from the Wall Street Journal (3/17):
MARCH 17, 2009
Austerity Tide Hits Florida Beaches
Tourism Industry Suffers as Businesses Cancel or Scale Back Events in the Sunshine State
By ALEX ROTH
"AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. -- Luxury resorts are accustomed to unusual requests. But Amelia Island Plantation was surprised to get this one from a corporate event planner worried about a function appearing too extravagant: could the resort drop the word "island" from its address?
Only a scattering of people dotted the sand near the Ocean Drive strip in Miami Beach in late January. In the last quarter of 2008, the number of out-of-state visitors to Florida dropped 13.6% from a year earlier, the largest decline since the quarter following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks." ...
"For tourism officials in Florida, the drop-off at Amelia Island Plantation is an ominous sign that the tourism industry, the state's lifeblood, is in for a brutal year. Executives at the resort say they have lost about $750,000 in revenue since January, as businesses and trade groups shun the negative publicity associated with anything even remotely resembling a boondoggle." ...
for the complete story
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment