- April 18, 2024
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Visiting Flagler Beach in a town hall-style meeting Feb. 13 at the Vessel Sandwich Co., Florida Gov. Rick Scott spoke out against a bill sponsored by state Rep. Paul Renner to eliminate the state tourist marketing program Visit Florida and the state economic incentive program Enterprise Florida.
Both programs fuel the economy and create jobs, Scott said.
“Every 85 tourists is a job,” he said. “That’s an unbelievable return.” In the Flagler, St. Johns and Volusia County area, he said, about 57,000 jobs are tied to tourism.
Scott said that the state is competing with communities all over the world to market itself to tourists and businesses, and spends millions per year to do so — increasing each year. But so too, he said, does the return.
Last year, Scott said, the state had about 106 million to 107 million tourists, up from about 82 million the year Scott was elected. This year it’s expected to be millions more.
“How many businesses do you know that said, ‘You know what? I think I have enough customers. I’m going to stop marketing. No, we’re good, we’re not going to market anymore. I know we’ll lose some of our business, we’re OK with that,’” he said. “When they have less customers, they have fewer employees. If we stop marketing our state — for jobs, for tourism — we’re going to get less jobs.”
Scott said he was “shocked” last week when Renner introduced a bill to end both programs.
Renner, in a letter to the Palm Coast Observer explaining the reasoning behind the bill (see the letter on page 6), called Enterprise Florida “corporate welfare,” writing that it that picks winners and losers among businesses, takes from the many in the form of taxes to give to the few in the form of incentives, and undermines the free market.
Scott said that money spent on the two programs is returned when the programs entice people to move to the state and bring businesses to the state, increasing the tax base and thereby decreasing the burden on individual taxpayers for services such as education and public safety.
Local business people, some of them also members of the county’s Tourist Development Council, said during the meeting that the two programs had aided their businesses.
Flagler Beach Gift Shop owner Michelle Brown said that Visit Florida helped bring tourists back to the area after photos of Hurricane Matthew damage had scared them away.
Marineland Dolphin Adventure General Manager Kurt Allen said Visit Florida helped market in places abroad that Marineland wouldn’t have been able to reach on its own.
“We have to put together coalitions to market better,” he said. “Visit Florida is not just doing things on their own; they’re partnered with people around the state.”
