Do Not Visit Florida, NAACP Issues Travel Advisory To Black Tourists

At the weekend, the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) issued a travel advisory for the state of Florida, United States, in response to Governor Ron DeSantis’s “aggressive attempts to erase Black history” and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programmes in schools.

“Under the leadership of DeSantis, Florida has become hostile to Black Americans and in direct conflict with the democratic ideals that our union was founded upon,” NAACP president and CEO, Derrick Johnson said.

“Therefore, we are advising African Americans and others that if you travel to Florida, beware that your life is not valued, that we have a political landscape that could cause harm as we prepare for the 2024 elections to right-size the political landscape in the state of Florida,” Johnson said.

The NAACP advisory comes on the heels of a similar Florida travel warning last week from the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), which has called Florida’s new immigration policies “hostile and dangerous” for Latino travelers.

The Florida governor, who is expected to announce a presidential run this week, is known for his war on what he calls “woke indoctrination.”

Last year, DeSantis signed a controversial bill that banned teachers from addressing topics related to race and blocked students’ access to an AP African American studies course, claiming there was a political agenda to teach that “the country is rotten and that our institutions are illegitimate.”

Explaining why it issued the travel advisory, NAACP President yesterday said African Americans’ lives “are not valued” in Florida, in response to the state’s education, immigration and LGBTQ policies.

“We didn’t end here overnight. It was because of the election,” Johnson said on ‘CNN This Morning.’

“So we have to prepare for the next election, so we can get rid of him once and for all. This bothering that we have seen first by Trump, now by him, is not only un-American, it’s dangerous, and we have to right-size this landscape.”

In 2022, Florida welcomed 137.6 million visitors, the most in the state’s history. Domestic travelers from other states accounted for just under 93 per cent of visitors.

Just last week, the governor’s office touted that the state attracted a record 37.9 million visitors between January and March 2023, according to Visit Florida estimates.

Representative Byron Donalds (Republican-Fla.) called the travel advisory “really stupid. I don’t even know what the NAACP is talking about,” Donalds, who is Black, said on “Fox and Friends” yesterday. “This is silly and it’s dumb. It’s political. It makes no sense.”

In March, when the NAACP’s Florida chapter asked the national civil-rights organization to urge Black Americans to stay away from the state, DeSantis dismissed it a “joke, a stunt and ridiculous.”

Whether the NAACP’s advisory will deter enough Black travelers to make a dent in Florida’s $115 billion tourism industry remains to be seen.