Headline Sufer® photo /NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- The New Smyrna Beach Kite Festival is one of a litany of New Smyrna Beach-area tourism authority events that gives the appearance of drawing overnight hotel guests -- also decribed as "heads in beds." But it falls far short of meeting that definition, masked by a built-in audience: Day-trippers who descend on the beach here from the Orlando metro area in their cars.
It's the regular weekend crowd with Southern Stone, the local radio conglomerate with flagship station WNDB, being paid several thousand dollars in bed tax monies to hand out free kites to children, which gives the appearance of a bonafide tourism event drawing overnight hotel and condo visitors. It's not.
And there is no empirical data to demonstrate that it's a real tourim event, but the Volusia County Council rubber stamps the annual budget for the Southeast Volusia Advertising Authority because the money collected from bed taxes is distributed to Flagler Avenue merchants to promote tourism. The ad authority is nothing more than a slush fund with events like pub crawls that cater mostly to locals.
And there is no empirical data to demonstrate that it's a real tourim event, but the Volusia County Council rubber stamps the annual budget for the Southeast Volusia Advertising Authority because the money collected from bed taxes is distributed to Flagler Avenue merchants to promote tourism. The ad authority is nothing more than a slush fund with events like pub crawls that cater mostly to locals.
Money indirectly goes to the Daytona Beach News-Journal through the merchants to promote it as well, which is why it is being hyped in the newspaper this weekend.
The weekend kite festival is being held near the Flagler Avenue rbeach amp with several kite flying organizations paid as well to show off their colorful wind-driven devices.