Jacksonville’s tourism industry welcomes visitors following Hurricane Irma

The resilience of Jacksonville’s residents and the quick actions of City leaders and emergency workers has helped the destination with a speedy recovery following Hurricane Irma. With flood waters receding, and most of the damage contained to riverfront residential areas, virtually all of Jacksonville’s tourism infrastructure is open and ready to welcome visitors back.

“We are fortunate that despite some riverfront areas in our historic neighborhoods flooding as a result of the storm, our beaches, hotels, park system, and attractions had very minor issues related to Irma and are back to normal,” said Paul Astleford, President and CEO, Visit Jacksonville. “We feel for the other areas which were hard hit and hope that they can recover as quickly as possible.”

In the aftermath of the storm, unprecedented resources are being put towards restoring the areas impacted. Only one of Jacksonville’s 160 hotels suffered any damage due to flooding with repairs expected to last two weeks and several water-damaged businesses are already working hard at rebuilding.

In Jacksonville’s beach communities and national parks, visitors are once again enjoying recreational watersports and taking advantage of our ‘sun, sea and sand’ activities. Our museums are open, and all special events are still on the calendar. Boutique shops, restaurants and coffee houses are busy and looking forward to hosting even more visitors as the summer season wraps up.

From the Beaches, to Downtown, from Riverside to San Marco, our tourism businesses across the city are open and waiting for visitors to book their next getaway to Jax!