Governor speaks on tourism campaign
To the editor:
Recently, I had the privilege to join representatives of Florida’s tourism industry and help re-launch ‘Share a Little Sunshine.’ This statewide, grassroots tourism campaign encourages all Floridians to send a personal email to out-of-state friends and family, and invite them to visit the Sunshine State.
Each year, millions of people from around the world choose to spend their hard earned money and precious time here with us in Florida. Our state’s tourism industry alone employs more than one million Floridians, and the visitors these employees serve generate 21 percent of the state’s total sales tax revenue money paid by non-residents that fund crucial needs such as roads, hospitals, firefighters and policemen.
We know that 85 visitors to the Sunshine State support one job, and that in 2008, tourism returned $3.9 billion to Florida in tax revenue and generated $65.2 billion in direct economic impact. So I’m asking all Floridians to reach out and “Share a Little Sunshine” with their friends and family, and help increase visitation to the state and raise much-needed sales tax dollars.
At www.ShareaLittleSunshine.org, Floridians can select one of several free video invitations or custom e-mail postcards that can be sent to friends and family directly from the site. Each invitation carries with it information about special destinations from the sender’s geographic area. To encourage Floridians to send invitations, a Florida vacation package will be given away each quarter to someone who sent an invitation through www.ShareaLittleSunshine.org.
As Governor, I promise to continue my efforts to promote Florida, and I invite you to do the same. Tourism’s economic impact touches our lives daily. Therefore, we must continue our work to preserve Florida’s wonder and beauty for generations to come.
If we all get involved, together we can encourage more visitors to come to the Sunshine State. In this way, we will help keep Floridians employed, create new jobs, and help keep our state’s world-class restaurants, resorts, parks and attractions strong.
May God bless you and the great State of Florida.
Charlie Crist
Florida Governor
Tallahassee