PANIC: Florida takes huge economic hit as conventions reject anti-woke agenda

Jaysyn@kbin.social to politics @lemmy.world – 209 points – PANIC: Florida takes huge economic hit as conventions reject anti-woke agenda
washingtonpress.com

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has scared off millions of dollars worth of business from his state with his extremist, bigoted agenda.

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One: The 2024 National Family and Community Engagement and Community Schools Conference: 2,000 attendees with accompanying hotel rooms. The organizer worried attendees would refuse to come to Florida.

Two: Supreme Council of America Inc., Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite Masons: 855 hotel rooms.

Three: American Specialty Toy Retailing Association, 3,000 people, and hotel rooms now going to Milwaukee, citing the political climate in Florida.

The original report this is citing sounds brutal

The list was compiled by Visit Lauderdale, formerly known as the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Broward’s tourism arm said the lost conventions could have brought hotel stays to Fort Lauderdale and its surrounding cities, which also meant money spent on restaurants and attractions.

“We lost this program due to political climate,” according to a Visit Lauderdale spreadsheet listing the decision of the Supreme Council of America Inc., Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite Masons to cancel their convention — and 855 rooms — in August 2024.

“We were so close on this one,” reads the notes on the entry for the 2024 National Family and Community Engagement and Community Schools Conference, which needed more than 2,000 rooms and has bailed. “But, group decided to pull out of Florida due to concerns about what the Governor is doing in the education/schools and that he will likely run in 2024. They do not want to lose attendees due to this.”

I'm reading between the lines a little bit here, but I'm pretty sure that spreadsheet/list the Sun Sentinel is referencing was like an internal document they weren't planning to publish but handed over to the Sun because they're so pissed off about how their local economy has been trashed (like, I just spent some time searching around Visit Lauderdale's website and I couldn't find anything like what the Sun describes available for the public).

Can you imagine how pissed off an official tourism bureau has to be to leak bad news to a local newspaper? That just does not ever happen.

You know you're a shit conservative when you lose the Masons.

Florida wasn't a good spot for conventions anyways, geographically speaking.

It’s an attractive location during the winter because of the warm climate, that’s pretty much it, but in terms of being a accessible location, yeah it’s going to be out of the way for a lot of people considering it’s in one of the four corners of the country.

Historically, Florida is the 2nd most visited state in the US, and a surprisingly small percentage of those people are visiting for Disney World. Seems like this is rapidly changing because of how toxic the politics are there, but if we put all that aside, there are legit reasons why it’s such a hotbed for tourism, so it would make sense why conventions would be booked here despite being a poor choice geographically.

That doesn't even make any sense. As long as you have airport access, geographics barely matter to a convention that is held indoors.

If you want warm weather, beaches & real theme parks within driving distance & cheaper than California & Hawaii, Florida is (was) the place to go.

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Honestly ever since Trump I make it a point to only vacation in blue states. I'm not spending my dollars in communities that promote violence and hate.

It's really incredible to see a Republican launch his presidential campaign by attacking and hurting businesses both small and large...in his own state! It's like starting the Indy 500 by getting out and stabbing holes in all your tires and telling your pit crew to fuck off.

This is not accounting for the bill also passed about migrants. Causing plenty of truckers and farmers to start to freak out as well.

But anything for the presidential seat eh pudding fingers?

Meanwhile Destanis' polling numbers keep stagnating or keep going down the more he opens his mouth.....

Is this the fOrMiDaBlE iNtElLiGeNcE you referenced in your anti-LGBTQ+ ad, Ron? That lost you millions of dollars worth of business to pander to a bunch of internet trolls that probably aren't even old enough to vote? sigh

Washington Press? I hate DeSantis, but this article is about a single 2,000 person conference canceling... Come on people, we can be better than this kind of shitposting here.

Meh I am no fan of him or his policies at all, but I hate clickbaity titles that start with trigger words to envoke emotion like “PANIC”. This rag should do better IMO

You sound like one of those "just asking questions" type of people...

Lol I know my post came off as snarky but I’m really just chastising the headline here.

Yeah I am with you, though the original source doesn't paint a rosey picture either way.

That and the Washington Press isn't really a good or consistently credible source.