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The tourism industry is warning Florida lawmakers that a bill to kill government funding for the state’s tourism marketing arm could set it back after years of record-breaking visitor tourism growth that has made Florida the country’s most visited state.
A Florida House committee voted 10-5 in support of a bill that would end the group’s public-private partnership, the state’s tourism marketing arm. Sponsored by Rep. Paul Renner (R-Palm Coast), the bill will be considered in the House Appropriations Committee on Feb. 21.
“It’s very important that people understand the tie between promotion and travel,” said Roger Dow, CEO of the U.S. Travel Association. “My concern is if it happens in Florida, some other states will say, ‘We’ll do it, too.’ Colorado cut out its department of tourism in the 1990s. They just last year got back to where they were 18 years ago.”
State financial support for Visit Florida, which is funded equally by public and private money, increased from $35 million in 2011 to $78 million in the current fiscal year.
However, the organization attracted negative publicity last year when Florida House speaker Richard Corcoran sued the group to make public what turned out to be a $1 million contract between Visit Florida and rapper Pitbull to promote the state. The ensuing scandal led to the resignation of Visit Florida’s CEO earlier this year.
The uproar occurred after a year in which Visit Florida would have expected adulation rather than condemnation. In 2015, Florida became the first state to welcome more than 100 million tourists.
“Look at what we’ve done with Visit Florida,” Gov. Rick Scott said last week in defense of the organization. “We have increased … our expenditure and what have we seen? We have seen an unbelievable number of new jobs and new tourists.”
Scott added: “The state had stagnated at around 80 million tourists … a year before I got elected. This year, we’ll have over 110 million tourists. Even after going through all the issues we had last year — whether it’s Zika or the hurricanes or other issues — we’re seeing tourism grow.”
But Visit Florida’s opponents question how much its promotional work actually draws tourists.
“Right now, somewhere up north, it’s in the 20s, and there’s ice on the sidewalk and there’s none of that here,” Renner said in an interview. “Florida is not a secret. It’s not like we’re convincing people to come to some remote corner where nobody goes. We are an international leader in tourism. We want to continue to be that and to increase, not decrease our tourism. The question is, how do we do that smartly?”
If Visit Florida is to continue to exist, he said, it will have to be run very differently.
“It is incumbent on them to show that they can move forward without the challenges of accountability that have existed there in the past,” Renner said.
Heather Gibson, a University of Florida professor, argues that many people don’t understand Visit Florida’s value.
“There seems to be a misunderstanding about the idea that tourists will come anyway,” Gibson said. “They won’t. Anybody who knows anything about marketing knows that that’s not the case. It’s a very competitive world today for tourism.”
Gibson said that there is a misunderstanding in Florida about who benefits from tourism and who doesn’t. According to Visit Florida, visitors to the state spent $108.8 billion in 2015, generating $11.3 billion in state and local taxes, or nearly 30% of the state’s total tax receipts.
“There are people who benefit directly, whose livelihoods depend on it and their communities depend upon it,” she said. “But the way that the tax system works in Florida, so much of that sales tax goes back to Tallahassee.” Since Florida does not have a state income tax, she said, “where does [the state’s tax revenue] come from? A lot of it is sales tax from visitors.”
From the perspective of most Florida destinations, Visit Florida is invaluable.
Darrel Jones, director of the Emerald Coast Convention & Visitors Bureau, remembers when the area had “no marketing at all” and marketing by the state was done by the state only.
“It was terrible,” he said. “We knew the state and government did not know how to market, and they had no money for it. Going back to that would be a disaster.”
The public-private partnership created by Visit Florida changed that, enabling an area such as the Emerald Coast to essentially double its marketing budget.
“They were buying in large bulk in magazines and newspapers, and at that time, we couldn’t do that,” Jones said. “We can’t buy what they can, but we can co-op into that. It makes our marketing dollars go a lot further than they would on our own.”
The Emerald Coast is now Florida’s second-largest tourism drive market behind Orlando, generating $3 billion a year in economic impact, up from half a billion in 1990. “They made one mistake.” Jones said of the Pitbull scandal. “It happens. That’s no reason to jeopardize the whole organization and the largest tax receipt company in the state.”
Jones and others bristle at the characterization of Visit Florida as “corporate welfare” and note that Visit Florida members include behemoths like Disney and Universal, but it also supports mom-and-pop shops that would never be able to market at international trade shows or advertise in major newspapers without Visit Florida.
“Our local businesses are Visit Florida partners,” said Tamara Pigott, executive director of the Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau. “It gives them access to buy into marketing co-ops at discounted rates and make connections they otherwise wouldn’t be able to make.”
She added that another way Visit Florida helps communities is via its active role in crisis communication.
“After the [Deepwater Horizon] oil spill, they stepped in to better position Florida and communicate what was going on,” she said. “It’s similar with hurricanes. They’ve been able to come in and help a community rebound and get out the correct messaging. When our boots are on the ground dealing with a crisis, it’s great to have an overarching agency with the ability to step in and help.”
Sourse: travelweekly.com
Visit Florida provides tremendous marketing resources, and Florida benefits by leveraging significant growth within our industry and our state. We will spend years trying to recoup if government tries to “turn down the volume” on their support. Let’s not allow history to repeat itself – I recall when Florida diverted funds away from marketing to Canadians. The mindset was, “they’ll come to Florida, anyway.” We watched as other destinations competing for Canadian tourism jumped, amping up their own efforts. Florida lost marketshare for many years – and finally reached the top spot in 2014.