Pensacola's Tourism Marketing Crisis

Host Rick Outzen interviews Tourist Development Council Chairman David Bear about a growing crisis affecting Pensacola's tourism industry. With over $2.5 million in tourism marketing bills going unpaid and the visitor center's utilities unpaid, the county's tourism promotion efforts have ground to a halt. Bear explains how the clerk of court's ever-changing and unpublished rules for approving tourist development tax expenditures have created bureaucratic gridlock, forcing one advertising agency to front over $1 million of their own money while waiting for reimbursement. With tourism marketing agencies potentially needing loans to stay afloat and fall booking season approaching, Bear and Outzen examine what needs to happen to resolve this administrative standoff that threatens one of the county's most important economic drivers.