Governor DeSantis’s policies targeting the LGBTQ community, restricting academic freedom, and banning diversity programs have negatively impacted Florida’s economy. Several organizations have canceled conventions and events in Orlando due to concerns over DeSantis’s “anti-woke” agenda, resulting in an estimated $20 million loss in revenue for the state. Despite this, DeSantis’s spokesperson dismissed the economic impact as a “media-driven stunt.” However, boycotts in the past have caused enough economic pain to lead to policy changes, so organizations avoiding Florida are doing the right thing by not spending money there while these policies remain in place.
Oh they for sure care, just yesterday I was listening to a podcast and one of the ads was for Orlando. The theme of the ad? “Orlando is still great for gay people” They cited all kinds of statistics in an attempt to prove gay people should still visit and that it was a safe and fun place for them. They understand how critical those DINK tourists are, especially when you already have a lot of infrastructure and investment in attracting and serving them.
DeSantis doesn’t care, but I promise you that lots of conservatives on the ground will start caring when their business traffic starts to choke off. Conservatives retire to Florida, but I’d imagine liberals make up at least half of the tourists between spring break, nightlife/LGBTQ hotspots, and how “woke” Disney has become.
Florida’s current economic landscape is only possible due to tourism money, and once that reality becomes clear people are suddenly going to become far less concerned with non economic issues. Even the promise of tax cuts won’t work when entire industries see their revenues drop by meaningful %'s.
I’m from Kansas, I know what it looks like and feels like to live in a conservative economic death spiral. The reality is you have to let it start getting worse before people take it seriously and put a stop to it. Even the conservatives here voted out Brownback after he started gutting every maintenance, service, and school budget in a failed attempt to balance his tax cuts. All those people who treat politics as a game get real serious once it hurts them directly, but until then I’m not sure there’s an effective way to reach them.
And it’s not just the tourism industry that’s suffering, but construction and anything that requires freight shipping as well are already feeling the effects. There’s been videos for the past several months of completely empty job sites with half finished houses and condos because DeSantis has made it a crime to drive undocumented workers, who make up almost the entirety of the construction workforce. A vast number of freight truck drivers also said that they won’t deliver to Florida for similar reasons, though I don’t remember exactly what law caused them to refuse to go into the state.