This high demand can lead to a strong real estate market, which can potentially result in higher profits for investors.Appreciating property values: Property values in the Emerald Coast have historically appreciated over time, making it a potentially lucrative market for real estate investors.Strong economy: The economy of the Emerald Coast is strong and diverse, with industries such as tourism, healthcare, and defense playing a significant role.

If you want a Short term rental or STR than you will need to go to places that bring in a lot of tourism like the panhandle.

At the same time, the high cost of hotels combined with high rate of tourism leads to great demand for vacation rentals. 

To the first point, areas such as downtown Denver, Houston, have lots of tourism demand, but an area like Dayton Ohio is better served by value add rehab. 

Now we also have tourism, the U.S. government/military, and State government (which gets at least 90% of its funding from OIL).

Eventually we would like to take that money and buy property in Thailand or Vietnam.

Because of the high mountains, nature, and skiing, most of the towns rely on tourism. 

. : )Also, in Hawaii at least, the Hawaii Tourism Authority keeps track of all sorts of visitor statistics like how many visitors came to the islands, which islands they stayed on, whether they stayed in hotels, condos, or with friends, whether their stay was for business, pleasure, blah blah blah.

Orlando International Airport (MCO) is very sizable (and currently undergoing a large expansion) and has many nonstops throughout the U.S. because of the tourism here.

we are not sick very often and if anything comes up: Thailand or Vietnam can take care of it for a lot cheaper.