When Florida’s Republican House leaders announced that they wanted to cut off state funding for the Visit Florida tourism marketing agency, CVB leaders statewide characterized it as perhaps the most deeply stupid move they had ever seen.
“I think it is a brilliantly bad piece of legislation,” Michael Corrigan, president and CEO of Visit Jacksonville, told reporters at the Miami Herald. “The intent is to eliminate Visit Florida. But in reality, it’s probably going to eliminate a lot of the local destination marketing organizations as well.”
The way the legislation is currently crafted, large counties would have to submit 5% of their tourism tax revenue to the state. Rural counties would provide 2% of their tourism revenue. In other words, if the bill makes it into law, Jacksonville’s annual payment to the public/private Visit Florida would jump from $15,000 to $1.5 million.
Hence Corrigan’s description of the legislation as “brilliantly bad.”
“In return,” notes the Miami Herald, “Visit Florida would have to allocate 75% of the money to programs that directly assist rural counties, state parks and state forests. Local tourist-development tax revenues total about $1.5 billion this year, according to a House staff analysis.”
Opponents of the bill described it as “Robin Hood-ing” funds and as an attempt to destroy the organization that does the most to promote tourism, the state’s top moneymaker.
In a news release, the tourism-industry group Destinations Florida argued the change would “cripple the ability of our state and our local communities to attract visitors” as competition grows for tourism dollars. “This legislation would effectively destroy Visit Florida by gutting its functions and funding, leaving Florida at a global competitive disadvantage when it comes to promoting the state as a tourist destination,” the association said in the release. “It also strikes at local tourism promotion by sweeping local tourist-development taxes to Tallahassee and requiring that those taxes be reauthorized by referendum every six years, putting any organization that relies on those funds in jeopardy.”
Those who endorse the bill say that Florida’s popularity as a tourist destination has little to do with the work of the DMO:
Rep. Mike Giallombardo, a sponsor of the proposal, credited the state’s growing tourism numbers — 137.6 million visitors in 2022, 5% higher than the previous high in 2019 — to “supply and demand.”
“Florida was open. We had no masks. People came to Florida because we were free. Our beaches were open,” Giallombardo said.
Giallombardo added the state’s funding of Visit Florida might have had some impact on the uptick, but the state being open “was all over the news.”
But “if we’re open, they will come,” is not necessarily a perfect operating theory, judging from recent history. The pandemic showed the devastation that could happen when funding dried up for public/private partnerships; in many cities, organizations still have not returned to their former strength and some have not reopened.
It’s not the first time Visit Florida has come under fire. In 2017, the organization had to fight lawmakers who threatened to defund it; then-Governor Rick Scott strongly opposed the measure and vowed to protect Visit Florida. Ultimately, the organization survived the scare only to find itself in the hot seat again. And with a different governor, Ron DeSantis, at the helm, there is no telling which way the wind will blow if the legislation passes.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Doug Broxson, R-Gulf Breeze, said Tuesday he expects the House and Senate to discuss Visit Florida during budget negotiations after the Easter holiday break.
The Florida Attractions Association has also thrown its support behind Visit Florida, noting the bill would, in addition to destroying VISIT FLORIDA, “produce the implosion of our county’s TDCs.”
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