On the eve of Visit Florida’s annual Governors Conference on Tourism in Tampa this year, the group’s CEO provided a short and, what appeared to be, a scripted statement explaining why they quietly removed its LGBTQ+ travel section from the organization’s website.
"It's fairly simple. Visit Florida is a taxpayer-funded organization and, as such, Visit Florida our marketing strategy, our materials and our content must align with the state,” said Visit Florida CEO, Dana Young.
Young’s explanation comes nearly one week after the group received national criticism for removing dozens of pages dedicated to LGBTQ+ travel, including a landing page boasting Florida beaches as, “a draw for people of all orientations, but especially appealing to a gay community looking for a sense of belonging and acceptance."
Despite questions, Visit Florida has remained silent about the removal of links.
One Tuesday, Investigative Reporter Katie LaGrone approached Young in person at the Tampa Convention Center where the Governor’s Conference on Tourism is scheduled to begin Thursday.
"Katie, I'm not going to talk about this right now," Young said as she walked away from LaGrone.
Last year, Florida welcomed more than 140 million out-of-state visitors, a state record according to Visit Florida. The organization is touted as the state’s official tourism marketing agency, but it’s not a government agency. It’s budget, however, heavily relies on state funding each year. This year, Visit Florida received $80 million from the state coffers.
In her brief statement, Young added while the organization must align with the state, they "have and will always be a welcoming state and that is evident by our tourism numbers."
REACTION FROM PALM BEACH COUNTY LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY
Compass Community Center nestled in Lake Worth Beach has been a safe haven for the LGBTQ+ community for decades.
The center said removing a section of the state's tourism website dedicated to their community feels like the latest attack in a string of anti-LGBTQ sentiments over the past few years.
"It's not going to make them feel more safe, and it's certainly not going to make them feel welcome," said Michael Riordan, the chief operations officer at Compass Community Center "There is intention behind this, and the intention is to send a message."
Riordan said it just doesn't add up.
"LGBTQ dollars are just as important as anyone else's dollars. And people will spend it in other places. They will stop coming to Florida," Riordan said.
The true impact may be too early to tell, but Compass said it will continue to stand strong.
"It's one more dig on the community. And it's not going to last forever. And we know that. We're looking forward to sunnier days in Florida," Riordan said.
POTENTIAL IMPACTS ON FLORIDA TOURISM
"It doesn't make any sense from a business perspective," said Rachel Covello, a St. Pete-based LGBTQ travel blogger who first discovered the missing link about a month ago.
"It makes the LGBTQ people living in Florida and traveling to Florida think that the state just doesn't care about us," Covello said.
Despite reaching out to Visit Florida for answers, Covello said she never got an explanation on why the link was removed. On Wednesday, she attended the group’s Board of Directors meeting in Tampa with hopes of hearing substantive answers. She left disappointed.
"It was a very blanket, surface answer," she said. "They're saying they're falling in line with administration, but they welcome all to Florida. That doesn't make sense together," Covello said.
She has started a petition to get Visit Florida to put the pages back up on its website.
"It’s not an answer. I really do believe the people of Florida and all the hardworking people deserve an answer,” said Maryann Ferenc, a small business owner in Tampa who’s also a former board member for Visit Florida. Ferenc spoke during public comment to express her disappointment with the removal of LGBTQ material from Visit Florida’s website and left the meeting asking more questions.
“It just doesn't make sense," she said. "There was a lot of money and effort put into these campaigns, so it just doesn’t make sense. I mean if this is the No. 1 industry, what’s the reason why would we do this? If this is an economic decision, it's not a very good one," she said.
On Wednesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis answered questions about the removal of pages from Visit Florida's website. He said he didn’t know about it until after the fact but kept to his message that Florida is not a state segregating people into categories and that everyone is welcome.
