Zika Travel Advisory Could Harm Tax Collections in Miami
A tour bus makes a stop in front of the Wynwood Walls, Friday, Aug. 5, 2016, in the Wynwood area of Miami. Alan Diaz / AP Photo
Revenue implications could grow more serious if the current warning is expanded or lasts through the winter tourism season, according to Moody’s Investors Service.
Travel warnings related to Zika virus in Miami could hurt tax revenues in and around the city tied to tourism, a credit ratings agency cautioned Monday.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a travel advisory for a roughly one square mile part of the city last week, recommending pregnant women not to visit there, after authorities confirmed that cases of Zika had been transmitted by local mosquitoes in the area.
Moody’s Investors Service said in a report Monday that tax collections from sales, gas and lodging in Miami, and surrounding Miami-Dade County, could suffer if the advisory is expanded to cover more of the city, or if it stays in place through the height of the winter tourist season.
Over the next few months, typically a slower time of year for Florida tourism, the narrow travel advisory is unlikely to do major damage to revenues, according to the report.
The Florida Department of Health was reporting Monday afternoon that 17 cases of Zika were believed to have originated locally in the state. The department maintained that infected mosquitoes were thought to be confined to the one square mile area north of downtown Miami.
According to figures from the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Miami region received an estimated 15.4 million overnight visitors last year, who spent about $24.4 billion.
A report issued in January 2015 by the Office of Economic and Demographic Research, a research arm of the Florida Legislature, showed that in the 2013-2014 fiscal year about 12.5 percent of the state’s $19.7 billion in general revenue from sales tax came from tourist purchases.
Bill Lucia is a Reporter for Government Executive’s Route Fifty and is based in Washington, D.C.
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