County Legislative Delegation Meetings

This is a brand new initiative to engage industry and educate each county legislative delegation on the importance of tourism marketing as a key driver of Florida's economy. Local delegation meetings – public meetings with the state Senate and House members representing your area – have started taking place within legislative districts across the state and will continue through January.

This coming legislative session we know there will once again be proposed legislation that will expand the uses of Tourist Development Taxes. And, we know those advocating for the expansion of TDTs will be vocal at local delegation meetings. They will speak to lawmakers about diluting TDTs, diminishing the impacts of the tourism industry, and dismissing the impact tourism promotion has on attracting visitors. It is critical that we have an industry presence at these meetings and take the opportunity to educate lawmakers, especially newly elected lawmakers, about the value of tourism promotion and the necessity of maintaining the current permissible uses of TDTs.

Destinations Florida created this toolkit that provides various resources to assist you with local delegation engagement.

Program Goals

  1. Educate lawmakers
  2. Engage industry
  3. Foster relationships between tourism leaders and lawmakers

Tools to Facilitate Industry Engagement

Local Delegation Guide

  • The local delegation guide is a two-page document that outlines the benefits tourism provides the state and its residents, the value of local tourism promotion and explains how local tourism promotion is funded through TDTs. It is intended to be a leave-behind that you share with your lawmakers at the local delegation meetings or emailed to them as a follow-up after the meeting.
  • It also includes a customizable section that allows you to add your logo and insert information about what your DMO has been doing or what you plan to do to attract visitors to your community. If you need assistance with personalizing this section, please contact Jennifer Fennell at CoreMessage, [email protected] or (850) 597-0057.

Elevator Speech Scripts

  • We have developed a library of two-minute elevator speech scripts that can be read verbatim at local delegation meetings. The four different speech scripts cover the importance of preserving the uses of TDTs, the origin and purpose of TDTs and the value of local tourism promotion.
  • You can pick and choose which speech script best suits your need. Or, if you have other industry stakeholders attending the same meeting, you can designate people to read the different scripts.

Talking Points

  • The local delegation talking points address the value of tourism and tourism promotion. They also include a section that you can customize with local information about the impacts tourism has on your legislators’ districts and their constituents.
  • These can be used to guide your remarks at local delegation meetings.

Legislative Positions

  • This document outlines Destinations Florida’s 2023 legislative priorities and can be used as a leave-behind following local delegation meetings or other interactions with lawmakers.