Sunshine Matters

On Tuesday, June 29, I was afforded an opportunity to brief members of Congress and their staff on the BP oil spill and its impact on tourism in Florida.  The briefing was sponsored by the U.S. Travel Association, the American Hotel & Lodging Association and the National Restaurant Association in cooperation with the Congressional Travel and Tourism Caucus.  California Representative Sam Farr, Co-Chair of the Caucus, was in attendance, as was Florida Representative Allen Boyd.  I was invited to speak along with Stephen Perry, president and CEO of the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau, Tom Dow, former president of the Alaska Visitor Association, and Adam Sacks, managing director of Oxford Economics.

Most members of Congress have not had the opportunity to witness firsthand how difficult things are in the Gulf.  In order to understand the scale of the problem we’re facing, they needed some perspective and a reminder of what’s at stake in Florida and the other Gulf coast states.  It is my intention in forums such as this to give the facts and the clearest possible picture of both the direct and indirect impacts of the oil spill on our people, their businesses and our statewide tourism industry.

I was asked to give a report from “Ground Zero.”  Truth is we don’t have a single impact in a stationary location.  “Ground zero” is a moving and changing target.  It is the environmental catastrophe that might happen now… tomorrow… or next week.  It might happen at any number of points in Florida.  It might happen in a minor way.  Or it could be devastating.  This is all part of the uncertainty that is wreaking havoc on our state’s economy.

For this crisis is unlike any we’ve faced in Florida.  It’s different from hurricanes, tornados, wild fires and red tide.  All of those crises have had a beginning… an end… and then a recovery period.  This crisis began… the ending is uncertain… and who knows how long we’ll be recovering.

The Deepwater Horizon platform exploded on Tuesday, April 20 and then sank.  The State of Florida’s Emergency Operations Center activated 10 days later on Friday, April 30.  The timing could not have been worse for NW Florida with Memorial Day just weeks away.

For Florida, our economic damage didn’t begin with the impact of oil on our beaches.  It began with the fear of the impact.  It wasn’t until Friday, June 4, 45 days after the platform exploded, that tar balls and tar patties washed up on widely scattered areas east of Pensacola.  Yet, during all the time leading up to that day, lodging properties in NW Florida and up and down the Gulf coast received cancellations of existing reservations.  And worse, the telephones either stopped ringing or slowed significantly.  We’re confident that the fear and uncertainty brought on in the early days of the oil spill, led visitors to cancel their plans or to travel elsewhere.

Florida is the vacation capital of the country and has been for generations.  Nine out of ten of our visitors have been to Florida before.  Many come twice a year.  We know they want to come.  Our great challenge as a destination is to send the message that Florida is still the No. 1 travel destination in the world.

VISIT FLORIDA’s job has always been to help our 80+ million visitors a year find their way to our many diverse and wonderful destinations.  However, with this crisis our job has shifted.  We are now focused on addressing consumer uncertainty and misinformation.  Our challenge is to keep our all-important repeat visitors coming back.  To do that, we have to be as trusted a source for accurate, credible, real-time and transparent information during these challenging times, as we have been in the best of times.  This is our commitment to our visitors, so they can continue to trust us with their vacation time and dollars.

In many ways, we are battling against uncertainty and misinformation.  And sadly, it appears that we will continue to be in that battle for quite some time.  You combat uncertainty by showing you can be trusted.  You combat misinformation one article… one interview… one blog post at a time.

Most of the talk lately about BP has focused on their efforts to mitigate damages to individuals and businesses as a result of direct impacts of the oil spill.  These are reactive efforts.  There is still a tremendous opportunity to be proactive.  To prevent more of the negative economic damages on the front end to minimize claims on the back end.  That can only be accomplished through strategic destination marketing at the state and local levels to separate the perceptions from the realities of what’s actually happening throughout our state.

First and foremost, we have to do all we can to stop the leak.  Then, the $70 million BP granted the four states affected by this crisis was a start… but only a start.  It is critical that substantially more marketing dollars be made available to:

• Assist towns, cities ands states in minimizing current and future negative economic impacts,
• Spread the word that the Gulf region remains open for business,
• Minimize the damage and suffering of millions of people employed in the travel and tourism industry, and
• Help ensure the sustainability of the thousands of small travel and tourism related businesses that operate along the Gulf Coast

VISIT FLORIDA will continue doing what we know is right.  Maintaining the trust of the visitors with whom we have long-standing relationships by providing real information and guidance based on real-time updates.  It’s the best way we know to manage this situation.