Numbers don’t lie, and they tell us that Fort Lauderdale is a great tourism destination – hosting well over 10 million visitors annually; this against the city’s native population of about only 180,000.

One of Fort Lauderdale’s greatest attractions is its pleasantly warm climate, making it one of the very few truly tropical destinations in North America. It gives American snowbirds the chance to enjoy tropical bliss without having to travel too far and incurring the consequent costs, especially during the winter months.

Then there is the superb tourism infrastructure. The city has invested heavily in its tourism infrastructure, boasting of hundreds of hotels for all tastes and budgets, well over 4000 restaurants, and over 120 nightclubs as of December 2007.

Another great attraction is its history and sights, it having played major roles in both the Second Seminole War and the World War II. The city is also aptly called the ‘Venice of America’ in reference to its intricate network of canals, which are rather fascinating. Fort Lauderdale is one of the few cities in the world with canal coverage extensive enough as to allow for a full city tour on boat. It also host’s USA’s second busiest cruise port (Everglades), and has over 42,000 yachts resident here.

The city’s general accessibility is also another attraction. Fort Lauderdale is connected to the rest of the USA by the Interstate I-95, I-75 and I-595, and to the world by the Fort Lauderdale International Airport, which is popular for hosting many budget carriers like JetBlue and Spirit Airlines, making Fort Lauderdale be increasingly recognized as a international gateway to Latin America and the Caribbean region.

Then there is also the older generation who visit Fort Lauderdale for sentimental reasons. As it were, the city used to be an immensely popular spring break heading for hundreds of thousands of University and college students in years gone by. Now many of these do regularly visit Fort Lauderdale to reminisce of their dynamic college days.

The city carries out a continuous aggressive marketing campaign, aimed at both international and domestic US tourists. It has been consistently working hard to shed it’s old tag of a college student spring break heading, instead aiming targeting more sophisticated (and loaded) tourists, and it has been quite successful at this, at least going by the figures.