DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis was in Daytona Beach Wednesday to emphasize "the critical importance" of the tourism industry in Florida and to the state's economy.
During a news conference Wednesday afternoon with president and CEO of Visit Florida Dana Young, DeSantis announced a marketing campaign aimed at promoting tourism within the state. This announcement comes just before Labor Day weekend.
“This new intrastate marketing campaign is the latest step we’re taking to help get people back to work,” said Governor DeSantis. “While the pandemic is not over, and safety remains paramount, we encourage Floridians to venture out of their homes to enjoy everything our beautiful state has to offer.”
According to the governor's office, tourism accounted for more than 1.5 million jobs and $91 billion in revenue in 2019. However, because of the coronavirus pandemic, visitation dropped by more than 60 percent year-over-year in the second quarter of 2020.
In response to this, Visit Florida has launched an in-state tourism marketing campaign in hopes to support the state's economic recovery and tourism labor market.
“At Visit Florida, we are proud to launch an in-state advertising campaign that is aimed at helping every Florida community recover,” Young said. “Our tourism businesses have been severely impacted, but there is no doubt that our state is still the best place to live and the best destination for travelers. Together with Governor DeSantis, Visit Florida and our state’s tourism industry will not stop until we have fully recovered and every Floridian whose job was impacted by COVID-19 can get back to work as quickly as possible.”
You can find more information on Visit Florida's In-State Rebound Campaign here. You can also see Visit Florida's COVID-19 dashboard that monitors the impacts the pandemic has had and continues to have on the tourism industry here.
On Friday, DeSantis made the case it was safe for tourists to fly on airplanes to come to Florida. DeSantis spoke at a forum on airline travel with industry executives.
DeSantis says he hasn’t heard of any cases where an airline passenger had caught the virus from being on an airplane. Airlines and airport executives told DeSantis that the virus was having the biggest impact on international travel to Florida.
As of Wednesday, there were 633,442 total confirmed COVID-19 cases in Florida. California is the only state with more cases with 715,000 confirmed as of Sept. 2, according to Johns Hopkins University and Medicine.
Watch the full press conference here:
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