Florida officials go into damage-control mode over Zika

TAMPA, Florida (AP): THANK GOODNESS, it’s the slow season in Florida.

At least, that’s what officials and representatives of the state’s multibillion-dollar tourism industry are thinking in the wake of news that 16 people have been infected with Zika in a small, trendy neighbourhood in Miami.

The outbreak has sent another chill through the Sunshine State’s all-important tourism industry just weeks after the Orlando nightclub massacre and the killing of a two-year-old boy by an alligator at nearby Walt Disney World.

Florida officials have gone into damage-control mode, with Governor Rick Scott insisting, “we have a safe state!”, during a tour of the Zika hot zone in Miami’s Wynwood district.

Tourism is Florida’s biggest industry. Visitors spent some $89 billion here last year, and Disney is America’s No. 1 tourist attraction.

Outside of a few business owners in the affected square-mile neighbourhood, however, Zika appears to have done little damage to tourism so far.

“We have not had anyone cancel a trip to Florida because of Zika,” said Jenny Cagle, vice-president of Elm Grove Travel in Wisconsin. “It’s definitely a conversation. People are talking about it.”

ZIKA NOT A FACTOR

Demetra Prattas, vice-president of Turon Travel, a New Yorkbased company that books art tours and trips, including the annual Art Basel festival that includes events in Wynwood, said: “I don’t think it’s a factor in deciding where to go. We’ve had no cancellations.”

The governor has been on something of a statewide Zika tour, meeting with county health officials and business owners in Miami and along the Interstate four corridor that runs through Orlando.