Austerity Tide Hits Florida Beaches

[question everything]

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
WSJ

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? Another potential client said it wouldn't consider any hotel with the words "spa" or "resort" in its title. A construction trade association canceled its 400-person annual convention at the resort scheduled for June, citing similar worries.

(snip)

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. In the final quarter of 2008, the number of out-of-state visitors to Florida dropped 13.6% from a year earlier, the largest quarterly decline since the quarter following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Many tourism officials expect a double-digit-percentage drop in visitors in 2009, at a time when the state is reeling from other economic woes, including being among the hardest hit areas of the real-estate meltdown.

In Orlando, tourist hot-spots such as Walt Disney World are offering a variety of cost-saving promotions to boost flagging attendance. In Fort Lauderdale, owners of beachside rental properties that used to sell out months in advance still have vacancies as the spring-break season approaches. A drop in tourist-related revenue hits especially hard in a state that has no personal-income tax and relies on tourism for a significant portion of its sales-tax revenue. In 2008, 82.5 million people visited Florida, according to state officials. Of the state's 18.8 million residents, nearly one million work in jobs linked to tourism.

(snip)

On Amelia Island, 30 miles northeast of Jacksonville, the impact of the tourism decline is particularly acute. Roughly 36% of the county's sales-tax revenue is generated by tourism. More than half a million people annually visit the island, with its 13-mile coastline and historic downtown district. Nature lovers come to the island to witness loggerhead turtles nesting in the sand and whales swimming just off the coastline. The island's two premier resorts -- Amelia Island Plantation and a Ritz-Carlton -- have lost a combined $6.2 million of convention and retreat business since the fall, according to Gil Langley, president of the Amelia Island Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Last month, BB&T Corp., a bank based in Winston Salem, N.C., that has received $3.1 billion in bailout money, canceled a March retreat at the Ritz for its top sales people. BB&T spokeswoman A.C. McGraw called the cancellation "a prudent business decision." Amelia Island Plantation is an expansive resort with four golf courses, more than 20 tennis courts, a spa and condos that fetch up to $800 a night. Among the groups who recently canceled events there are a California food distributor, a Georgia construction trade association and an Ohio hardware manufacturer, according to the resort.

(snip)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123724640515048685.html (subscription)

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A3

[izquierdista]

1. Exactly what they need

At least that's what the World Bank and the IMF told third world countries when they would run into trouble. Enact some austerity measures, cut out wasteful programs, maybe you need to raise some cash crops for export. You could raise a lot of strawberries on those golf courses....

[Selatius]

2. They still push that remedy. They were pushing water privatization as late as the 1990s/early 2000s.

They operate like a tool used to simply drain a victim country of wealth for the benefit of a few shareholders.

[malaise]

4. They're still doing it

We privatized electricity. Now we're not even sure who owns the company. Last week they announced that if they aren't given a massive price increase they will stop investing in upgrading the grid.

Here's a good read about how we feel about these criminals.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/html/20090316T200000-0500_147669_OBS_HOLD_UP_IN_THE_DARK_.asp
<snip>
The fact the Marubeni moved to sell half of its shares to another entity, Abu Dhabi Energy Company, a name unfamiliar to Jamaicans, is not surprising, neither was the lack of communication with the Jamaican people by the government about the deal. The dictum is that when the masters (multinationals) speak, the natives (government officials) listen, and then the lumpen proliteriat (the masses) fall quickly and quietly in line.

The other fact that should be whispered into Mr Obligio's ear is that there is a severe issue of trust, or more precisely, a severe lack of trust operating here. Not only do Jamaicans not trust politicians, but we also have a distinct lack of trust in "foreign" multinationals, and rightly so. When it comes to the history of light and power acquisitions and exploitations, the Jamaican people are well-versed and well-seasoned, and given the round of public protests last year, I would hasten to say, very well fed up and fired up as well. My advice to the JPS kingpins is: "Be careful whom you hold up."

[SoCalDem]

3. Although it sucks for people who work in vacation businesses, it's understandable

A company that has been laying people off, should not rub it in their faces, by having lavish parties for the ones who got to stay:(

[question everything]

5. Florida has to enact income tax

Every recession, when tourism is down, the state suffers.

[Selatius]

6. An income tax wouldn't help all of Florida's problems.

For years, lax regulations in terms of real estate speculation led to wild appreciation in home prices. When the housing bubble burst and the crap with the sub-prime mortgages hit the fan, Florida became one of the worst hit in the nation in terms of depreciating values and the resulting defaults. The government in Florida is very corrupt. A lot of big businesses and their parasitic lobbyists bend the rules all the time. An income tax wouldn't address the underlying problems in this state. What is needed is a great flushing of politicians down the tubes, but I don't think Floridian voters are equipped with the information to decide to do this.