ORLANDO, Fla. – Face masks. Temperature checks. Social distancing markers. These are the new safety measures Florida's largest industry is adopting as tourism businesses battered by coronavirus-related lockdowns start reopening, industry leaders told Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday.
Theme park executives, restaurant owners and hoteliers told the vice president at a roundtable discussion that the damage caused by shutdowns from the virus was unprecedented in a $86 billion industry that survived travel declines after the 9/11 attacks and the recession a dozen years ago. “If we don’t get people back to work quickly, it's all over," central Florida hotelier Harris Rosen said. “Orlando is suffering.