and add flight services.
March numbers showed an all-time record for passenger arrivals with a total of 86,212 passengers. There was a decrease in April, which is a typical trend each year, and the airport had 76,485 passengers in total for the month.
April 2026 was still a record month, with the most passengers arriving in April ever. Passenger arrivals were up 6.7% from this time last year.
The Key West International Airport shared in a recent news release that their first quarter this year was the most successful first quarter in their history.
Occupancy rates reached 86.2% in April, which was 5.5% over last year, according to Visit Florida Keys & Key West. And the average daily rate was $419.72, which was up 4.4% compared to April last year. The data shows that despite the rate increases, visitors are still paying to stay here.
“After three years of softening, the Keys turned the corner in 2026. We are seeing real growth, and it is being driven by visitors who are willing to pay a premium to be here,” said Kara Franker, president and CEO of Visit Florida Keys & Key West.
Bed tax data revealed a gradual improvement for Key West.
Bed tax data is also sometimes referred to as “tourist tax” or “lodging tax.” It is a locally imposed fee to guests staying at short-term rental locations such as hotels, motels, Airbnbs and other lodging, which is then remitted back to fund tourism programs, infrastructure and other public services.
The data is sourced from the Monroe County Tax Collector’s Office.
The bed tax collected in March 2026 was about $3,752,680, which is 1.8% up from March 2025. It only slightly decreased by less than 1% from bed tax collected in February.
The report also broke down the March bed tax collections for each Monroe County Tourist Development district advisory committee. Key West’s DAC I had the most bed tax collected in March. This was then followed by DAC III in the Middle Keys, which collected $1,630,879; DAC V in Key Largo, which collected $1,360,420; DAC IV in the Islamorada to Long Key area, which collected $996,264; and DAC II in the Lower Keys, which collected $706,375.
Labor force data also showed another subtle improvement for Monroe County.
In Monroe County, the unemployment rate in March was 3.1%, which is a decrease from February with 3.5%. However, the unemployment rate was slightly higher in March 2026 than it was in March 2025 with the unemployment rate being 2.4%.
Monroe County’s labor force was about 50,075 in March, with 48,525 employed and 1,550 considered unemployed.
Monroe County sales tax data provides an idea, similarly to hotel data, of the willingness to spend, and 2026 data showed a mostly stable trend.
The data is sourced from the Florida Department of Revenue, Office of Research and Analysis.
In April 2026, tourism and recreation taxable sales totaled $340,160,684. This was up from March 2026 with $326,226,042, but was less than taxable sales from April 2025 with $359,001,139. However, January through March 2026 all had an increase from the same months in the previous year.
The year-to-date taxable sales up to April 2026 was about $1.26 billion, which was only slightly less than the year-to-date taxable sales last year around this time.
Total county sales for each month was on a gradual incline in 2026. Total county sales, which include retail and commercial sales, was $519,922,363 in April 2026. This was up from March with $419,281,432, but was down 5.3% from April 2025 with $548,913,760 in sales.
Year-to-date sales for April was about $1.9 billion, which was slightly down from year-to-date sales by April 2025.
Data shows that the “busy season” was a success in many ways, with airport arrivals up and hotel occupancies also increasing. Still, there are areas that also dipped such as cruise ship and ferry arrivals.
As the summer rolls around, the Keys approaches what’s typically known as its slower season. However, Visit Florida Keys & Key West said they are working to ensure visitors still have many reasons to arrive here.
“Slower season does not mean slowing down,” Franker said. “We built the Keys Season campaign and a calendar of America 250 events specifically to drive visitation through the summer and fall.”
The Keys Season campaign promotes savings and flexibility in accommodations and attractions during the slower months.
ashley.rodriguez@keysnews.com
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