Brevard County boosted its tourism tax revenue by15 percent last year, enabling the Space Coast Office of Tourism to increase its spending on marketing the area to attract even more tourists.
But the Office of Tourismnow faces two potential issues that directly or indirectly involvethe county's 5 percent Tourist Development Tax on hotel rooms and other short-term rentals.
The agency must devise a way to reallocate the portion of the tax that previously was designated for Space Coast Stadium, whose construction debt has been paid off.
Additionally, there is a move spearheaded by Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran to eliminate Visit Florida, the state's tourism marketing agency. If successful, Brevard tourism officials fear, that could mean local tourist tax money will be tapped to fill the gap in statewide tourism marketing — at the expense of marketing focused on individual tourism regionslike the Space Coast.
Both issues were topics of conversation at a recent Brevard County Tourist Development Council leadership retreat in Cocoa Beach andat recent meetings of the nine-member council.
Retreat participants identified as critical success factors such things as educating residents and politicians about the importance of tourism, as well as local marketing of tourism and tax revenues for tourism.
Currently, 17 percent of the $12.83 million expected to be available in the current budget year from the county's Tourist Development Taxis designated for Space Coast Stadium. That's the third-largest allotment, behind marketing the Space Coast through promotion and advertising (41 percent or $5.22 million) and beach improvement (25 percent or $3.21 million).
'Project Time Off' pushes vacationing on Space Coast
Tourism officials are considering asking the Brevard County Commission to approve changing the ratio for the portion of the tax that goes to the stadium, so that more money goes toward marketing and less for the stadium, since not as much would be needed for the stadium.
"Spending more tobring more people to the area would be a good idea," said Tourist Development Council member Tim Deratany, owner of Merritt Island-based Deratany Consulting, and a former member of the Florida Senate and Florida House.
Space Coast Office of Tourism Executive Director Eric Garvey said, based on conversations with Brevard County management, the proposed new target is for $500,000 a year to be set aside from the tourist tax for capital projects at Space Coast Stadium.That change could increase the $5.22 million budgeted for tourism marketing by more than $2 million.
Space Coast Stadiumthis year will become headquarters for the U.S. Specialty Sports Association, including a range ofamateur and youth sports operations, as well as the USSSA Pride professional women's softball team, whose season begins in June.
The stadium previously was the spring training home of the Washington Nationals, which is moving its spring training operations this year to West Palm Beach, and the home of the Brevard County Manatees, which is moving this year to Kissimmee and hasbeen renamed theFlorida Fire Frogs.
Visit Florida's future
While this is happening at the county level, there is a push by Corcoran, R-Land O' Lakes,to eliminate Visit Florida. On Wednesday, that proposal — which is tied in with a proposal to also targets funding for the economic development agency Enterprise Florida — cleared the House Careers and Competition Subcommittee by a 10-5 vote.
Among the nine Republicans and one Democrat supporting the bill was Rep. Randy Fine, a Republican who represents South Brevard. Four Democrats and one Republican voted no.
Fine said he is concerned about the "questionable business practices" of Visit Florida, including what he said has been a lack of transparency about its spending.
Fine said he also had concerns about:
• A$1 million contract withMiami hip-hop artist Armando Christian Perez, better known as Pitbull,to promote Florida tourism, partly through his "Sexy Beaches" video.
•Sponsorship deals between Visit Florida and the London-based Fulham Football Club soccer team for $1.25 million and an International Motor Sports Association racing team for $2.9 million.
•The severance agreement made with former Visit Florida President and Chief Executive Officer Will Seccombe.
"You don't have to have visit Florida to advertise Florida tourism," Fine said, adding that another state agency could perform that function.
Governor defends agency
The idea of eliminating Visit Florida is opposed by Gov. Rick Scott and tourism officials, and there currently is no similar bill in the Florida Senate.
Scott discussed Visit Florida and Enterprise Florida during a news conference about his budget Monday at Port Canaveral, saying it was important to continue the agencies and their programs to attract tourists and businesses to Florida.
In remarks to reporters after a Florida Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Scott was more detailed in his criticism of the proposal pushed by Corcoran.
