Our fight in Tallahassee to fully fund VISIT FLORIDA continues. We still need our Industry Partners to help us in this important endeavor. Recently, the Florida Senate included Governor Scott’s full $76 million for VISIT FLORIDA in their budget. The Florida House, however, has cut our organization’s funding by 67 percent to $25 million, an amount that would cost tens of thousands of jobs. Please contact your local legislators to respectfully tell them why fully funding VISIT FLORIDA is critical to 1.4 million jobs in our state.

Part of my role as President & CEO of VISIT FLORIDA is to structure our organization to best leverage tax dollars with the investment of our private tourism industry. That’s why I’ve asked Nelson Mongiovi, VISIT FLORIDA’s interim-CMO, to engage other marketing professionals throughout the state to decide how we can better serve our industry and attract more visitors. Nelson and his team have sent a survey to over 50 Florida tourism marketing professionals. This survey will help us plan a roundtable discussion by way of a webinar or video conference call to discuss ideas and challenges facing our industry. We will take the input received and implement new ways to serve the Florida tourism industry.

Also this week, I announced the appointment of Cynthia Hefren as Chief Financial Officer.

Cynthia has more than 25 years of experience in managing and improving performance of government operations coupled with executive management experience in providing cost-effective oversight. She is a welcome addition to our team as we work to increase the value VISIT FLORIDA provides to our strong industry.

Please reach out to me or my team if there is any way we can be of service.