9 hours ago
NASA's milestone Artemis II launch to the moon from Kennedy Space Center may draw 400,000 visitors to Florida's Space Coast — generating $160 million in Brevard County economic impact, a national consulting firm projects.
“Most folks are going to spend a few days in town. They’re going to spend money in restaurants, hotels, bars. All of that drives economic impact, and it all creates new tax revenue," said John Boyd, principal with The Boyd Company Inc. of Boca Raton.
"It creates more revenue for the hotel taxes. You have short-term ramp-ups in staffing for restaurants and different types of events,” Boyd said.
Artemis II: NASA's mega-crawler to move Artemis II moon rocket to launch pad in Florida
Designed as a 10-day lunar flyby mission, Artemis II represents America's first crewed return to the moon since Apollo 17 in December 1972. On Wednesday, March 18, the four crew members — NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen — entered pre-launch quarantine at Johnson Space Center in Houston.
NASA continues working toward a possible launch as early as 6:24 p.m. April 1 — near the tail end of Brevard County's bustling spring-break tourist season — but no target date has been announced yet. The mega-sized Crawler-Transporter 2 rolled the colossal Space Launch System Rocket and Orion spacecraft to pad 39B on Friday, March 20, as prep work continues.
About a dozen Brevard County hotels reported they sold out — or were just a few rooms shy — during NASA's previous February launch window, said Space Coast Office of Tourism spokesperson Meagan Happel. Now, 14 hotels in Titusville, Cape Canaveral, Cocoa Beach and Viera are fully booked for the upcoming April window.
Artemis II launch to boost restaurants, retail
A breakdown of The Boyd Company Inc. estimates totaling $160 million in Artemis II Brevard launch-tourism impact:
Hotels: $48 million.
Restaurants and bars: $32 million.
Retail sales: $19.2 million.
Entertainment and attractions: $16 million.
Event operations and staffing: $16 million.
Local transportation (rideshare, taxis, rental cars, parking): $12.8 million.
Indirect/induced impact (supplier spending, wages re-spent locally): $8 million.
Local and state tax revenues: $8 million
Boyd said these tourism estimates were calculated in line with similar projections from major sporting events. However, he said NASA's history and global standing will also add “enormous, almost incalculable location-branding value” to Florida's Space Coast.
He said Orlando will also pick up positive economic impacts as well, with some visitors flying in there and dovetailing trips to attractions like Walt Disney World Resort and Universal Studios. But those figures are not included in the $160 million Brevard estimate.
As a backdrop, Visit Florida preliminary estimates show a record-breaking 143.3 million people traveled to Florida last year. An estimated 33.5 million visitors traveled to the state from October through December, marking the highest fourth-quarter visitation on record.
Space Coast Chamber President and CEO Anne Conroy-Baiter cited the Artemis II statistics during a Feb. 24 Connect Everyone Coalition space-innovation webinar.
"We're anticipating about 400,000 visitors coming into the Space Coast to check that out. And that is a $160 million economic impact for one launch," Conroy-Baiter said.
"And we’re talking Starship’s going to be coming in 2026: 500,000 people anticipated coming into the Space Coast. So that affects every business on the Space Coast — from the mom-and-pops up to the SpaceX's — with great spillover," she said.
SpaceX Demo-2 drew 220,000 people in 2020
This May 2020 traffic-cam photo shows bumper-to-bumper traffic on State Road 528 after a scrubbed launch attempt of NASA's SpaceX Demo-2 mission at Kennedy Space Center.
For comparison's sake, the Space Coast Office of Tourism estimated 220,000 people visited for NASA's SpaceX Demo-2 launch in May 2020. That historic liftoff — which occurred on a Saturday afternoon — propelled NASA astronauts to the International Space Station from American soil for the first time since the shuttle program concluded in 2011.
In November 2022, NASA's uncrewed Artemis I launch from KSC drew an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 visitors, various sources cite. Conversely, that rocket lifted off at 1:47 a.m. on a Wednesday.
Boyd said weekend rocket launches tend to boost turnout by 50% or more, while attendance drops significantly on weekdays. As part of a regional tourism trend, he said Brevard benefits via geographic proximity to high-growth, major population clusters like Central Florida, Gulf Coast cities like Tampa-St. Petersburg, and South Florida.
Boyd noted Hansen is slated to become the first Canadian to travel to the moon. Boyd said this may attract additional Canadian launch spectators amid political tensions between the neighboring nations.
Visit Florida records show 3.2 million Canadians traveled to the Sunshine State in 2023. That total increased to 3.3 million visitors in 2024 — then fell to 2.9 million last year as President Donald Trump ratcheted up tariffs and trade-related threats.
Hansen and his Artemis II crewmates attended Trump's State of the Union address Feb. 24 in the U.S. Capital in Washington D.C., wearing blue NASA jackets.
“It brings in the global dynamic," Boyd said of Artemis II. "Florida and Canada have such an important business, commercial and cultural relationship."
For the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit floridatoday.com/space. Another easy way: Click here to sign up for our weekly 321 Launch space newsletter.
Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY, where he has covered news since 2004. Contact Neale at [email protected]. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1
Space is important to us and that's why we're working to bring you top coverage of the industry and Florida launches. Journalism like this takes time and resources. Please support it with a subscription here.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: NASA Artemis II launch visitors may boost Space Coast economy by $160M
