TALLAHASSEE — With international travel drawing closer to pre-pandemic levels, Florida is on pace for a record-setting year for tourists, according to Visit Florida.

The taxpayer-funded tourism marketing agency released a report Thursday estimating that just over 35 million people traveled to Florida during the third quarter of 2023, 1.4% more than during the same period in 2022 and 7.9% above the total in 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic began.

The numbers show a rebound from a slight second-quarter dip, which industry leaders attributed to increased competition from other states and countries that were closed longer than Florida because of the pandemic.

Visit Florida said Florida had 105.2 million visitors during the first nine months of the year, up from 104.478 million during the same period in 2022. Florida posted a full-year record of 137.4 million tourists in 2022.

In 2019, Florida attracted 131 million visitors, with 100.267 million coming to the state during the first nine months of the year.

Florida’s July-through-September totals this year were dominated by visitors from other states. But they were also helped by the federal government’s lifting of COVID-19 vaccination requirements for international air travelers on May 11, the same day a COVID-19 public health emergency ended.

Yet, international tourism continues to face issues with non-migrant visa delays, which have been blamed, at least in part, on staffing shortages at embassies.

Tourism from other parts of the U.S. accounted for 92% of the third-quarter totals, slightly below the level from the same period in 2022.

Overseas and Canadian tourists, however, showed year-over-year increases — though they are still not at pre-pandemic levels.

Visit Florida estimated the state had nearly 2.23 million overseas visitors in the third quarter, up from 1.93 million in the third quarter of 2022. In the third quarter of 2019, the total was 2.5 million.

Canadian travel, traditionally the top international country of origin for visitors to Florida, reached 666,000 in the third quarter, compared with 561,000 in the third quarter of 2022. For the first nine months of 2023, Florida attracted about 2.8 million Canadians, up from 1.749 million in the same time frame of 2022.