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Visit Florida Fights Cuts With Colorado Woes

Visit Florida

Visit Florida is fighting for economic survival the only way it knows how, through a marketing campaign.

House and Senate budget negotiators want to dramatically slash spending for the state’s tourism marketing arm.

Visit Florida is fighting back with a 2-minute video featuring Colorado Tourism Office head Cathy Ritter.

Ritter claims Colorado fell from the nation’s No. 1 summer resort destination to No. 17 a year after lawmakers eliminated her office in 1993.

“By saving $12 million a year, they ultimately cost the state economy about $ 1 billion a year and the losses kept snowballing over the years.”

The ad is titled, “The Story of Colorado Tourism – A Cautionary Tale.” Ritter claims it took decades for her state to regain its market share. Visit Florida stresses the ad was produced with no cost to the public-private agency.

A Miami native, former WFSU reporter Jim Ash is an award-winning journalist with more than 20 years of experience, most of it in print. He has been a member of the Florida Capital Press Corps since 1992.