Visit Florida president gets a raise amid tourism rebound

With the state drawing document numbers of vacationers from different components of the nation because the trade rebounds from the COVID-19 pandemic, Visit Florida President and CEO Dana Young obtained an 8.6% pay increase Thursday.

“I look forward to continuing to work with you all and hope that we don’t face challenges in the future as an organization or as a state or the world that we faced in the last few years,” Young, a former state lawmaker from Tampa, stated throughout a assembly of the tourism-marketing company’s board on the JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes.

Young, who has led Visit Florida since 2019, final 12 months turned down the board’s supply of an 8% pay improve and a $7,500 bonus. She accepted Thursday’s wage hike.

Outgoing Visit Florida Board Chairman Danny Gaekwad famous Young’s rejection of the 2021 supply earlier than calling for the board to extend Young’s annual wage from $175,000 to $190,000.

“In her view, despite the amazing progress Florida had made in its recovery from the pandemic, especially relative to our competitors, there was still a lot of work to do on behalf of our industry,” Gaekwad stated. “And she simply did not feel good about accepting any additional compensation at that time.”

Visit Florida stated on its web site that pay for 4 executives, together with Young, comes from state and personal cash, with taxpayers protecting $120,000 for every.

Board member Lino Maldonado stated Young is “grossly underpaid” by trade requirements.

“There are medium- and small-sized companies that have marketing managers, directors that actually are paid more,” Maldonado stated.

While worldwide journey numbers haven’t returned to pre-pandemic ranges, the state attracted 35.982 million guests throughout the first quarter of 2022. That surpassed totals from related quarters earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic rocked the hospitality and leisure trade.

“Two years ago, it was all gloom and doom, and now last year was the best ever,” Gaekwad stated. “We have just closed our third consecutive quarter of overall visitation exceeding (the) pre-pandemic level and have seen 12 solid months of growth in domestic visitation, making calendar year 2021 the best year for domestic visitation ever.”

Travel from different nations, nonetheless, has lagged. During the primary quarter of 2022, the state attracted 1.323 million guests from abroad and 578,000 from Canada. In 2019, the state averaged simply over 2.45 million abroad vacationers and 1.022 million Canadians every quarter.

In a document $109.9 billion state finances that Gov. Ron DeSantis signed final week, Visit Florida will obtain $50 million for promoting efforts within the fiscal 12 months that can begin July 1.

The company obtained $80 million for the present fiscal 12 months, together with $30 million in federal stimulus cash.

Also Thursday, the board named Greg Cook, common supervisor of the Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island, as chairman to interchange Gaekwad.

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