CRYSTAL RIVER, Fla. — A bill that’s under discussion in the Florida house would change how Visit Florida, the state nonprofit marketing corporation, would be funded.
Under the proposed legislation, the bill would make it so instead of getting money from the state, most Florida counties would have to take a percentage of their tourism tax dollars to fund Visit Florida for the next three years.
After that, counties would have the option to keep their tourism tax revenue and not support the state marketing program.
What You Need To Know
- Larger counties would contribute 5% and rural counties 2%
- Counties want bed tax dollars to stay local
-Advertisement-
- ‘Visit Florida’ could lose state funding
Larger counties would have to contribute 5% while rural counties would contribute 2%.
The proposed bill would also change the makeup of Visit Florida and require they spend at least 75% of their funds to assist rural counties as well as improvements and upkeep at state parks and forests.
Josh Wooten, President of the Citrus County Chamber of Commerce, feels this would disproportionately affect smaller counties that rely on tourism.
“We feel that the state gets the 6% sales tax and we should be able to keep the money that’s collected so we can reinvest it in our communities,” he said.
The Plantation on Crystal River is the largest single contributor to Citrus County’s bed tax. The hotel has tens of thousands of guests each year and is one of the few places that hosts tours where patrons can swim legally with the manatees.
A bill under discussion in the Florida house would make it so individual counties would have to give a % of their tourism tax revenue to ‘Visit Florida’.
Tourism officials in smaller counties, like Citrus, feel this isn’t fair and would disproportionately affect them @BN9 pic.twitter.com/aM0F7zuaiG
— Angie Angers (@angie_angers) April 10, 2023
“We’re small and not a whole lot of people know who we are so if we don’t tell them it makes a big difference,” said Michael Mancke, General Manager of The Plantation on Crystal River. “Without spending some money in the right place in the right ways its hard for people to know we exist.”
Citrus County officials estimate that this change could take about $150,000 of our their $3 million marketing budget. Some larger counties known for their tourist destinations bring in well over $100 million in tourism tax dollars.
“We would be disproportionately hit by it because we don’t have the mouse and we don’t have Miami Beach,” Wooten said.
Wooten believes cuts would likely have to be made to their marketing campaigns that are already slimmed down to begin with.
House Speaker Paul Renner supports the bill.
Lawmakers who are pushing to move this forward feel that state money should used elsewhere and tourism tax money should be used to support the state’s marketing efforts.
