Category 4 hurricane in September? Psssh, piece of cake for the tourism wizards over at VISIT FLORIDA. Watch the Sunshine State open for business in October.
Hurricane Irma may have ravaged most of the state last week, but Gov. Rick Scott says Florida won’t be giving up on trying to woo tourists to travel and vacation in the Sunshine State.
On Tuesday, Scott directed the state’s tourism agency, Visit Florida, to launch an “aggressive new marketing campaign” to highlight the state following Hurricane Irma.
Florida welcomed a record of nearly 113 million visitors to the state last year. This year it's out to break the 2016 record -- yes, despite massive Hurricane Irma that raked the state earlier this month. The idea is to welcome more than 120 million visitors.
The campaign is set to focus on promoting various parts of Florida which were heavily damaged by the monster storm which made landfall last week.
“As communities around Florida continue to recover from Hurricane Irma, we are doing everything possible to help families and businesses get back on their feet and get people back to work,” Scott said in a statement. “While our top focus remains on the recovery of Florida families, especially those in the Florida Keys and Southwest Florida, we cannot forget about the many communities which rely on Florida’s incredible tourism industry and millions of visitors.”
Scott said the campaign will be “multi-phased” and will include digital, social, broadcast and traditional components in both domestic and international markets.
The goal of the campaign is to rebound the state’s tourism numbers, which will likely suffer as a result of Hurricane Irma.
“Following Hurricane Irma, it’s more important than ever for us to spread the word that the coast is clear and the Sunshine State is open for business,” said Visit Florida CEO Ken Lawson.
Hurricane Irma has had a significant impact on Florida, first hitting the state as a Category 4 storm when it made landfall in the Florida Keys earlier this month. Irma later made a second landfall in the Southwest Florida city of Marco Island.
Cleanup from the storm is projected to take weeks and possibly months, with many of the hardest-hit communities facing a long road ahead.
Two areas in particular -- the Florida Keys and Southwest Florida -- are still recovering from the impact of the storm and specific campaigns promoting the regions will be announced at a later date, Scott said.
Bringing tourists to the state will have widespread effects, as the industry employs over one million people statewide.
“With more than 1.4 million Floridians working in the tourism industry, we must aggressively fight to bring visitors back to our communities,” Gov. Scott said.
Reception to Visit Florida has been strained in recent months. Several local tourism boards cut ties with Visit Florida over the summer, grumbling over new regulations and a tumultuous experience in the Florida Legislature.
From Miami to Tampa, local tourism boards decided to part ways with the agency after a few rocky months during this year’s legislative session which resulted in regulations requiring tourism agencies to disclose employee and board member salaries from both public and private funds.
Earlier this year, House Speaker Richard Corcoran put Visit Florida on the legislative chopping block, threatening to ax the entire program after he discovered what he called a “lack of transparency” in the agency’s contractual process.
Corcoran and Scott ultimately came to an agreement to save the state’s official tourism agency, but if lawmakers don’t renew funding for Visit Florida, the program could be eliminated in 2019 as part of a “sunset provision.” That has caused some concerns for local tourism agencies, who worry about future funding.
In response, Corcoran has demanded the 12 tourism boards outline how they are spending public tax dollars, dismissing their departure from Visit Florida as an effort to hide and evade transparency.
“These [tourist development councils] are sadly mistaken if they think Florida’s families don’t deserve to know how their tax dollars are spent,” he said.
Locals are hopeful Scott can break records this year.
"When the governor sets his mind on something, you know it's going to happen," said Tequesta restaurateur Duke Brady. "That 2016 record is toast."
Reach reporter Allison Nielsen by email at allison@sunshinestatenews.com or follow her on Twitter: @AllisonNielsen.
