Visit Florida President and CEO Dana Young said in a media release:

"The decision to downsize staff proportionate to the budget reduction was extremely difficult, but with less funding, there is simply no way Visit Florida could maintain the level of staffing we once had."

Florida House Speaker Jose Oliva had led a drive to shutter Visit Florida in October 2019, but ultimately went along with a compromise plan to cut its 2020 budget from the $76M proposed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to $50M - a cut of about 1/3 that has required the agency to cut its staff of 135 by 44.

How will the budget and staff cuts affect Florida inbound in 2019? Stay tuned.