TALLAHASSEE — Tourism-industry leaders are once again looking to counter negative media images of Florida, this time after Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton caused widespread damage — including in areas of the Gulf Coast that are popular with visitors.
Allison Hopkins, a spokeswoman for Visit Florida, the state’s tourism-marketing agency, said in an email that details had not been finalized for a post-disaster marketing campaign.
But in a message sent to organizations and people who team with the agency on marketing, Visit Florida President and CEO Dana Young announced an effort that will include a social-media campaign promoting a “Stronger Than the Storm” message for Floridians and “Florida Is Resilient” for people in other states.
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“We are working with content creators to help showcase unaffected areas and will resume paid search and promotional programs,” Young wrote.
“In the coming weeks, we will roll out a larger crisis-recovery initiative, with several million dollars in planned investment, to further support impacted destinations,” Young continued.
A separate social media campaign is being used to promote areas that suffered minimal damage or weren’t directly affected.
Tourism-industry officials have faced similar issues in the past.
After Hurricane Ian in 2022, Visit Florida undertook a three-phase, $5 million marketing effort aimed at offsetting media coverage of the storm. The agency estimated Ian resulted in $165 million in negative media in the three weeks after it made landfall in Southwest Florida.
TIRED OF GETTING TEXTS?
Here’s an incentive to vote early rather than waiting until Election Day: fewer campaign and candidate texts and emails.
Honestly, said Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Nikki Fried.
“We are that good that as soon as you vote, our databases are updating, that will make sure that you stop receiving those text messages,” Fried said before casting her own vote Monday morning at the Leon County Courthouse.
Early voting sites opened Monday in about 50 Florida counties. Every county must offer early voting starting Saturday.
‘LEANERS’ AND ‘BLURTERS’
A new University of North Florida poll showed the gap widening in the state between Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, while the race is narrower between U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Democratic challenger Debbie Mucarsel-Powell.
But the poll, conducted between Oct. 7 and Oct. 18 by UNF’s Public Opinion Research Lab, also showed the increased difficulties in scientifically cobbling together public opinion.
In the presidential and Senate contests, “responses were recorded from those who refused to take the survey, but volunteered who they would vote for before hanging up the phone,” a news release from the university said. “These ‘leaners’ and ‘blurters’ are included.”
The university also noted that undecided respondents were asked if they leaned toward a candidate if they had to choose.
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Michael Binder, the lab’s faculty director and a professor of political science, said in the news release that because Hurricane Milton hit the state during the survey period, “we made some methodological choices to increase our coverage and ensure a representative sample.”
“Prior research tells us that the folks who blurt out their candidate vote choice and then hang up are very likely to vote, and most of those ‘blurters’ are Trump supporters,” Binder said. “This might help explain why his lead widened to 10 points, up from 7 in our last poll back in July.”
In the Senate contest, with the “leaners,” Scott was at 49 percent while Mucarsel-Powell got 46 percent.
SOCIAL MEDIA POST OF THE WEEK: “There is a brazen and ongoing attack on free speech in Florida, where the DeSantis admin is attempting to coerce TV stations to stop running ads in support of abortion rights. Funny that none of the people on X who claim to care about free speech are talking about it.” — Judd Legum (@JuddLegum), who writes the “Popular Information” newsletter.
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