BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – As the sun sets in paradise for the final time of the year, Brevard County’s tourism office is optimistic about making a lot more money in 2021.
More astronaut launches are scheduled, and they could draw hundreds of thousands of visitors like the two crewed missions of 2020, according to the Space Coast Office of Tourism.
[TRENDING: How to get vaccine in Florida | Map: Navigating the Convention Center vaccine site]
“When you think about launches happening almost on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, I think that’s just going to really continue and help us a lot as we go into ’21,” Executive Director Peter Cranis said.
And if the cruise lines come back by the current projection in the spring, the tourism office said its budget could be right back on track by the summer.
By then, an industry that usually has millions of passengers each year will have gone an entire year without one.
“Hopefully by summertime, we’ll see complete rollout where anybody who wants a vaccine can get one. If that happens by June, I think we’ll have a really good summer,” Cranis said.
And next summer, the tourism office is planning a major advertising campaign.
They want more visitors like John and Sonya Hosemann from Montana.
The couple is celebrating the new year at the Cocoa Beach Pier with a view of a Disney ship idling at sea.
“It’s a shame. We don’t actually take cruises ourselves, but many friends and family do and it’s sad to see what it’s doing to that industry,” the Hosemann’s said.