Tourism industry feels effects of Dorian.

Businesses hoping for robust holiday weekend feel hurricane’s impact

TALLAHASSEE – Hurricane Dorian didn’t slam Florida’s coast, but it likely put a dent in the bottom lines of the tourism industry, which was hoping for a robust Labor Day weekend.

Tourism officials say it’s too early to estimate the economic cost in lost visits, hotel stays and other spending that visitors would’ve brought over the holiday, but it’s likely to be significant.

“Labor Day is a big revenuegenerating holiday for Florida before our slowest [tourism] season, but obviously the storm did appear to be a very, very serious storm to South Florida and the whole east coast,” said Dana Young, CEO of Visit Florida, the state’s tourism promotion group. “It’s not a stretch to say almost certainly there were negative impacts to hotel bookings, to restaurants to other areas of the hospitality industry.”

In 2017, when Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency on Labor Day, Sept. 4, ahead of Hurricane Irma’s landfall on the state Sept. 10, airplane passengers coming to Florida fell 11.6 percent that month. But overall tourism numbers increased 3 percent that year to 116.7 million, indicating the industry and the state can bounce back quickly after a bad storm.

Carol Dover, president and CEO of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, the main trade group for the tourism industry, noted that Dorian caused the cancellation of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ conference on tourism, an annual convention held each year. This year’s event was to be held in Boca Raton Tuesday through Friday.

“That’s one of many, many conferences,” Dover said. “It’s a holi

day weekend, and most all of our establishments were booked, 100 percent booked.”

Beachfront hotels across the state reported massive cancellations, bringing a Labor Day washout. But some Orlando-area hotels said new bookings by people fleeing the coast helped make up for lost customers.

The storm also had an effect on small businesses across the state, including inland ones in Orlando.

Townies Barbershop on Corrine Drive in Orlando closed Monday as boards went up on the windows ahead of the storm. And on Tuesday a lot of customers canceled, said Colin Davey, one of the owners of the two-chair barbershop in Audubon Park.

“In this industry, if I don’t work, I don’t make money,” he said. “I don’t get paid time off.”

He added he spent almost $200 to board up the shop that opened two months ago.

“This is my first business,” he said. “I’m going to treat it like my baby.”

Up the road in Audubon Park, Kelly’s Homemade Ice Cream was closed Tuesday, but the owner wasn’t worried. Its second store on Ferncreek Avenue in Orlando was also closed that day.

“I think people know the storm’s coming,” said Scott Seidl, who owns the business with his wife, Kelly. “They know they might be cooped up in the house for a couple days. So they’re more likely to go out the day or two before. For us, I think our business picks up before, maybe even after. So the day that we’re closed is not really that big of a deal.”

But the business did spend more than $1,000 on supplies such as a second generator and gasoline.

One of the concerns tourism officials had before the east coast began to feel the effects of Dorian was beach erosion. On a conference call with lawmakers Tuesday, Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Noah Valenstein said he’d have crews doing assessments along the coasts starting Wednesday.

Dover said one of organization’s main goals would be to get federal and state funding for beach renourishment for any areas with severe erosion.

After the storm clears Florida, Young’s group will be hitting the airwaves to entice visitors back to the state. The precise plan is still in the works, but it could be affected by the cuts lawmakers made to Visit Florida this year.

The agency’s budget fell from $76 million last year to $50 million this year, largely at the urging of House Speaker Jose Oliva, R-Miami, who wanted to eliminate the group completely but kept it funded at the behest of DeSantis.

Visit Florida laid off 44 employees and has cut back on international advertising, but its supporters say responding to a storm is one of its main functions. The goal is to get tourists flocking back to the Sunshine State.

“This is exactly why Visit Florida needs to be fully funded,” said Dover, who sits on Visit Florida’s board. “We will have these events unfortunately over and over again, and Visit Florida is the mechanism to let visitors know Florida is still open for business.”