244 FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY I3TH ANNUAL REPORT 



In the last year or two there have been large numbers of so- 

 called "tin can tourists," who come into Florida in automobiles 

 and camp in tent colonies on the outskirts of the cities, often in 

 special places provided for them and furnished with free water 

 and electric lights by the accommodating municipalities. This has 

 been going on in California in summer for several years, but it is 

 so new in Florida that no estimate of the number of such tour- 

 ists can be made.* 



If the average winter visitor spends $5 a day for lodging, meals, 

 clothes, souvenirs, railroad fare, gasoline, etc.. which seems a 

 conservative estimate at present prices, and there are 24.000 in the 

 area throughout the three or four months of the winter season, 

 that would make a gross income for central Florida from this 

 source of about $12,000,000 a year. This money of course ulti- 

 mately goes out in exchange for groceries, manufactured prod- 

 ucts, etc., and this explains why Florida has what some thought- 

 less people regard as a large "unfavorable" balance of trade. But 

 even if all the food supply was raised within the area, the money 

 would still have to flow out in exchange for something or other, 

 for otherwise it would accumulate until it had very little value. 

 The account is partly balanced, however, by the northward mi- 

 gation of Florida people in summer. 



Just how long the average "tourist" remains in one place 

 can hardly be guessed, but the "turnover" must be quite large. At 

 St. Petersburg, with an estimated hotel capacity in 19 14 of only 

 2,706, it was claimed about that time that 40.000 different tourists 

 came there in one winter. The local Board of Trade keeps a vis- 

 itor's register, and in the season of 1914-15 there were 10,830 

 names recorded there. The principal states from which they came, 

 with percentages, were as follows : 



Ohio 14.8, New York 12.4, Indiana 10.4, Pennsylvania 10.3.. 

 Illinois 9.5, Michigan 8.8, Massachusetts 4.7, New Jersey 3.6, 

 Kentucky 2.5, Connecticut 2.5, Maine 2.0, Iowa 2.0, Wisconsin 

 1.7, West Virginia 1.6, Minnesota 1.3, Tennessee 1.3, New Hamp- 

 shire 1.2, Missouri i.o. There were also 1.1% from foreign 

 countries (probably mostly Canada). Virginia, Alabama and 



*The first such camp east of the Mississippi River is said to have been 

 established at New Port Richey in Pasco County in the winter of 1916-17. 



