 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Gov. Bush hits the air, airwaves to boost state tourismBy STEVE BOUSQUET
© St. Petersburg Times, TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush opened an economic recovery effort Friday with a string of network TV appearances in which he urged people to come back to Florida to revive the state's tourist-based economy. Bush will reinforce the message today in visits to Boston and Chicago. Acting as the state's chief tourism ambassador, he will tell New England travel agents and Midwestern mall customers that it has never been safer to fly. Bush has generally avoided the national media spotlight up until now, preferring policy to punditry. But with the economy and employment in his state precariously at the mercy of air travel, he appeared up and down the TV dial urging people to vacation in Florida. "It's getting cold up there, isn't it?" Bush asked the New York-based hosts of Fox and Friends. "You're supposed to come to our beaches and our attractions and our beautiful state parks system when it's getting cold." Bush also popped up on NBC's Today show, CNN's morning news and in Spanish on Univision's En Vivo news program. Bush voiced complete faith in the safety of air travel, acknowledging that Florida's $50-billion-a-year tourism trade likely won't recover until public confidence in air travel is restored. "The airports are more secure now than they ever have been," Bush told NBC's Tom Brokaw. "I am absolutely convinced that it is safer to fly today than it was prior to Sept. 11, and it's increasingly so." Bush's upbeat tone couldn't mask a stark reality that since the terrorist attacks, many airports have been empty, choking off the pipeline of northern visitors to Florida tourist attractions just as the fall snowbird season is beginning. The slump in travel is sure to hurt the state's tax collections and comes at a time when Bush and the Legislature are faced with making painful budget cuts to close a $673-million shortfall. Bush has repeatedly touted Florida as having led the five most populous states in new-job creation. "Now, we're probably dragging the economy down a bit," he said. Bush will take a state-owned plane to Atlanta today, aides said. From there, he will fly on Delta to Boston, on United from Boston to Chicago and again on Delta from Chicago to Atlanta. Bush spokeswoman Katie Baur said the governor will be accompanied by an Associated Press reporter, a radio reporter and a crew from an Orlando TV station that will send pictures and interviews by satellite to other Florida TV outlets. Flying commercial for the second straight weekend, Bush will address New England travel agents aboard the cruise ship Carnival Victory on Boston's waterfront. The ship is wrapping up its final fall foliage tour before sailing south to its winter home at the Port of Miami. Then Bush will fly westward for a stop at a Disney store in the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Ill. Carnival Corp. spokesman Tim Gallagher said his boss, company president Bob Dickinson, had encouraged Bush to create "some media events" when Bush met with cruise industry leaders in Miami last Saturday. Gallagher said Carnival is the biggest user of seaports in Tampa, Miami and Fort Lauderdale. He said Carnival, the state's largest cruise ship company, is "well-positioned" to get through a tough time, with its $1.2-billion in cash and $1.6-million in unused credit lines. But future bookings are at 60 percent, way off optimum levels of about 102 percent. "Getting people back in the air -- that is the key to reviving our industry," Gallagher said. Bush has often turned down invitations from the TV shows he appeared on Friday. "We initiated those," communications director Baur said of the interviews. "We thought this would be a good way to get the message out." One of Bush's TV hosts looked for a silver lining in the state's tourism troubles. "Might be one of those rare times when people don't actually have to wait in line at Disney World, right, Governor?" CNN's Paula Zahn asked. Then CNN went to a promotion for its next story: "A visit to one of the most heavily land-mined cities in the world -- Kabul, Afghanistan."
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times Business report
From the AP
|
