Florida tourism leaders plan a campaign to promote resilience and showcase unaffected areas post-Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — 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.
“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.
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