Skift Take
Publicly funded destination marketing organizations are increasingly finding their mission questioned — and budgets threatened. Is it time for a reinvention?
As Visit Florida sounds the alarm over threats to its very existence, tourism experts around the country hear a warning.
While they believe Florida could find alternate ways to promote itself without government support, destinations without famous beaches and theme parks could have a much tougher time.
"If Florida falls, what does that mean for destination marketing across the country?" said Bill Geist, CEO of DMOproz, a consultancy that works with destination marketing organizations across the Americas.
The drama in Florida is the latest example of how hotly politicized publicly funded tourism has become in the U.S., mostly at the state and local levels. More and more, officials are debating the economic benefits of earmarking dollars to attract visitors, versus where that money in these cash-strapped times could best be spent elsewhere, like schools.
Florida's official tourism marketing organization is only authorized to exist through the end of September. After months of lobbying from the industry, as well as pleas from the new governor, a powerful state lawmaker signaled his reluctant willingness to reauthorize — but only for another year.
"The governor's office has expressed a desire to have it go forward so that he would have an opportunity to make an assessment of his own of how unnecessary it is," House Speaker Jose Oliva, a Republican from Miami Lakes, told reporters on Friday.
And Oliva said he wasn't sure about funding; the organization got $76 million from the state last year, and Gov. Ron DeSantis asked for the same in the budget for the upcoming year. Florida's Senate wanted to cut that to $50 million, and the House has only agreed to $19 million to keep it running through the sunset date. Last week, the Senate agreed to the House amount since reauthorization had not yet been passed.
"I would expect it would be some level of compromise in there that the chambers can work out amongst themselves," said Visit Florida CEO Dana Young, a former state legislator who took over the job in January.
Lawmakers only have until Tuesday to come to agreement on reauthorizing Visit Florida.
"I am optimistic because I know the incredible value that Visit Florida brings to the taxpayers of our state," Young said. "I know that we have the facts and our good work on our side, and I think that is in the end what will carry the day."
But even if it does survive to fight another year, the celebrati
