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New campaign highlights benefits of Escambia County tourism

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Website educates residents about tourism’s lesser-known
impacts on education, infrastructure, public safety and more

Did you know: Tourism-related tax revenue and visitor spending helps fund various components of K-12 public schools, road and highway maintenance and beach beautification, as well as other programs developments which enhance citizens’ way of life. The tourism industry provides the county with nearly $800 million in direct visitor spending and employs more than 22,300 Escambia County citizens, supplying a wide range of benefits to residents and the community.

Jason Nicholson, a veteran of the tourism industry with over 30 years of experience, Chairman of Visit Pensacola and Vice President of Operations of Innisfree Hotels expressed just how vital the tourism industry is to our community.

“Forty-six percent of all ad valorem taxes (property taxes) paid in Escambia County are paid by accommodation providers which include hotels, condominiums, bed and breakfasts or home rental,” Nicholson explained. “Because of those guests coming into our accommodations, we get to employ 17 percent of Escambia County’s workforce which equates to over $380 million in payroll. In a beautiful cycle, that revenue is seen in the smiles of our employees when they provide for their family, in the city’s infrastructure and so much more.”

These revenues, generated by visitor spending, provide critical revenue for programs on which all Escambia County residents rely and enjoy.  The return on investment is clear: as the Pensacola Bay Area continues to welcome record numbers of guests, everyone benefits.

“For every $1 spent marketing the Pensacola Bay Area, the hospitality industry returns $3 in taxes and local businesses gain $107,” President of Visit Pensacola Steve Hayes said. “The restaurants, shops, nightlife and attractions we love are here for our enjoyment because of our guests. They are the ones who cause multiple new businesses to open every year, ultimately making Pensacola a better place to live, work and play.”

To further enhance residents’ understanding of tourism’s impact on their day-to-day lives, the Florida Association of Destination Marketing Organizations (FADMO), the voice for Florida’s county tourism promotion agencies, in partnership with Visit Pensacola, the destination marketing organization for the Pensacola Bay Area, today announced the launch of a new education campaign, “Pensacola Tourism Works for Me.”

The campaign, created and paid for by FADMO, helps promote awareness of tourism’s positive impact on Floridians, and details the work county tourism promotion agencies must do to attract visitors to their communities rather than competing destinations worldwide.

To learn more, visit pensacolatourismworks.com.

The Villages Daily Sun: Boost in tourism is a gain for Villages

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Another day, another dollar — or in Florida’s case, another $306 million.

That’s how much out-of-state visitors collectively spend in a single day when they vacation in the Sunshine State.

Just as more people are coming to Florida, tourists also are spending more money while they’re here, according to new research from Visit Florida, the state’s public-private tourism marketer.

That number grew to $112 billion in 2016, Visit Florida found. It’s an increase of $4 billion from the year before.

“It is great news that Florida has reached yet another tourism record with a historic $112 billion in visitor spending in 2016,” Gov. Rick Scott said in a statement. “Florida’s tourism industry helps support more than 1.4 million jobs across our state and is a major driver in our growing economy.”

2016 was also the year Florida attracted more than 100 million visitors for the first time.

Local tourism is booming, too. Tri-county leaders see lodging occupancy rates as a reflection of the growth in out-of-state visitors.

Occupancy in 2017 was 65.8 percent in Sumter, 70.8 percent in Marion and 71.4 percent in Lake, according to STR, a data and analytics specialist that tracks U.S. hotel data. 

All three counties experienced greater occupancy compared to 2016 rates, STR stated.

The optimism comes as Sumter leaders continue promoting the county and The Villages as a destination.

 

A state built on tourism

Without tourism, Florida wouldn’t have more than $88 billion in gross domestic product, according to Visit Florida’s economic impact report. 

That figure represents almost 10 percent of the state’s overall GDP. 

Florida tourists spent most of their money on lodging at hotels and vacation rentals, an industry that brought about $32 billion in 2016, the report showed. That’s up more than 3 percent from 2015. 

Tourists also offset the tax burden for Florida residents, contributing $11.6 billion in state and local tax revenues, the report showed.

Out-of-state visitation directly or indirectly supports more than 1.4 million Florida jobs, according to Visit Florida. The agency considers lodging, dining, entertainment and retail trade as tourism jobs.

Tourism represents more than 17 percent of total employment in Florida and every 78 visitors to the state support one tourism job, the report showed.

 

Scott credits the marketing efforts of Visit Florida with attracting record tourism and tourist spending. 

Keeping that growth in mind, he said he hopes to work with the Florida Legislature to secure $100 million in taxpayer funding for Visit Florida in the 2018-19 fiscal year.

