Visit Florida’s Fight for Survival and 8 Other Top Tourism Stories This Week

Why Is Visit Florida Still Fighting for Its Survival? Destination marketer Visit Florida could find itself on the chopping block — again. Its perilous future is a symptom of what some call the “weaponization of travel” in political funding battles.

Travel Agency Group ASTA Aims to Shield Hotel Guests From Resort Fee Pain: The American Society of Travel Advisors’ show of support for the Hotel Advertising Transparency Act of 2019 indicates growing distaste among agencies, as well as the general public, for resort fees, particularly when they are not disclosed up-front. Such support is a logical step for the organization, which has long advocated for pricing transparency.

Travel Advisor Group Supports Resort Fee Transparency: Congressional legislation in the United States that would bar hotels and short-term rental sources from advertising rates that don’t include resort fees is getting support from the American Society of Travel Advisors. Advocating for transparency in pricing is an important cause for travel industry organizations to take on.

Brexit’s Toll on UK Travel, a 5-Year Projection: New Skift Research: The United Kingdom hasn’t left the European Union just yet, but the impact of the Brexit vote is already being felt by the travel industry. Things will likely get worse when the UK actually leaves.

5 Takeaways From the UK’s Thomas Cook Inquiry: Inquiries like these are often pretty brutal on company executives. Former CEO Peter Fankhauser shoulders a lot of responsibility for what went down at Thomas Cook but he’s not the only one at fault. The actions of his predecessors, as well as the UK government itself, are likely to also come under scrutiny.

U.S. Forecasts Visitor Growth Through 2024 Despite Current Slump: It’s been a rough year for U.S. travel, with international arrivals down. While an increase in visitors may be on the horizon for 2020, it’s not entirely clear why.

Making Events Green Starts First With Transportation: Getting rid of plastic straws is nice, but the biggest positive impact will come from cutting back on plane trips and the use of gas-powered cars. At first, these changes may seem overly inconvenient, but that feeling will lessen once attendee expectations start to shift.

Planners Tackle Plane Travel for the Sake of Greener Events: The masses of attendees boarding flights and using cars is a big reason why events have such a negative environmental impact. Transportation needs to be a central focus for planners looking for greener events.

The Wellness Industry Needs a Diversity Overhaul: It will likely take years for the wellness industry to really fix its diversity problem. But the process could speed up if more people start to speak out about it.