Attractions are ready for post-Irma act

TALLAHASSEE — Mickey Mouse is strolling along Main Street, Harry Potter is casting spells again and the reptiles at Gatorland are jumping for their supper.

After pausing for Hurricane Irma’s impact and assessing the damage, Orlando’s attractions are ready for tourists around the globe to return, and they’re set to tell you about it.

“We suffered just minimal damage there in the park,” said Gatorland CEO Mark McHugh, whose attraction is known for its gator “jumparoo” act. “We’re back to 100 percent operations. We’re very blessed.”

As soon as Irma cleared and electricity started to come back, tourism officials took to social media with ads to entice skittish tourists back to Central Florida.

“We’ve noticed the U.K. in particular is very concerned, and it’s very important for us to get that message to them very quickly,” said Jody DiSalle, vice president of communications for Experience Kissimmee. “Our message to them is that we’re open, we’re accepting tourists, our accommodations are open, our major attractions are open, it’s safe to come here.”

VisitFlorida,thestatewidetour-

ism promotion group, is pounding Facebook, Instagram and Twitter with ads and has put up live webcams at beaches in Pensacola, Panama City, Daytona Beach, Jacksonville and Clearwater to show tourists that the water’s fine. It’s part of a $5 million campaign that will later include television spots in Britain, Germany, Canada, Brazil and in domestic markets such as Atlanta, Dallas, New York, Philadelphia and Chicago.

Despite Irma’s size and the largescale evacuations of 7 million people throughout the state, industry officials expect tourism to bounce back quickly.

The timing of the storm, coming a week after Labor Day, when many attractions enter their slower time of the year, could be a small blessing. And even the evacuations of millions in South Florida helped to fill Orlando-area hotel rooms during an otherwise slow month.

“Our occupancy rate quickly ratcheted up during the time of the hurricane,” said Visit Orlando spokeswoman Becca Bides. “Because the availability was so thin there would be 100 rooms canceled and then they would be filled right away.”

McHugh said Friday that Gatorland was shut down for four days as it waited for power to be restored, but is now almost back to normal, attendancewise. International and domestic visitors are back to pre-storm levels, but in-state visitors are down because of the extensive ongoing recovery.

The tourism marketing agencies were having a turbulent year even before Irma hit, despite bringing in record numbers of tourists.

Visit Orlando, Experience Kissim- mee and 10 other local tourism boards around the state withdrew their partnership with Visit Florida this year over new transparency measures passed by lawmakers that include requiring local board members to reveal their compensation.

“It doesn’t hinder our ability at all,” Visit Florida spokesman Stephen Lawson said of the lack of coordination with the local groups. “We’re marketing Orlando, we’re marketing Kissimmee, we’re getting the word out at every level all over the state that we’re open for business and that we’re welcoming visitors.”

Not all of the state has the welcome mat back out for tourists, though. Lawson said the Keys are the only area Visit Florida isn’t targeting for tourists. He said a marketing plan is being developed and will be ready as soon as Keys officials are ready, ideally by Oct. 1.

That would be a relief to McHugh, whose daughter is scheduled to get married at a hotel in Key West on Oct. 14. So far, the wedding is still on.

“We’ve been in touch with the wedding planners down there, and Key West is of the mentality that we are here: ‘Come on. Bring everybody in that wedding party and come on man, we need the money.’ ”

The experience of the 2004 storm season when three hurricanes hit the Central Florida area in succession helped the attraction prepare for Irma, McHugh said, and he doesn’t expect the same “hangover effect” that dampened visitation for two years after those storms.

“We’ve been through these storms for 69 years in business,” he said, “and we were well-prepared for it.”