It’s the largest economic driver in the state of Florida. Tourism accounts for more than 95,000 jobs in Palm Beach County.
As Coronavirus concerns continue to cause countless cancellations, tourism leaders are fighting back.
Along the downtown West Palm Beach waterfront people spent Wednesday afternoon, sightseeing, biking and walking.
Inside the West Palm Beach Visitor Center, manager Kami Kreaps is typically not in short supply of activities to recommend to tourists.
“Catamaran cruises to the public and we do private charters, we also provide jet skis, paddle boards, kayaks,” Kreaps said.
Now their once booming business that centers around visitors has come to a screeching halt.
“We have seen over $118,000 in cancellations with business just in the past 30 days,” she said.
Kreaps says the cause is COVID-19.
“Yes it’s been very intense for us,” Kreaps said.
The virus is also causing The Breakers, a resort on Palm Beach, to close its doors until April 8th.
The historic resort is one of the largest contributors to the Palm Beach County bed tax.
“We take those bed taxes and we do marketing and promotions for the county, we build assets. We’ve built the convention center, we’ve built certainly two spring training baseball stadiums,” Glenn Jergensen said.
Jergensen is the Executive Director of the Tourist Development Council. He says bed tax is 6 percent of every hotel bill. Jergensen says it’s too early to know the exact impact of COVID-19, but it’s not too early to work towards a solution.
“We are reassessing everything we do in the agencies,” he said. "That’s why we have put away reserves, we are certainly are monitoring everything about a recovery for tourism and we are going to work to make sure we can come out of this and help the economy along as we go forward.”
Kreaps at the West Palm Beach Visitor Center says they will offer private catamaran cruises for parties under ten at a discounted rate, following the CDC’s guidelines. She says the goal is to recoup as many sales as possible and provide an outlet for people looking for something fun to do.
The cruises will be offered through Visit Palm Beach, which operates out of the visitor center.
If someone wants to book, visit www.VisitPalmBeach.com
