Officials Reassure Travel Buyers

<I>Miami</I> - Despite a $68 million budget deficit acknowledged by the city government and Florida Governor Lawton Chiles' decision to have the state oversee the city's financial affairs until Miami emerges from what Chiles has declared "a financial crisis," the area's travel industry continues to thrive, said officials of the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau.

"We've gotten inquiries about this from out-of-town travel and event planners, and we welcome the opportunity to set the record straight," said Mayco Villafana, director of communications for the Miami CVB. Villafana said the city's financial problems have "no effect on the operations and service levels of hotels, attractions, restaurants, malls, marketplaces and visitor areas in Greater Miami and the Beaches."

Miami city government accounts for a small part of the metro area, in which about 350,000 of the metro area's 2 million residents live, he said.

Entities such as the airport, the seaport, the Metrorail system and other major infrastructure components are controlled by Metro Dade County government, which has an annual budget of more than $4.2 billion, compared with Miami's city budget of $275 million, Villafana said.

While final tabulations for 1996 have not been completed, Villafana said, data for the first nine months of the year showed record levels of visitors and record expenditures by those visitors. Total expenditures by Miami area visitors during the first three quarters of 1996 hit $8 billion, a 37 percent increase over the previous year, according to the Miami CVB.