December 3, 2023
Travel & Tourism
MIA Facelift
FDR Miami Hotel, a partnership between Fontainebleau Development and Related Cos., is building a 451-room Westin Hotel near the Dolphin parking garage. Guests will be able to cross a pedestrian bridge to enter the airport's Concourse D. FDR will pay the county at least $2.58 million per year in a 50-year lease.
Read more »
Published on 10/23/2023
Open Season
For Paul Cross — a scalloping boat captain and the director of operations at the Plantation on Crystal River Resort — scallop season is like an Easter egg hunt, except he's swimming 6 feet under the surface of the Gulf of Mexico and looking for bay scallops instead of hardboiled eggs.
Read more »
Published on 8/21/2023
Out of the Blue
Steve Murawski, a University of South Florida professor, offers an illuminating data point: The economic value of commercial and recreational fishing in Florida is greater than aerospace, citrus and ranching combined.
Read more »
Published on 5/31/2023
MIA Taxis into the Lead
Miami International Airport set a record for passenger traffic in 2022, crossing the 50 million threshold for the first time and surpassing Orlando International's total.
Read more »
Published on 4/21/2023
Name Game
Broward's seaport is one of the three busiest cruise ship home ports in the world. It ranks among the nation's leading container ship ports and is South Florida's main seaport for gas, jet fuel and alternative fuels. Some 7,000 people work at companies that provide direct services at or to the port.
Read more »
Published on 4/20/2023
Breaking Bad
Spring break in Florida dates to 1936, when the Colgate University swimming team traveled from New York to practice in Fort Lauderdale's Casino Pool, the state's first Olympic-size pool. Other teams thought that was a good idea, too, and by 1938, more than 300 swimmers were training in Fort Lauderdale each spring. Word spread to more than just the swimmers, and by the 1950s more than 15,000 college students spent the break in Florida.
Read more »
Published on 4/18/2023
Grapefruit Dreams
In baseball, spring training is the most optimistic time of the year, when even the unlikely seems likely. It's when bad teams think they're good, and good teams think they're great. It's when fans, warmed by the Florida sun and drowsed by $8 beers, dream that this could be the year their team finally wins a championship.
Read more »
Published on 3/15/2023
The Florida Aquarium Sets Attendance Record
Nearly 925,000 guests visited the Aquarium in 2022
Read more »
Published on 1/10/2023
Cruises leaving from Florida are getting more crowded as bookings are twice as strong as last year
After nearly two years of pandemic restrictions on cruises, the industry is coming back as more travelers book trips with cruise lines.
According to AAA Travel, cruise bookings during the...
Read more »
Published on 3/30/2022
Infrastructure: Critical strategies Florida can implement as it grows
Florida is projected to gain 2.5 million new residents by 2030. Here's what that means for schools, roads, homes and other infrastructure needs
Read more »
Published on 3/8/2022
Florida's cruise industry prepares for what is shaping up to be a record-setting 2022
By all appearances, cruise lines won't have to do much to entice their traditional customers back on board as they resume sailing.
Read more »
Published on 7/30/2021
Key West residents clash with cruise industry, Legislature and governor over cruise restrictions
A month after Florida went on COVID-19 lockdown, Will Benson took his wife and two young children out on his skiff for a quarantine break.
Read more »
Published on 7/30/2021
Online travel search engine Kayak expands with its own tech-driven Miami Beach hotel
The 52-room Kayak Miami Beach, which recently opened in a 1934 Art Deco building, functions as a test lab and showcase for the company's new app-based hotel management system...
Read more »
Published on 6/29/2021
'Life's Rewards,' an eight-episode series on Amazon Prime, YouTube and GoUSA TV, films at Don CeSar Resort
'Life's Rewards' tells the story of a well-off New Yorker named Dan who loses his money but, thanks to hotel points he'd accumulated, finds refuge at the Don CeSar Resort in St. Pete Beach.
Read more »
Published on 6/29/2021
JaxPort's deepening project is already paying off
The project calls for deepening Jacksonville's shipping channel from the current 40-foot depth to 47 feet.
Read more »
Published on 4/28/2021
A project at Port Tampa Bay creates a habitat for birds
A busy port unavoidably creates environmental impacts — and it's Chris Cooley's job at Port Tampa Bay to minimize those impacts.
Read more »
Published on 4/28/2021
PortMiami is moving ahead with $280 million in projects
Amid uncertainty over when the cruise industry will rebound from COVID-19, work is underway on expanding and upgrading cruise facilities at PortMiami.
Read more »
Published on 4/28/2021
Laura Kelley of the Central Florida Expressway Authority talks expressway projects
When COVID-19 hit last year, the Central Florida Expressway Authority took advantage of the slower traffic...
Read more »
Published on 4/28/2021
Orlando's new south terminal blends high-tech systems with Florida ambience
Carl Langford, who was mayor of Orlando from 1967 to 1980 and was instrumental in securing the land where Orlando International Airport...
Read more »
Published on 4/28/2021
Transportation updates from around the state
Monroe County officials are moving forward with a planned upgrade of concourse A at Key West International Airport.
Read more »
Published on 4/28/2021
Ports in Pensacola and Panama City report robust business
Despite the economic and logistical challenges presented by the COVID-19 outbreak, Northwest Florida's two maritime ports continue to post solid growth in both revenue and cargo tonnage.
Read more »
Published on 4/28/2021
Miami Beach is getting new underwater art project: The ReefLine
The ReefLine, an underwater public sculpture park, snorkel trail and artificial reef about 900 feet offshore.
Read more »
Published on 1/27/2021
Orlando Welcomes Visitors with New, Enhanced Theme Parks & Attraction Safety Measures
Orlando's world-famous theme parks began welcoming visitors in reduced capacity while ensuring safety is at the forefront.
Read more »
Published on 6/17/2020
Global Tourism, Trade Drive Region's Riches
When regional train service Virgin Trains USA expands its route from South Florida to Orlando in 2022, it will be poised to elevate the region's already record-breaking international traffic.
Read more »
Published on 11/7/2019
Virgin Trains breaks ground on Orlando expansion
Virgin Trains broke ground today on the nation's largest privately funded infrastructure project to expand passenger rail service to Orlando.
Read more »
Published on 6/24/2019
Business Beat - Week of December 1st
