Gov. Rick Scott’s unwavering support for a fully funded Visit Florida to support thousands of jobs in state tourism has ultimately been fruitful.
The state marketing agency will finally 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 Gov. Scott.
"We’ve fully funded Visit Florida so we can continue to break visitation records," the governor said in a release.
Scott called it a ‘major win for Florida families.’
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.
"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," said Roger Dow, U.S. Travel Association President and CEO.
"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 realize their mistake."
