Tourism fight spills into House

Bill would kill state funding for marketing

TALLAHASSEE — Tourism industry officials from Pensacola to the Keys showed up in force to a House committee Wednesday to protest a bill to kill state funding for tourism marketing and other economic development programs.

The bill passed anyway on a 10-5 vote, but not before tourism promoters who packed the room with more than 150 speakers, voiced their displeasure. Visit Florida, the state’s tourism marketing group that receives $76 million this year, would be eliminated under the bill.

“Don’t pass this bill because you’ll kill Florida,” said Ken Lawson, president and CEO of Visit Florida.

In addition to Visit Florida, the bill gets rid of Enterprise Florida, the group enticing companies to add jobs in the state, and a slew of other economic incentive programs targeting professional sports teams, the entertainment industry and a training program for workers.

Economic development and tourism promotion leaders in Palm Beach and Broward counties declared the measure would undermine their efforts to remain competitive in the battle with other states for visitors and new companies.

“Tourism marketing, or what is called destination marketing, is absolutely central and critical to the state of Florida,” Jorge Pesquera, president and CEO of Discover The Palm Beaches, told the Sun-Sentinel. “It is a fact that when you stop marketing, you are out of mind, and when you are out of sight and out of mind, it’s not a good thing when … you’re in the tourism industry.”

Stacy Ritter, president and CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the proposed de-funding of Visit Florida “will have an extreme negative impact on tourism for us.”

“We partner with Visit Florida on many levels and there are major marketing and promotional events in which we would no longer be able to participate, causing loss of a competitive edge over other states vying for visitors,” she said.

Before the House committee meeting, The Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance, the public-private economic development partnership in Broward, urged its members to register their opposition to the bill online with committee members.

Bob Swindell, the Alliance’s president and CEO, said that while the bill does not threaten the organization’s existence, it would make its work more difficult.

“We would lose lead referrals on companies interested in relocating/expanding that come to us from enterprise Florida,” Swindell said. “We would also lose tax rebate incentive programs that help influence company location and expansion decisions to bring high-wage skilled jobs to Broward County.”

Bill sponsor Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, said he wants to remove specialized subsidies for favored industries like tourism and focus on cutting taxes for all businesses.

Tourism officials weren’t the only ones taking notice of the vote. Gov. Rick Scott, who has consistently named funding for Visit Florida and Enterprise Florida among his top goals each year, tweeted his frustration.

“Politicians in (the Florida House) turned their back on jobs today by supporting job killing legislation,” Scott posted on Twitter.