Fully funding VISIT FLORIDA keeps Florida moving in the right direction

I recently trekked to Tallahassee and visited senators and representatives from both our area and across the state. I also attended Gov. Rick Scott’s Roundtable in Sarasota with many local business owners, where I learned how lawmakers in the House continue to put Florida’s jobs at risk. I’m disappointed that politics, not logic, has taken over the fight for funding of VISIT FLORIDA and Enterprise Florida. Florida residents have nothing to gain from the Speaker’s political grandstanding to slash the state’s tourism marketing budget.

Did VISIT FLORIDA make mistakes with advertising decisions to contract with a popular rap star as a celebrity ambassador? I’m not so sure. While the influence and reach of celebrities can be hard to quantify, I can point to Red Lobster’s 33 percent increase in sales from the prior year after Beyoncé mentioned the chain in her 2016 Super Bowl performance. Hindsight has always been 20/20. As a restaurant owner, I’ve taken risks and paid for advertising that was unsuccessful too many times to count. I’d hate to have my marketing acumen reviewed with a fine-tooth comb after the fact. Despite these mistakes, I haven’t stopped all advertising nor have I slashed it from my budget. If a business fails advertise, you can only expect to coast in one direction, and that’s downhill. Tourism marketing drives visitors to our area, and it brings customers to enjoy our local businesses. It’s the money that tourists bring and leave locally that helps us create jobs and encourages growth.

VISIT FLORIDA has corrected its past mistakes, including putting the organization in the hands of Ken Lawson as the new president and CEO. There is no one more qualified to right a ship than the former Secretary of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. When Lawson was in charge of the DBPR, he slashed regulations that slowed businesses down and streamlined the inspection system and made it customer-friendly.

Tourism is the No. 1 industry in our state and to keep it that way we need a public-private partnership to market our state properly. Sure Disney, Universal and Busch Gardens do a great job marketing, but Florida needs a combined effort and cohesive “brand” to sell the entire state on what is the best destination for families, from all points of the globe. I do a lot of advertising locally for our residents and our visitors, but I rely heavily on VISIT FLORIDA to get them here from across the nation and internationally.

We must leave the politics out of our marketing and properly invest state funding into VISIT FLORIDA to keep Florida’s economy moving in the right direction.

This story was originally published April 30, 2017 at 5:28 PM with the headline "Fully funding VISIT FLORIDA keeps Florida moving in the right direction."