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The Sunshine Economy

The Sunshine Economy: The Tourism Trade

The tourism business is booming in South Florida.

The Sunshine State could welcome close to 100 million visitors this year.  They come from all over: the Northeast, the Midwest, Latin America, Europe, Russia and, increasingly, Asia. These visitors directly support hundreds of thousands of jobs and pump billions of dollars into the regional economy. 

The Sunshine Economy has explored the hotel business, the restaurant industry and customer service featuring voices from leaders in the hospitality industry. They are universally optimistic about South Florida's allure. That makes sense, given they make their livelihoods playing host to tourists and residents alike.

But their optimism is reflected in most of the data.

 
MORE VISITORS ARE VISITING

LEADING TO MORE HOTELS

LEADING TO MORE JOBS

BUT NOT LEADING TO HIGHER WAGES

This last chart deserves a little decoding, so here's how to read it:

If the blue bar is taller than the red bar, wages went down in Fort Lauderdale. If the blue bar is shorter than the red bar, wages went up in Fort Lauderdale. For Miami, if the yellow bar is taller than the green bar, wages went down. For Miami, if the yellow bar is shorter than the green bar, wages went up.

We looked at median wages in the Fort Lauderdale-Miami area in 2003 and 2013 for seven occupations in the hospitality industry.

The data comes from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. Then we used the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator to translate the 2003 wages into 2013 dollars, so we could compare median wages across the decade controlling for inflation.

The data show the world increasingly wants to come to South Florida, and South Florida is busy accommodating those guests. While that demand and those accommodations bring new opportunities, they don't necessarily lead to rising incomes for all those providing the service.

Tom Hudson is WLRN's Senior Economics Editor and Special Correspondent.