Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 17, 2003
Tucked into the omnibus spending package Congress sent to President Bush last week is $50-million to market United States vacations to the world market.
The money is to be split as matching grants to state tourist promotion agencies, and a good share should end up helping Florida's visitor industry.
With 6-million foreign travelers in 2000, Florida trailed only California's 6.4-million among the 50 states. New York was third with 5.9-million.
"We're not just writing blank checks," said Rep. Mark Foley, R-West Palm Beach. "We're investing in our economy."
The U.S. share of the world travel market has declined 30 percent since 1992, according to the Travel Industry Association.
The grant program for this fiscal year is a one-shot deal, but many travel industry leaders think it lays the foundation for a revival of the U.S. Travel and Tourism Administration, this time as some sort of public-private partnership. The administration was put out of business by Republican congressional leaders in 1996. It spent about $10-million a year promoting travel to the United States from other nations.
This time a travel industry advisory group would be set up to develop an ongoing tourist marketing effort under Commerce Secretary Donald Evans.