New Visit Florida President and CEO Ken Lawson has officially assumed his new role following December’s resignation of former CEO Will Seccombe.
In a message sent to travel industry partners, Lawson said that he would spend the next few weeks and months traveling the state to meet with members of the travel industry to better understand what they need from Visit Florida, as well as work with Florida state legislators regarding the role the organization plays in growing the state’s economy.
“I am excited about the future of Visit Florida and making our state the No. 1 travel destination in the world,” Lawson wrote.
Former Visit Florida CEO Will Seccombe stepped down in December following the news that the destination marketing organization had paid Miami-based rapper Pitbull $1 million to promote tourism to the state.
Florida Governor Rick Scott had called for the resignation, as well as a further series of transparency measures, in a letter to William Talbert, chairman of Visit Florida’s board of directors. Visit Florida Chief Operating Officer Vangie Fields and Chief Marketing Officer Paul Phipps also resigned after House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’Lakes filed suit against Pitbull’s management company to reveal the details of the entertainer’s contract, which had been kept secret for over a year. Visit Florida officials had said that Pitbull had declared details of the contract, such as how much he was paid, trade secrets that would be exempt from Florida’s public record laws. Pitbull, however, posted his contract to Twitter, showing that he had been paid $1 million.
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