Florida's early reopening could make it a business travel mecca
16 June 2021
As post-pandemic business travel comes back, experts say Florida's reopening policies should allow it to lock in a significant share of returning corporate events and meetings.
Why it matters: There's a lot of money to be made — with a lot of people itching to travel — after the sector lost $97 billion in spending last year, according to a new Tourism Economics analysis by the U.S. Travel Association.
What's happening: Concerns are still lingering around conferences and big business events, despite rising vaccination rates and falling case numbers nationwide.
- Leisure travel will reach 99% of its pre-pandemic peak by 2022, the analysis shows, but business travel isn't expected to fully recover until 2024 at the earliest.
- On a conference call Tuesday, travel industry leaders blamed America's patchwork of restrictions and reopening plans for that lag.
- "Anywhere that's been open longer is benefitting from more travel," said Chris Nassetta, president and CEO of Hilton.
How it's playing in Tampa: Five of the 15 events scheduled at the Tampa Convention Center between June and October are moving from other locations, reports the Business Observer of Florida.
- Those include the National Conference of Legislators (from Chicago), the American Academy of Dermatology (from New York) and the Teen Action Summit (from Washington, D.C.).
The bottom line: Those five events are expected to bring an additional $8.6 million in economic impact to the area from 10,600 visitors and 24,254 room nights, according to convention center figures.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.