TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Today, VISIT FLORIDA, the state’s official tourism marketing corporation, announced that 152 Florida businesses were accepted into the organization’s 2019 Targeted Marketing Assistance Program (TMAP). The TMAP program, currently in its second cycle, offers exclusive benefits at no cost to small, minority-owned, rural and agritourism businesses with annual gross revenues not exceeding $1.25 million. The third cycle of the program, designed to help the businesses improve their marketing efforts, begins July 1, 2019, and ends June 30, 2020.

VISIT FLORIDA President and CEO Dana Young said, “The revenue generated from tourism plays a vital role in the everyday lives of Floridians, whether they work in the industry or not. Our targeted marketing assistance program is very popular and gives small businesses in Florida the opportunity to tap into VISIT FLORIDA’s resources at no-cost to the business. We’re glad to provide this benefit to our state, and fully funding VISIT FLORIDA is an investment that is essential to so many of our state’s small, minority-owned, rural and agritourism businesses. When small tourism-reliant businesses have the tools to succeed, they drive visitation to the state, which helps keep our cost of living low.”

One hundred sixty TMAP applications were received and 152 were accepted. Of the accepted businesses, 91 are non-profit 501(c)(3)s and 61 are independently owned and operated. One hundred two of the accepted businesses have annual marketing budgets of $20,000 or less, and 49 of those have budgets not exceeding $5,000. Since TMAP began, VISIT FLORIDA has provided more than 560 hours of professional marketing assistance to more than 187 small, minority, rural and agritourism businesses.

Benefits of the Targeted Marketing Assistance Program include:

• Consultation with VISIT FLORIDA to review current marketing plan
• Access to tourism marketing training
• Editorial and creative assistance 
• Press release exposure on VISIT FLORIDA’s media blog
• The opportunity to be featured on VISIT FLORIDA's social media channels
• The Opportunity for lobby booth display at any Official Florida Welcome Center(s)
• Complimentary VISIT FLORIDA enhanced web listing
• Discounted Small Business Partnership to access additional marketing opportunities

For more information about TMAP, click HERE.