Gov. Scott: Florida Hits All-Time Record High for Tourism

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88.2 million visitors came to Florida in the first nine months of 2017

Governor Rick Scott today announced that Florida set another tourism record by welcoming the highest number of visitors of any nine months in the state’s history with 88.2 million visitors, according to VISIT FLORIDA. This represents a 3.3 percent increase over the 85.4 million visitors from the same period in 2016. This includes 77.6 million domestic visitors, 7.9 million overseas visitors and 2.7 million Canadians visitors. Governor Scott made the announcement at Azucar Ice Cream Company, a locally-owned ice cream boutique that has been nationally recognized as one of Little Havana’s top tourist destinations.
Governor Scott said, “Today, I am proud to announce that Florida has continued our record breaking success by welcoming more than 88 million visitors to our state over the first nine months of the year. Florida has had three record quarters in 2017, which would not be possible without our relentless work to market Florida as the top tourism destination. This includes VISIT FLORIDA’s aggressive marketing efforts to make sure families across the world knew that Florida was open for tourism following Hurricane Irma. We will work with the Legislature to invest $100 million for VISIT FLORIDA this upcoming session to continue this success and make sure Florida can continue to break tourism records.”
VISIT FLORIDA estimates that a record 27.9 million visitors traveled to Florida in the third quarter of 2017 (July-September), an increase of 3.3 percent over the same period last year. This Q3 number breaks down to 24.9 million domestic visitors, 2.6 million overseas visitors and 428,000 Canadian visitors coming to the Sunshine State. Total enplanements at Florida’s 18 major airports in Q3 2017 increased 2.4 percent over the same period the previous year, with 20 million passengers. The number of hotel rooms sold in Florida during quarter three of 2017 grew by 4.7 percent compared to quarter three 2016. During the same period, Florida’s average daily room rate (ADR) increased by 3.0 percent and occupancy by 2.9 percent.
Ken Lawson, President and CEO of VISIT FLORIDA, said, “Back-to-back-to-back record quarters in the first nine months of this year show the Florida tourism industry has great momentum. VISIT FLORIDA will not rest on our laurels, but will continue to be at the forefront of creating leading-edge, original marketing programs for our industry partners so that together we can make Florida the number one vacation destination in the world.”
To view additional Florida visitor data, go the Research page on VISIT FLORIDA’s media website.
*Preliminary estimates are issued 45 days after the end of each calendar quarter. Final estimates are released when final data are received for all estimates in the report.

ICYMI: Miami Herald: South Florida tourism leaders worry cut to Visit Florida will crush hospitality industry

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South Florida tourism leaders worry cut to Visit Florida will crush hospitality industry
Miami Herald
Chabeli Herrera
February 28, 2017
There’s only so much South Florida can take in a year, hoteliers say.
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Hurricane Matthew battered the coast. And then came Zika, the blow that almost knocked the tourism industry out.
But it didn’t, thanks in part to a major marketing campaign that reminded travelers that South Florida — and particularly Wynwood and Miami Beach — were still open for business.
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The agency that helped bring South Florida back from Zika, hurricanes and the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 and that touts the state’s tourism virtues around the globe, faces a budget whack of epic proportions.
Last week, the Florida House Appropriations Committee voted to shrink Visit Florida’s budget to a third of its size, from $78 million to $25 million.
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But Jared Galbut, managing principal and co-founder of Menin Hospitality, which operates various restaurants and hotels in Miami Beach, is among those who find the decision to cut Visit Florida baffling, particularly as Miami-Dade rebounds from the worst of the Zika crisis.
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Tourism is one of Florida’s leading industries, responsible for a record 112.8 million visitors in 2016. Last year marked the sixth consecutive year of record visitation to the state.
In 2015, the most recent year for which data is available, visitors spent $108.8 billion in Florida on taxable goods, of which $11.3 billion was returned to the state in tax collections. In other words, said Dr. Jerry Parrish, Chief Economist and Director of Research for the Florida Chamber Foundation in a 2016 release, “those are taxes Florida’s businesses and families don’t have pay because our visitors have paid them for us.”
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In South Florida, the tourism industry is also a job creator, responsible for nearly 142,000 jobs in Miami-Dade and more than 95,000 jobs in Broward this year.
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SOUTH FLORIDA IMPACT
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Said Stacy Ritter, president of the Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau. “[Visit Florida has] a much longer reach than we do because they just have a much bigger budget. They can tell us who we need to talk to, point to the right people, as well as put our message out locally.”
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For smaller businesses, Visit Florida’s impact is event greater, said Peggy Benua, general manager of the 108-room Dream South Beach
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THE NEXT COLORADO
In downtown Miami, InterContinental general manager Robert Hill is bracing for a Colorado-like blow.
In 1993, Colorado became the only state to eliminate its tourism marketing organization, obliterating that agency’s $12 million budget. Within two years, Colorado’s share of domestic travelers dropped 30 percent, resulting in $1.4 billion of lost tourism revenue annually, according to a 2009 report by Longwoods Travel USA. Over time, revenue loss increased to more than $2 billion a year and Colorado plunged from first in visitorship to 17th.
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For their part, local tourism advocates are hoping the state won’t quit Visit Florida while Florida’s tourism is ahead.
“We know restaurants and hotels, it’s a luxury. People cut them out as soon as times get tough,” said Henry Delgado, general manager at South Beach steakhouse Smith and Wollensky.
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“We are going to just take second place and second place is never as good as first.”

