With its beaches, amusement parks, and great weather, it‘s no secret that Florida is a hotbed for tourism, and according to recent data, those tourism numbers are only getting stronger.

A local business owner is speaking out against Visit Florida after the state-funded tourism agency removed the LGBTQ+ Travel section from its website.

About 35 million visitors came to Florida between July and September of 2023. That’s according to the latest numbers from Visit Florida.

The NAACP over the weekend issued a travel advisory for Florida, joining two other civil rights groups in warning potential tourists that recent laws championed by Gov_ Ron DeSantis and Florida lawmakers are “openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals.”.

Images of storm-ravaged coastlines and ruined buildings have dominated headlines for a week since Hurricane Ian made landfall. It’s not the image the state’s tourism marketing agency wants to project to the rest of the country.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says the number of tourists coming to the Sunshine State in the last quarter of 2021 surpassed the visitor count in the same quarter before the start of the pandemic.

Florida’s tourism marketing agency says the state’s tourism economy is well on the road to recovery.

Florida's first accredited school for Black students sits in ruins despite being on the National Registry of Historic Places and under the care of the Palatka Housing Authority.

The next target audience for Visit Florida will be the West Coast, expanding earlier efforts that targeted travelers from East Coast cities who could drive or take short flights to Florida. “Think California, Oregon and Washington state,” Visit Florida President and CEO Dana Young said during an online meeting Friday of the Visit Florida Executive Committee. Ad“My phone’s been blowing up about the president’s COVID task force wanting Florida to shut down all bars, restaurants and gyms,” said committee member Carol Dover, who is president and CEO of the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association. House Republican leaders in recent years have criticized spending by Visit Florida, which faced a renewed threat during the 2020 legislative session of being put out of business. AdIn addition to the $50 million in funding, lawmakers last year extended the authorization of Visit Florida to Oct. 1, 2023.

Ron DeSantis is again seeking to hold sales-tax “holidays” for disaster-preparedness supplies and back-to-school shopping as part of economic initiatives included in a proposed $96.6 billion budget released Thursday. In his new budget proposal, DeSantis projected $65 million in savings for Floridians from the two proposed sales-tax holidays. AdDeSantis also asked for a 10-day disaster-preparedness tax holiday before hurricane season, with shoppers able to avoid sales taxes on storm supplies, including generators priced up to $750. DeSantis’ proposed budget also includes $5 million for Enterprise Florida, the state’s business recruitment agency, and $50 million for Visit Florida, its tourism-marketing arm. The Visit Florida funding would be the same as in the current fiscal year.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Visit Florida intends to use marketing dollars unspent from late winter and spring, as the coronavirus took hold, to get people to again explore the state. International travelers to the United States, with Florida the first scheduled stop, decreased 45.8 percent in the first four months of the year from the same time in 2019, according to Visit Florida. Visit Florida has previously pointed to potential long-term effects of the coronavirus on the tourism industry, saying people are expected to initially prefer short drives rather than long flights. Florida hotels lost nearly $3.5 billion in revenue between March 1 and May 30, Pewitt-Yancey said. Nearly 40 percent of people who filed unemployment claims in Florida between March 15 and April 21 came from the tourism sector.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A decades-long tradition of welcoming visitors to Florida with free orange and grapefruit juice has gone the way of roadside motels. These days, more often than not, they’re asking this question: Where’s the orange juice? There’s no orange juice,” said Kathy Boaz visiting from Chicago. We’re told that taking selfies with the 'no juice' sign has become very popular, but the welcome centers face much bigger problems than no free juice. But supporters of the $50 million argue Visit Florida is most valuable when there’s trouble in paradise.

The fate of the state's welcome centers is in doubtPublished: January 9, 2020, 6:11 pmLawmakers are preparing to battle over whether to keep funding Visit Florida.

Visit Florida is not one of those vital roles." Ron DeSantis' administration has asked lawmakers for $50 million to fund Visit Florida during the upcoming 2020-2021 fiscal year. "Visit Florida, like all other agencies and programs, is competing for limited resources. "For example, no one can argue that the Department of Children and Families request for an additional $275 million should take a backseat to Visit Florida. But Visit Florida also has an inverse result to funding pattern that clearly indicates zero correlation between Visit funding and the number of tourists visiting our state.

Senate Commerce and Tourism Chairman Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, backed legislation during the 2019 legislative session to keep Visit Florida operating as it came under fire from the House. The compromise also ensured that Visit Florida would remain in business through at least June 30. Meanwhile, House Speaker Jose Oliva has dismissed concerns that tourism would be hurt if Visit Florida went away. "These companies write checks to Visit Florida, not the other way around," Young said. "While it is probably obvious that these companies don't rely upon Visit Florida to succeed, they do find tremendous value in the umbrella brand that our organization provides."