Experience Kissimmee wants to pause work with Visit Florida

Experience Kissimmee CEO DT Minich said he wants to hit the pause button with Visit Florida, the statewide agency in charge of promoting tourism.

“After lengthy discussions with our legal team and other convention and visitors bureaus from across the state, we are holding off on new endeavors with Visit Florida at this time,” he wrote in an email Wednesday to the agency’s industry partners.

Minich voiced his concerns about uncertainty regarding a new law that was hashed out in Tallahassee during the special session as reasons for pulling back. He also said Visit Florida has not presented a marketing plan for the 2017-18 year.

“We’re in a holding pattern,” Minich said Thursday.

As an alternative, Experience Kissimmee could work with Brand USA, a national agency based out of Washington, D.C., international groups and other agencies with Florida bureaus to promote the area, he wrote.

“We are taking this time to let Visit Florida pull together their plans. We will continue to evaluate our decision and will keep you posted should anything change,” he wrote.

Last month, he told officials at an Osceola County meeting he would rather quit Visit Florida if Experience Kissimmee was forced to disclose financial information about board members’ salaries at their full-time jobs.

But a Visit Florida spokesman had said the agency believes only local organizations that receive 50 percent or more of revenue from hotel taxes and also work with Visit Florida for marketing purposes would be required to disclose how much they pay their board of directors under the new law.

Experience Kissimmee and Visit Orlando don’t pay their board members.

When reached for comment, Visit Florida spokesman Stephen Lawson did not address Experience Kissimmee directly but said the agency approved its marketing plan week at a meeting.

“Our new marketing plan includes the highest ever level of funding for our core domestic and international marketing programs, as well as new aggressive and strategic approaches that will help us reach our goal of 120 million highyield visitors,” he wrote in an email. “We appreciate each and every one of our partners’ support, and those who continue to work with us will see affordable cooperative programs in the days ahead.”

A Visit Orlando spokeswoman said the agency has not made any decision about its future with Visit Florida.

In June, legislators cut a deal that gave Visit Florida $76 million for fiscal 2018. It also added a list of provisions intended to create more transparency after legislators scrutinized the agency for making a secret contract with rapper Pitbull that did not detail his payment for promoting Florida on social media; it later was disclosed that the deal was worth $1 million. last