Florida made headlines over the past two weeks, first when Disney canceled its planned Lake Nona employee housing development, citing leadership as one of its reasons, and again when the NAACP issued a Florida travel advisory, calling the state "openly hostile" toward people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals. News editor Johanna Jainchill spoke with Visit Florida CEO Dana Young at IPW about why tourists won't give up on the Sunshine State.
Dana Young
Q: What is your reaction to the NAACP advisory?
A: Frankly, I believe this is just a stunt to try to score some political points. We have not seen an impact in our visitation numbers from other groups that have issued these so-called travel advisories. We just got our Q1 numbers, and it was the highest quarter we ever had -- and 2022 was a record year. I think these numbers reflect how welcoming and hospitable Florida is and how diverse Florida is. The fact is you're seeing pushback [to the advisory], people saying, "This is not the way to do it." It's backfiring. We have a lot of hardworking hospitality professionals that rely on tourism to support their families and themselves. That's who this would hurt.
Q: You said Florida has the largest share of the Black visitation market in the country. Could this have a real impact?
A: Those numbers, 21% of the market, show that Black travelers enjoy Florida. This past legislative session, the governor signed a bill to create a new museum of Florida Black history, which is going to be a major travel attraction. We have five sites on the U.S. Civil Rights Trail in Florida. We have numerous heritage sites, not only African American heritage but Hispanic heritage, Caribbean heritage. We're such a mixing, melting pot of everything.
Q: While we're talking politics, the DeSantis-Disney issue seems to have impacted Disney's decision to cancel its Lake Nona project. Is Visit Florida concerned about more pullback from such an important tourism driver in the state?
A: We focus on tourism and visitation. That is a business decision that we don't feel impacts the tourism product that Disney has. Disney has been a longtime partner of Visit Florida. They continue to be a valued partner of Visit Florida, buying into a lot of our programs. People love Disney, they love visiting Disney, and they will continue to go to Disney.
Q: Florida was hugely successful during the pandemic, in part because you opened first. Now that most of the world is open, are you seeing any negative impact?
A: We never thought that we wouldn't have competition. We always planned for that. And that is why our strategy during the pandemic, when we were open and everyone else was closed, was all-out. We didn't just not pull back, we accelerated our marketing. Not only domestically but in every international market we had. We were front and center. I believe that there was a time in the U.S. where we were the only state marketing for seven months. We were living inside people's heads for a long time. But we always knew that things were going to open up. Competition is real. But the numbers show that we had a dramatic head start. Overall, international in Florida is down 23%. My understanding is that the national average is down about 38%. So we continue to exceed the national average.
Q: How much of an impact are long visa wait times having on that Florida inbound number?
A: It is a huge issue for Florida. Seven of our top 10 markets are in Latin America. Only Chile has a visa waiver, so we are impacted in six. Brazil is over 500 days. They are our No. 2 overseas market. Mexico is over 700 days. Really, in all of these countries, it's the first-time visitor that is impacted. And those are the ones that we want to come; we want to get them here and give them reasons to keep coming back.