Jan. 21–Although a strong U.S. dollar and a flood of new hotel rooms may pose growth obstacles for South Florida's tourism trade, the region's hospitality leaders are forecasting another strong year of visitor traffic.

In 2017, the tri-county region will add thousands of new hotel rooms as it did in 2016, which again is expected to put pressure on occupancy and room rates. And a still-strong U.S. dollar could deter some international travelers from visiting because exchange rates are less favorable, making a U.S. vacation more expensive.

"You have the disruptors that will continue to impact our industry… some of them will go away and some will have some traction," Constantino Papadopulos, president of the South Florida chapter of the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International, told a tourism outlook event last week in Fort Lauderdale.

"We have a strong dollar that is causing challenges …we have increased new inventory that has come online that is also posing challenges to our properties, and we have the possibility of some labor issues," added Papadopulos, who is also general manager of a Holiday Inn in Coral Gables.

Still, there are encouraging signs for South Florida tourism, prompting industry leaders to pencil in growth figures for 2017.

"South Florida continues to be a destination that is one of the most desired to visit and live in," Papadopulos said.

Case in point: AAA Travel recently named Fort Lauderdale and Miami among its top five domestic travel destinations for Americans planning trips this year, based on bookings nationwide on its website.

Orlando-based wholesale travel broker Tourico Holidays recently announced that hotel room nights booked for Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Miami Beach in 2017 were significantly pacing ahead of the same period in 2016. Fort Lauderdale was seeing a 12 percent year-over-year increase while Miami had a 14 percent and Miami Beach, 27 percent.

Even after the shooting at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport that took the lives of five people and wounded six others, hotel booking and travel interest trends in the area remain strong.

"We were really concerned about the effect it would have," said Fernando Harb, vice president of tourism sales for the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau during the tourism outlook event. "The good news is that we had a major travel trade show three days later that [showed] it didn't affect us. The cancellations are not coming in."

Still, some hotels have said they've seen a slight decrease in bookings for January compared to last year, but are attributing the softness to other factors such as the dollar.

Tourism analysts say the first quarter will set the tone for the year, given that it's the peak travel season.

"The first quarter is very important. It will dictate how the rest of the year behaves," said Scott Berman, a hotel and tourism analyst at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Miami.

While the leisure traveler considering a vacation is still very interested in booking trips to South Florida, any declines are likely to come from the corporate and group segment, Berman said.

In 2016, tourist visitation in Broward was expected to reach or top 16 million people, according to preliminary estimates. In 2015, Broward welcomed 15.4 million visitors who spent $14.2 billion, according to the latest data available from the tourism bureau.

The outlook for 2017 remains "vibrant and positive," said Stacy Ritter, the tourism bureau's president and CEO in the week following the airport shooting.

"The destination is experiencing millions of dollars of investment in hospitality-related infrastructure, including high-profile hotel openings, cool new restaurants, interesting nightlife and unique arts and culture offerings," Ritter said.

Increased competition for the tourist dollar is expected from about a dozen hotels that are set to open this year, adding hundreds of new or renovated rooms in Broward.

Among them is the newly-built Hyde Resort & Residences in Hollywood, which is slated to open to guests in February. The Hyde features 40 residential condos and 367 resort units, which can be rented to the public when their owners are away. Others include the 163-room Plunge Beach Hotel in Lauderdale by the Sea and the 150-room Tryp by Wyndham Maritime Fort Lauderdale hotel.

But a key offset to the new capacity is likely to come from new air and cruise line services that will introduce first-time travelers to the region and help "achieve another year of record-breaking visitor numbers," Ritter said.

The new air service includes Emirates from Dubai, British Airways from London's Gatwick Airport and Norwegian Air Shuttle from Barcelona.

India will be the No. 1 target emerging market for Broward in 2017, Harb said during last week's HSMAI 2017 Tourism Trends event. Emirates sells 60 percent of its airline seats to India, Harb noted.

Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood is expecting passenger growth this year despite the Jan. 6 shooting.

"We don't anticipate this incident will have a long term adverse impact on the upward trajectory of the airport," said Mark Gale, CEO and aviation director. In 2016, the Fort Lauderdale airport served 29.2 million passengers based on preliminary estimates, up from 26.9 million in 2015.

In Palm Beach County, tourism officials are anticipating arrivals to increase to 7.5 million visitors, up from an estimated 7.2 million welcomed in 2016. Palm Beach International Airport is forecasting a two percent annual increase in passenger traffic in 2017 to more than 6.4 million travelers, a spokeswoman said.

"As we move into 2017, we continue to aggressively pursue new routes and airlines," said Bruce Pelly, director of airports.

Meetings and conventions are key growth areas after the addition of the new 400-room Hilton West Palm Beach convention center hotel last year. Another bright sign is next month's opening of the BallPark of The Palm Beaches, which will be the spring training home for four Major League Baseball teams.

"As an emerging meetings and convention destination, we're excited about the significant uptick that we've seen in the group market segment this [past] year," said Jorge Pesquera, president and CEO for Discover The Palm Beaches.

The region added more than 1,000 hotel rooms in 2016, and another 1,300 hotel rooms are expected to open between 2017 and 2018, records show.

Among the new hotels slated to open this year include the 92-room Holiday Inn Express & Suites Boynton Beach West, which will join the newly-opened 200-room Hyatt Place Boca Raton/Downtown.

Miami-Dade County officials are expecting more tourists this year following the record 15.8 million visitors who came in 2016, in spite of all the marketplace challenges.

"We're very optimistic that we will once again exceed 2016's record-setting number," said Rolando Aedo, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Aedo said the tourism bureau is expecting visitation to grow to about 16.3 million tourists in 2017. He sees an upside from Brazil, the county's top international market, capital investment in new and existing hotels, and new airline and cruise line services.

Miami International Airport is set to welcome Mexican low-cost carrier Volaris in February. In April, WOW Air will add service between Miami and Reykjav?k, Iceland, and in September, Aer Lingus will start flying to Dublin.

Airport spokesman Greg Chin said the airport is looking for more growth this year after setting a record of 44.6 million passengers in 2016.