The Keys will roll out new tourism ads this week. One campaign is called ‘Personal Space’
“Welcome Back.”
“Grateful.”
“Personal Space.”
Those are the names of three new advertising campaigns for the Florida Keys, which plan to reopen to visitors June 1 after instituting a two-month tourist ban that included checkpoints at the top of the island chain meant to keep out day-trippers from the mainland.
Welcome to travel advertising in the age of the novel coronavirus.
Choosing words of optimism and hinting at a return to a new type of normal, the Monroe County Tourist Development Council will roll out new ad campaigns this week in several southern cities.
They even ordered eight Keys scenic waterfront images for use as Zoom backgrounds.
The Keys have been closed for two months to stop the spread of the deadly disease that has turned neighboring Miami-Dade and Broward into hot spots. As of Tuesday, the Keys had 99 known cases of COVID-19, three deaths and 12 hospitalizations.
So with the reopening in the works, the TDC is ready to return to promoting the Keys with videos, an online contest, and for hotels, “digital postcards” with captions that read, “A little something to look forward to,” and, “Here’s to brighter days ahead.”
“Our advertising efforts are to begin this week in Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas and Nashville,” said Stacey Mitchell, director of the TDC.
With the checkpoints up until June 1, the TDC is waiting until after Memorial Day to advertise in Florida.
Mitchell said, “We’ll wait until after the Memorial Day weekend to begin advertising in South Florida mainland markets to avoid confusing anyone into thinking that the checkpoints are not in effect for the holidays.”
On June 1, those checkpoints in the Upper Keys, on U.S. 1 and County Road 905, that have turned around more than 13,000 vehicles since they went up March 27, will come down. Also, airport passenger screenings will stop, and hotels and other lodgings can reopen up to 50 percent occupancy.
The famous tiki bars and other watering holes in Key West and beyond remain closed, but restaurants are serving up to 50 percent capacity and retail shops have also reopened per the governor’s orders.
Keys business leaders aren’t expecting hordes of tourists, at least those who rent hotel rooms, right off the bat. People have been out of work and sheltering in place, they said.
“People are going to have to feel safe and then they will want to travel,” said Jodi Weinhofer, president of the Lodging Association of the Florida Keys and Key West. “Hygiene is going to be the new service and luxury.”
Reopening can’t come soon enough for some business owners, including Jessica and Jonathan Haim, of Key West, who filed a lawsuit against Monroe County’s top officials last week calling the roadblocks unconstitutional.
“We can rest easy tonight knowing the end is in sight, finally,” Jessica Haim posted on Facebook on Sunday night, when the county announced its plans to reopen June 1.
The Haims’ lawsuit, which also has Bettina Haim as a plaintiff, on Tuesday remained pending in Monroe County’s Circuit Court.
This story was originally published May 19, 2020 at 3:26 PM.
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