ICYMI: Panama City News Herald: Gov. Scott touts tourism, jobs at PCB stop

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Gov. Scott touts tourism, jobs at PCB stop
Panama City News Herald
John Henderson
February 14, 2017
Gov. Rick Scott told local business and tourism officials Tuesday a proposal to eliminate the state’s tourism marketing and economic development agencies could devastate the local economy.
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The roundtable attracted a standing-room-only crowd at Capt. Anderson’s, with a wide range of local officials — including business owners, economic development leaders, tourism leaders and city and county elected officials — saying they supported Scott’s effort to keep the agencies.
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Scott said Enterprise Florida, which provides incentive payments for new companies to locate here or expand, has gotten a great return on the state’s investment.
Dan Rowe, executive director of the Bay County Tourist Development Council and a member of the Visit Florida Board of Directors, said the area already is seeing that return. He said the $30 million he secured for marketing this area after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill was invaluable in helping the area recover and demonstrated “the power of destination marketing.”
Jorge Gonzalez, president of The St. Joe Co. who also is on the board of Enterprise Florida, also spoke in favor of the agencies.
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Former Florida House Speaker Allan Bense re-emphasized both agencies are working and creating jobs.
“In this particular case, if we do away with Enterprise Florida and Visit Florida, it would be the worst catastrophe to hit the state of Florida,” Bense said.
Jennifer Adams, the executive director of the Gulf County Tourist Development Council, said tourism is an integral part of Gulf County’s economy, as well.
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State Sen. George Gainer, R-Panama City, said he supports Scott’s position.
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“Tourism drives the economy of our coastal communities in Northwest Florida and offering economic incentives to businesses looking to relocate to our state is what helps create new jobs,” Gainer said in an afternoon news release. “Eliminating funding for these two vital programs is (short-sighted) and another example of some of the bad ideas that come out of Tallahassee.”
Bill Dozier, chairman of the Bay County Commission, praised Scott for his economic development efforts.
“We appreciate what you are doing for jobs in Florida,” he said. “You have been able to lay the groundwork to bring so many jobs here. And for us to be competitive throughout the United States, to be able to attract jobs here. We need all the incentives that are going on. We don’t need to abolish it.”

Gov. Scott: Ken Lawson Will Fight for Florida Tourism

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Governor Rick Scott today released the following statement on Ken Lawson being named the new President and Chief Executive Officer for VISIT FLORIDA. The VISIT FLORIDA Board voted today on Ken Lawson’s position. Announcements on leadership for DBPR will be made soon.
Governor Scott said, “I am proud that Ken Lawson has been selected as the new President and Chief Executive Officer for VISIT FLORIDA. I appointed Ken as Secretary for the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation shortly after taking office and for nearly six years, he has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to serving Florida families.
“Ken understands the responsibility we have to be transparent with every tax dollar. He has tirelessly fought to make it easier for Florida businesses to create jobs, has helped cut millions of dollars in fees and has streamlined the agency to ensure the state reduced burdensome regulations. At DBPR, he oversaw crucial parts of Florida’s tourism industry and knows that tourism is important to the economic growth of our state.
“A native Floridian and military veteran, Ken has an incredible appreciation and understanding for our great state. I know he will use his unmatched experience and love for Florida to promote tourism while bringing much needed reforms to VISIT FLORIDA so our state can break even more tourism records. I look forward to continuing to work with Ken in his new role as President and CEO and appreciate the VISIT FLORIDA Board for selecting such a strong leader.”
Ken Lawson has served as Secretary of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) since he was appointed by Governor Scott in March 2011. Previously Lawson held several senior positions with federal law enforcement agencies including Assistant Secretary of Enforcement for the Department of the Treasury, Assistant Chief Counsel for Field Operations at the Transportation Security Administration, and Assistant United States Attorney in the Criminal Division for the Middle District of Florida (Tampa). Lawson has also served as a Captain in the United States Marine Corps, Judge Advocate General’s Division. Additionally, Lawson directed international anti-money laundering, anticorruption, and counterterrorist financing projects for Booz Allen Hamilton and served as Vice-President for Compliance at nFinanSe Inc., a financial services company in Tampa. He is a graduate of Florida State University and the Florida State University College of Law.