Visit Florida not out of danger yet

A few weeks ago I wrote about the challenges to Visit Florida that are taking place in the Florida House of Representatives. Here's an update.

Rep. Paul Renner (R - Palm Coast) sponsored the bill, initially proposing to abolish Visit Florida. After massive protests from the tourism industry, supported by Gov. Rick Scott, the bill was changed for the continuance of Visit Florida but with a much reduced budget (down from $76 million to $25 million) and the imposition of very strict rules that in effect would stop Visit Florida competing against other U.S. states or foreign countries.

Other representatives proposed bills that would reorganize and regulate Visit Florida but with out the crippling effects of HB9. These bills have the needed transparency requirements without the unnecessary bureaucracy.

The House voted on March 10 and it passed the bill. Of our local Representatives, only Rep. Brad Drake (R - 5th District covering Holmes, Jackson and Walton counties) voted against the bill. Rep. Mel Ponder (R - District 4 - Okaloosa) and Rep. Jayer Williamson (R- District 3 - Santa Rosa and Northern Okaloosa counties) both voted for the bill.

I contacted Rep. Williamson (who has not responded) and Rep. Ponder. Rep. Ponder stressed that while he was in support of Visit Florida and hoped they would get the full $76 million budget, he voted for the bill on what he feels are ethical grounds.

Although the bill passed the House of Representatives, in order to become law there would need to be a matching bill in the Senate. Currently there is no matching bill. Our local Sen. George Gainer (R - 2nd District) and Sen. Doug Broxson (R -1st District) both said that they fully support both Visit Florida and the tourism industry and do not see the need for such a bill. It would appear that most of the Senate support this approach.

In Tallahassee on March 14, Visit Florida and the tourism industry received very strong support from Gov. Scott, cabinet members Adam Putnam, Jeff Atwater and Pam Bondi. Sens. Jack Latvala, Wilton Simpson and Rep. Ray Rodrigues also spoke in strong support.

The battle is not yet over. Visit Florida produces $3.20 in tax revenue for every $1 the state invests. Every 76 visitors to the state supports one job. This year may not be great for tourism into the USA. Indications are that the strong dollar and other influences may reduce visitors. Travel companies are reporting travel searches from potential UK visitors to Tampa, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale are down close to 60 percent, while flight searches for Miami are down 52 percent. Other countries show similar trends. Florida needs support to reverse this.

A reduction of 2 percent in travel to Florida could cost $2.2 billion in travel spending, $225 million in tax revenue and 28,000 jobs.

I apologize for the somewhat serious Talking Tourism column this week, but I feel that with the importance of tourism to our area - in Okaloosa alone one in five jobs are directly in tourism - you would like the latest news.

Normal service resumes next week!

Martin Owen is an independent consultant to the tourism industry and owner of Owen Organization in Shalimar. Readers can email questions to martin@owenorganization.com.