Visit Florida to get full funding
Visit Florida has been told it will now receive full funding in the budget but with stricter conditions on how it can be spent.
Funding was slashed in proposals by the state budget, which was then promptly vetoed by Governor Rick Scott.
He described the full funding announcement as ‘a major win for Florida families’.
"We’ve fully funded Visit Florida so we can continue to break visitation records," the governor said in a release.
A special session was convened to discuss the outstanding issues from the budget including the fate of tourism marketing in the state.
It marks a dramatic turnaround since February when the Florida legislature voted to completely defund the agency.
This was then rolled back to giving Visit Florida just a third of its previous year’s funding to about $25 million.
US Travel Association president and CEO Roger Dow said: "We’re grateful to Gov. Scott and to the millions of Floridians whose livelihoods depend on travel for this hard-fought outcome that maintains adequate resources to continue Florida’s tourism marketing efforts.
"Those who think that Florida’s robust tourism economy happens by accident or divine right are ignoring a wealth of data that states that cut tourism promotion funding inevitably see their tourism income plummet – and it takes years or decades to recover their market share even after they realise their mistake."
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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