UK visitor numbers to Miami are up 2.2% year on year for the first six months of 2012, and look set to rise as infrastructure developments in the city progress.
Last month, the international airport’s €6 billion dollar Terminal One was completed. The 60 gates, served by a one and a half mile sky train, will mostly be used by American Airlines flights, including those from the UK.
A new rail line launched in September, linking the airport to the city centre in under 15 minutes, at a cost of €2.
Port Miami will welcome six new cruise ships in the next eight weeks, with Disney Wonder, Regent Seven Seas
Navigator and Mariner, Carnival Breeze, Oceania Riviera and Celebrity Reflection all calling at the port for the first time. A new tunnel under the bay linking the port to downtown will be completed in 2013.
New hotels and public projects are transforming the bay-side downtown area of Miami into a tourist hub. JW Marriott has opened the first of its new Marquis brand of hotels in Miami Downtown, with its own bowling alley and an NBA standard basketball court, and on the floors above a 60-room boutique property called Hotel Beaux Arts Miami.
Star architects are designing the area’s new Museum Park, with a Herzog De Meuron-designed Art Museum due to open next year, and a Science Museum, aquarium and planetarium designed by Tate Modern architects Grimshaw set to be completed by 2014.