Florida will remain “a destination of choice” despite Sunday’s nightclub massacre, a top tourism official has said.
George Aguel, president and chief executive of Visit Orlando, said an “outpouring of support from across the globe” had convinced him that Florida would still be a popular choice. He added that meanwhile, “our primary focus is on supporting local authorities and elected officials as they respond to this horrific incident”.
Operators are weighing up the fall-out from the Orlando shootings. Although the deadliest mass shooting in US history was not aimed at tourists, the gunman, Omar Mateen, who murdered 49 people in a nightclub on Sunday, had previously scouted out a Disney shopping mall as a potential target, noting its lack of security screening.
Some fear Florida may lose its safe image following the massacre, but publicly, operators are sticking to the ‘business as usual’ message.
A Virgin Holidays spokeswoman said the company was “continuing to offer our holidays to Orlando as normal”, while Funway Holidays’ head of marketing Nick Talbot said only that: “we are here to support our agents and their customers” and it the company “will work closely with Orlando to support them”.
Operators are adhering to UK Foreign Office advice which says only that there is a “general threat” of terrorism in the US, however most are likely to be preparing for some impact on bookings in the near future.
The shootings on Sunday was followed by the death of a two-year-old boy after an alligator dragged him into a lagoon near a Disney World hotel. The incident may also have an impact on the area’s popularity among families.