NAPLES, Fla. – Oct. 9, 2017 – For most of September, Florida hoteliers and businesses catering to tourists battled Hurricane Irma and the havoc it wrought.
Now that October is here, they’re battling the perceptions it left behind.
“The early national media certainly painted a picture we were going to get hit very hard. People listen to that,” said Jack Wert, executive director of the Naples, Marco Island, Everglades Convention & Visitors Bureau.
From one end of Florida to the other, tourism professionals are using traditional and social media to get the word out: “We’re open for business.”
As bad as Irma was – displacing tens of thousands of residents, knocking out power to millions and being blamed for 72 deaths in the state – physical damage to the tourism infrastructure was not as bad as it might have been.
Even the hardest-hit of the destinations, the Florida Keys, officially reopened for tourism on Oct. 1.
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