Visit Florida is increasing rates for its tourism-marketing partners for the first time in 15 years, with the changes expected to remain in place for at least a few years, officials said this week.

Visit Florida, the state's public-private tourism marketing agency, will move forward with the changes over the next several months, with initial notifications going out by April 11. The changes drew no objections Tuesday from Visit Florida's executive committee.

Visit Florida Chairman Danny Gaekwad supported the "proportional" implementation of the changes.

"We have a lot of small hotel owners or the businessman or [local destination marketing organization], it will relieve them a little bit," Gaekwad, the owner of MGM Hotels LLC, told Visit Florida President and CEO Dana Young during an online meeting. "Plus, we'll have more money to market properly, which your Visit Florida team is doing a fantastic job."

While some attrition is anticipated, Visit Florida expects the changes will increase revenue from private partnerships by about 40%, said Kate Chunka, Visit Florida vice president of industry engagement.

The partnership fees currently bring in about $1.2 million a year, and the new structure is projected to raise that total to about $1.75 million, according to figures released Thursday.

Chunka said the changes are intended to expand the partnership base, and Visit Florida expects the new model to "remain in place unchanged for at least a few years."

For smaller businesses that work with Visit Florida, the bump will be 20%. Rates, based on annual revenue, will go from $395 to $1,500 a year to $475 to $1,795 a year. Partnership deals with airports and seaports also will go up 20%, while lodging establishments will face a new tiered rate structure that is based on the number of rooms.

Visit Florida currently charges lodging establishments from $395 to $1,500 a year, based on revenue. The new structure will ask for $475 a year from businesses that have up to 49 rooms to rent. The tiers will incrementally increase to $3,500 for establishments with 500 or more rooms.

Chunka said the tourism agency hopes the tiered rate structure will attract more hotels and other lodging businesses, including vacation rentals, to partner with Visit Florida.

"Currently, Visit Florida partner hotels only can make up about 12% of Florida's total hotel population," Chunka said. "So, we believe that this is an area where we can add more hotel-exclusive benefits and grow this category."

Large attractions considered "strategic alliance partners," will see service fees increase from 10% to 15%.

The changes, in the works for about 18 months, are being implemented as Visit Florida has drawn praise for helping bring tourists back to the state after the industry was slammed by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Florida drew 63.5 million tourists in the second half of 2021, 0.3% more than in the final six months of 2019, before the pandemic.

Visit Florida is set to receive $50 million as part of the state budget (HB 5001) for the fiscal year that will start July 1. Gov. Ron DeSantis still needs to sign off on the $112.1 billion budget, which also includes $2 million for in-state marketing through what is known as the Hotel and Restaurant Trust Fund.

Jim Turner reports for the News Service of Florida.

Copyright 2022 News Service of Florida. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.