One of the temporary casualties of Hurricane Wilma’s march through South Florida was VISIT FLORIDA’s Florida Encounter, a meeting industry trade show originally scheduled October 30 to November 2 at the Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa in Hollywood, Fla.

Working on just a few days notice, organizers rescheduled the show for December 3 to 7 at the Westin. According to Paul Kayemba of VIST FLORIDA, the decision was made after communicating with a sample of the 225 planners and suppliers scheduled to attend Florida Encounter. “We wanted to determine what would be the closest date for attendees to return for the Encounter, and this time frame seemed to work best,” says Kayemba.

Tracy Dunaway, VISIT FLORIDA’s director of sales, said that VISIT FLORIDA had actually insured Florida Encounter through its own Cover Your Event insurance program, which was initiated early this year in the aftermath of the four hurricanes that hit Florida in 2004. “We actually became our own case study,” Dunaway said.

South Florida continues to recover from the impact of Hurricane Wilma. The Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau reports that 95 percent of the hotels and restaurants in Miami Beach and downtown Miami are open for business, and conferences are continuing as scheduled. One conference, the 800-attendee New Cardiovascular Horizons Conference, opened last Thursday, after having relocated to Miami from New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita.

Ft. Lauderdale was hit particularly hard by Wilma, and as of Monday, more than 350,000 Broward County customers of Florida Power & Light Co., remained without power. The latest estimates indicate that 95 percent of the South Florida region will have power restored by the end of the first week of November. In the meantime, Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport and Port Everglade have resumed normal operations and major conventions are continuing this week as planned. The Ft. Lauderdale International Boat Show, for example, opens Thursday.

Meanwhile, the huge clean-up continues in the popular incentive, meeting, and cruise destination of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, where tourism officials are still assessing damage from Wilma. The Cancun Convention and Visitor Bureau is reporting that roughly 70 percent of its hotel rooms will be back online by mid-December. The Riviera Maya Tourism Promotion Board, which represents the region south of Cancun, says that 50 percent of the hotel inventory is now operational and forecasts that another 20 percent of the hotels will be back up and running by November 15th. By December 15th, the Riviera Maya is projected to be at least at 90 percent capacity.

Yesterday, The Cancun International Airport resumed normal operations and two cruise companies are scheduled to return to Playa del Carmen on Thursday, November 3.

The Cancun Convention Center convention facility, which sustained minimal damage, will resume normal operations by November 8.

With information gathered from hotel company sources as well as the Web site of IVI Destination Management-Cancun, a destination management company with offices in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Panama, here’s a status report on many of the major Cancun area properties.

Already open, or opening this week:
Le Meridien
Aventura Spa Palace (North Section)

November 30:
Aventure Spa Palace (South Section)

December 15
Fiesta Americana Grand Coral Beach
Gran Melia Cancun

December 20
Moon Palace Golf & Spa Resort
Beach Palace

December 23
Omni Cancun

December 31
JW Marriott Cancun Resort & Spa
CasaMagna Cancun Marriott Resort
The Ritz-Carlton, Cancun

January
Hyatt Cancun Caribe
Presidente

February 1
Sun Palace
Cancun Palace (partial)

June 2006
Le Blanc Spa Resort

Reopening dates are not yet available for the Hyatt Regency Cancun, The Hilton, or the Cozumel Palace.

In Cozumel, coastal hotels and resorts have suffered extensive damage and most are closed for damage assessment, according to a tourism spokesperson. Currently all cruise ship piers remain closed, and the Punta Maya Pier was lost during the storm. The remaining International and Punta Langosta piers have sustained damage but are still intact and are being assessed.

In an effort to streamline hotel recovery, the Inter-American Development Bank has announced $500 million in reconstruction and recovery loans. And the U.S. has pledged funds for the Cancun Beach Recovery Project.

For updates, visit www.cancun.info and the IVIsite, and the Riveria Maya Promotion Board Web site.