Florida beach cities 'ghost towns', local businesses down 30% this summer. Has the Sunshine State lost appeal forever? [View all]

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Florida beach cities ‘ghost towns’, local businesses down 30% this summer. Has the Sunshine State lost appeal forever?

Vishesh Raisinghani
Sun, August 17, 2025 at 3:00 PM EDT 5 min read


With over 825 miles of sandy beaches, Florida’s reputation as the perfect summer holiday destination has always been considered unshakeable. But this year, some business owners along the coast say the typical summer boom failed to materialize.

"Spring Break, really never happened for us, and then the summer swing, never happened for us," says Kirsten Smail, a marine educator for Dolphin Quest told ABC Action News. “It’s a ghost town,” confirmed Amber Simmons, General Manager at Pirates Pub & Grub. "It's the slowest year we've had since 2020."

Angela Wilson from Mad Beach Watersports told reporters business is down as much as 30% for some of her peers.

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A key factor dragging business for some Gulf Coast tourist destinations is the lack of foreign arrivals — particularly from Canada. Canadian visitors, long a lifeline for Florida’s Gulf Coast, are pulling back as diplomatic tensions rise and border crossings plunge. As the Trump administration ramps up its trade war and diplomatic spat, the so-called “snowbirds” from the north are changing their travel plans.

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As U.S. tourism becomes more domestic, it becomes more sensitive to the domestic economy. Unfortunately, the local economy continues to struggle with persistent inflation and the highest number of layoffs since the pandemic, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. ...................(more)

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/florida-beach-cities-ghost-towns-190000484.html