Florida’s Tourism Was in Trouble before the Pandemic Hit

Caribbean News…
25 October 2020 12:09am
Florida beach

Before the new coronavirus pandemic hit, the market share of overseas travelers to Florida was slumping. Visit Florida forecasts big trouble for the global tourism industry. The group wants the Sunshine State to get ahead of that, and local tourism agencies are catering to those itching to travel.

According to Visit Florida's Staci Mellman, the drop started in 2015 and it had started climbing again in 2019, right before the pandemic. Like everybody else, she strongly believes the global tourism industry has been one of the hardest struck by the pandemic.

"The World Economic Forum said that the bailout from this pandemic could set the global tourism industry back 20 years. That's not a good sign for Florida, given that our economy is driven by tourism," Mellman says.

In late August, Visit Florida pushed for in-state tourism, and in early October, it began marketing vacations to people within driving distance of Florida. Now, it's looking to international markets like Canada.

For Visit Lauderdale's JoNell Modys, people want to travel, but they need to feel safe doing so. "Ideally, we need to see a continual downturn in the number of cases. Every time there's a spike in COVID-19 cases, you can see little moments of hesitation in terms of our visitation numbers, our hotel occupancy, and air traffic arrivals," Modys says.

The bottomline: until more restrictions are lifted on international travel or a COVID-19 vaccine is released, local agencies will have to continue trying new ways to attract visitors.

Source: WFSU Public Media

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