Hurricane Ian could cost Florida tourism USD8 billion

Florida could take a $70 billion hit in economic losses from Hurricane Ian.

One analyst predicts 10% could be wiped off the state’s annual tourism revenue.

Chuck Watson, of Enki Research, which calculates the costs of natural disasters, says tourism could lose $8 billion.

“There is the physical damage and the disruption from people cancelling travel plans,” he told CBS.

Luckily it’s not peak season.

“At least it is the off-season. They have time to rebuild and recover because you get more tourism around Thanksgiving and Christmas,” he said.

Hurricane Irma in 2017 cost Florida an estimated $50 billion.

The state’s citrus industry could be hardest hit while Ian looks to have caused billions of dollars in damages to homes and commercial real-estate.

“When we looked at how the economy was affected, you see a pattern of loss of jobs as businesses are shut down or suffered damage from storms,” said Sean Snaith, national economist and director of University of Central Florida’s Institute for Economic Forecasting.

source: Travel Mole