Lawmakers vote to eliminate Visit Florida funding
Monday, 10 Feb, 2017
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State legislators have passed the first step in a bid to break up state marketing agency VISIT FLORIDA.
A bill has been passed to pull state funding for the agency, despite fierce opposition from the state’s tourism industry.
The Florida House committee voted by a 10-5 margin in favor of the measure to effectively kill off the tourism marketing organisation.
The move came after the furore over a $1 million payment to rapper Pitbull that the organization refused to make public.
The fallout from this cost former CEO Will Seccombe his job.
His replacement Ken Lawson, sent an email to tourism businesses vowing to continue to fight for the agency and tax dollars to fund marketing efforts.
"I want to assure you that VISIT FLORIDA will continue to fight. I have already begun meeting with each and every legislator to ensure they know that VISIT FLORIDA serves a vital role in marketing destinations large and small in every community of this great state, and that a reduction in our public funding would mean the loss of tax revenue and jobs that benefit their constituents," he wrote.
Over 150 speakers representing the state’s tourism industry had warned the bill threatened businesses and jobs.
They argued that smaller businesses would be more vulnerable to the impact of the bill than industry heavyweights such as Disney and Universal.
The vote is a blow to Gov. Rick Scott who had earlier criticised the House, saying the move would hurt Florida’s economic momentum.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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