Florida has something to offer virtually any pleasure-seeker: year-round sunshine, 1,200 miles of sand beaches, world-class theme parks, 110 state parks, two national parks, four national forests, some 1,250 golf courses, numerous fairs and special events, more than 4,600 hotels and motels, and more than 7,800 lakes, including the 448,000acre Lake Okeechobee, the second largest freshwater lake in the U.S. It's no wonder the Sunshine State remains one of the most visited places on the planet. Florida is 58,560 square miles of fun.

Not surprisingly, tourism is the state's No. 1 industry. According to Visit Florida, the private/public partnership that promotes Florida tourism, the state hosted 45.26 million visitors from January through November 1998, 4.3% ahead of the number tallied through November 1997. In 1997, Florida's tourism had a $41 billion economic impact, up 8.2% from the previous year.

While the number of tourists has continued to increase, officials had expected a larger increase in visitation in 1998, especially considering some major new attractions opened in Central Florida, the theme park capital of the world. Numbers had been climbing rather dramatically for a few years. In 1996, the estimated number of domestic and international visitors in Florida was 39,520,181, a 15.4% increase over 1995's numbers. In 1997, visitation increased 18.81%, to 46,953,929.

A SMALLER INCREASE

Tom Flanigan, Visit Florida spokesperson, said several factors contributed to the less-than-spectacular increase posted in 1998. Visitation actually decreased from August through October, then there was an unseasonably warm fall, particularly in the upper Midwest and Northeast, home to many of Florida's fall visitors. Also, Canadian tourism was down in the first half of 1998, he said; Canadian statistics for the last half of the year hadn't been compiled as of early February

While the number of visits to the state increased, the overall number of visits to the state's theme parks and attractions may have decreased, said Donna Ross, executive vice president of the Florida Attractions Assn. That organization tracks attendance at its 87 member attractions, which range from parks to museums.

"[Attendance was] up nearly 5% in 1997, over 1996, and that was wonderful news for us. 1998 did not turn out to be the stellar year we had hoped, in terms of the continuation of the boom from 1997. We had a very good first quarter, then business began to fall off in the early summer when we had the high heat index, then we had the wildfires, then we had hurricanes, then we had unusually warm weather up north in the winter months. Although I have not seen the year-end '98 numbers ,yet, my guess is statewide overall our members would be down or even with '97, but probably down," said Ross.

According to AB's 1998 year-end statistics, the major Central Florida theme parks were down or flat in attendance last year. The Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, Lake Buena Vista, the No. 1 theme park in North...