Travel Promotion Agencies Under Scrutiny
Tourism boards across the USA are wise to keep a keen eye on what happens in Florida as the state legislature is on the verge of eliminating the Sunshine State’s tourism board, Visit Florida. And you can bet they are, too.
If Visit Florida’s funding is cut off – with little to no impact on tourist visits – then other legislatures may well consider reducing or even eliminating their tourist boards.
Funding for state tourism boards are provided by the legislature and the money is rub-your-eyes huge. Visit Florida’s last budget – from Oct. 1, 2018 until Sept. 30, 2019 – is $76 million.
I cannot imagine what a tourism board could possibly do with that kind of money but I got a few hints when researching this story.
Visit Florida spent $11.6 million in 2017 to sponsor a cooking show hosted by celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse; $2.875 million for an auto-racing team, Visit Florida Racing; and $1 million for a promotion contract with Miami rapper Pitbull.
That’s a sure-fire way to get the legislature’s attention when a few members ask of one another, “now exactly what is that agency doing with all that money we are giving them?”
Pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered.
You can bet other state tourism boards are not going to be doing anything quite so splashy with their precious budgets. They are also secretly (among themselves) hoping tourism to Florida plummets, sending a message to their state legislators that tourism boards are an essential part of bringing visitors to a state.
I cannot argue that they are not; in fact I feel they are quite essential to promote destinations, attractions, things to do, places to eat and events. You certainly can’t leave that in the hands of politicians.
If there’s no tourism board then the state needs a PR agency. Not just to push attractions and great scenery and things to do, but for crisis communication. Good examples in Florida are hurricanes – “we’re back open!” – and last summer’s awful red tide that left some tourists (including my sister and her husband) with respiratory problems.
Of course, cities within those states have tourism boards, too. They are largely funded by hotel taxes and supervised by city councils. So they are under pressure to put “butts in the seats” in sports parlance.
Florida is the testing ground that could well determine the future of tourism boards across the country.
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