Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
Pasco's shift in focus from ecotourism to sports requires a change, the current consultant says of her departure.
By JAMES THORNER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 1, 2002
Honey Rand, the consultant who has helped make Pasco County an ecotourism destination, has announced she won't renew a contract with the county that expires at the end of March.
Rand said Pasco's goal to draw tourists through sporting events is -- no pun intended -- out of her league. The county is exploring, among other things, building a tennis stadium in Wesley Chapel.
"While the county was focused on ecological tourism, it made a lot of sense and was a good fit for me. But if they take a turn towards sports . . . they'd be better off with another firm," Rand said Monday.
Rand's firm in Tampa, Communications Solutions, has been the county's main adviser on tourism since 1998. The county pays her company $5,000 a month through the hundreds of thousands of dollars it collects from a 2 percent tax on hotel rooms.
Among her duties is to attend the county Tourist Development Council meetings, design promotional videos and literature, and publicize Pasco at trade shows.
Rand said her biggest accomplishment was "grunt work" such as inventorying hotel rooms and archiving Pasco photos. "It has been a monumental task to get that done," she said.
Two tourist destinations consumed much of her publicity work: the Florida Pioneer Museum in Dade City and the J.B. Starkey's Flatwoods Adventures nature tours in Odessa.
Nevertheless, sports, and not nature tourism, seems the best route for Pasco to fill hotel rooms, said Rand, whose previous jobs included stints as spokeswoman for the Southwest Florida Water Management District and Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota.
Her departure clears the way for the county to hire a sports-oriented consultant, she said. The county plans to collect proposals to build a tennis stadium with $5.7-million stockpiled from the hotel tax. Saddlebrook Resort, whose owner Tom Dempsey originally raised the idea of building a stadium, will be among the bidders.
"Regardless of the stadium, sports brings in money, and that's a good direction for the county to head in," Rand said.
Rand will formally announce her departure at the Tourist Development Council meeting scheduled for Jan. 11. The county would like to advertise for her replacement before Rand's contract expires March 31.