"When they want to say that we don’t need to do any more marketing for Visit Florida, what they are saying is we don’t need any more jobs in tourism," Scott said. "Now let’s think of what’s happened. In business, what you learn is you have to get a return on investment. Otherwise, there will be no shareholders who give you money. There will be no bondholders who give you money. You won’t be able to stay in business. So when I came in … I said, we’re going to get a return. I’m not going to put the money out unless we get a return. And we’ve gotten a much-better return than anybody’s going to get in their bank account."
“Look at what we’ve done with Visit Florida," Scott said. "We have increased the number of our expenditure, and what have we seen? We have seen unbelievable number of new jobs and new tourists. The state had stagnated around 80 million tourists, 82 million tourists a year before I got elected. This year, we’ll have over 110 million tourists. Even after going through all the issues we had last year — whether it’s Zika or the hurricanes or other issues — we’re seeing tourism grow."
House speaker's opposition
Corcoran has vowed that the House will not fund either Visit Florida or Enterprise Florida, likening economic incentives to "corporate welfare."
In a statement, Corcoran said: "We were elected to do what is right and clean up government, put an end to the waste of taxpayer money and end the culture of corruption. The governor cannot be surprised that we will do the right thing, regardless of the consequences."
Cocoa Beach hotel owner Tom Hermansen said Visit Florida is critical to Florida's economy,since tourism is a $108.8 billion industry for the state, supports 1.4 million Florida jobs and is "the No. 1 generator of tax in our state," responsible for $11.3 billion in state and local taxes.
The$76 million in Scott's proposed budget for Visit Florida "is a very, very small amount to support" such an important industry, said Hermansen, who is president of Ocean Partners Hospitality, which owns and operates four Cocoa Beach hotels:the Best Western Oceanfront, Courtyard by Marriott, Days Inn and Hampton Inn. Hermansen also is a member of the Brevard County Tourist Development Council's Marketing Committee and its Capital Facilities Committee.
Hermansen compared continuing using state money to marketthe state's strong tourism industry to Coca-Cola continuing to market its beverages — a product most people in the world already know.
Visit Florida cites as "cautionary tales" the negative impact on tourism experienced in three states — Colorado, Pennsylvania and Washington — after those states cutfunding for tourism marketing.
Hermansen said it would be "entirely misguided" if Florida took its "the foot off the pedal," and pulled back state funding for Visit Florida.
Space Coast tourism experienced huge jump in 2016
The Florida Association for Destination Marketing Organizations and the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association are among the organizations leading the effort to preserve Visit Florida funding.
Space Coast Officer of Tourism Deputy Director Bonnie King said Space Coast residents in thevarious aspects of the tourism industry —including at hotels, restaurants, attractionsand ecotours — will be helping that effort.
During a Jan. 26 Florida Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on the issue, U.S. Travel Association President and Chief Executive OfficerRoger Dowcalled Corcoran's proposal "a potential risky experiment that could threaten Florida's economy, your sales tax revenue and the livelihoods of hundred of thousands of working-class Floridians."
"We have got to keep up this fight," hotelier Tom Williamson said during that hearing. He is a partner and general manager of the Courtyard by Marriott and Hampton Inn in Cocoa Beach.
"As it'sbeen shown to you, there are competitors out there waiting for us to falter, and I implore you not to let that happen," said Williamson, who also is a member of the Brevard County Tourist Development Council and a member of the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association board of directors."I implore you to fund our marketing effortto keep this momentum for the state of Florida."
Corcoran: Florida tourism works without state dollars
The Senate Appropriations Committee chair,Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, has indicated his support for keeping Visit Florida funding.
"I think it's an industry that we cannot turn our back on," Latvala said. "We can't crawl in a hole and pull the cover over on top us. We have to be able to compete economically with other states that also advertise and offer things for folks to come to their state. So we're going to look at this very seriously in the Senate."
"I don't think we can stick our heads in the sand, and just quit advertising and quit doing things to bring people to Florida, bring businesses to Florida, bring movies to Florida," Latvala said. "I'm a strong supporter of Visit Florida. I think we need to continue to support Visit Florida."
Latvala said it is important to "having tourism promotion on an organized, consistent basis. It's important to look at the overall performance. The numbers are going up. They're real numbers, not fake numbers, not projections. They're real numbers. So I don't have any hesitation about supporting what they're doing" at Visit Florida.
The News Service of Florida contributed to this story.
Contact Berman at 321-242-3649 ordberman@floridatoday.com, on Twitter at@bydavebermanand on Facebook atwww.facebook.com/dave.berman.54.
