Miami Beach Has More Good Zika News

William Talbert, Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau CEO, at press conference last week. Photo: GMCVB

In a continuing positive trend for travel destinations impacted by the Zika virus, The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has lifted a travel advisory on nearly two-thirds of Miami Beach streets previously seen as a breeding site for the mosquito-borne illness.

The CDC lifted the ban on 35 of the existing 57 streets following an aggressive campaign by the city to reduce the conditions that contribute to Zika’s spread.

In September, the area from 28th Street to 63rd Street, essentially all of Middle Beach from Biscayne Bay to the Atlantic Ocean, was declared a virus “transmission zone.” Now, the CDC and the Florida Department of Health believe Zika’s spread has halted in that zone as the agencies have not experienced a new contraction in 45 days.

Pregnant women are still advised to not travel to South Miami Beach and the Little River area (from 28th Street to Eighth Street). Health agencies say 236 people have contracted Zika in the Miami Beach area.

The CDC’s announcement came at about the same time that the World Health Organization removed its “emergency” designation on the Zika virus. Local tourism officials are hoping that the successive good news leads to a more positive outlook for the Miami region’s tourism.

Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau (GMCVB) president & CEO William D. Talbert III said the CDC’s move was “an indication that the program set forth by our government partners is working and Greater Miami is ready to be a model-destination in dealing with Zika and any other mosquito borne-illness.”

Earlier this year, Allianz Global Assistance reviewed more than 940,000 Americans’ travel plans made during August for the peak vacation season of mid-November 2016 to mid-April 2017 and found that Miami bookings were off 29.1%. For the state as a whole, bookings were down 14.8%, indicating that perhaps Zika was having an impact on intent to travel to Miami.

Talbert and others are hoping that Miami tourism has turned a tide. He noted how nearly 12 million overnight visitors had arrived in Miami and the Beaches through the first nine months of this year. “This will lift us,” Talbert was quoted in the Miami Herald. “There is a light at the end of the tunnel.”

Right before Thanksgiving, the GMCVB in partnership with VISIT FLORIDA, the Greater Miami and The Beaches Hotel Association, and Florida Lodging and Restaurant Association hosted a Travel & Tourism Industry Forum to “discuss and elevate” ongoing efforts to fight mosquito-borne illnesses, including Zika.

The local Miami tourism group is finalizing a strategy for dealing with Zika and will publish it “in the near future.”