ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — State officials are facing criticism from members of the LGBTQ+ community after a section that was dedicated to LGBTQ+ travel was removed from the Visit Florida website.

Visit Florida is a public-private partnership between the state of Florida and the state's tourism industry.

It receives nearly $80 million in state funding.

The website change started to get attention in recent days and came up during the Florida Governor's Conference on Tourism in Tampa on Wednesday.

“Our marketing strategy and our materials, our content must align with the state," said Dana Young, President and CEO of Visit Florida.

"Florida has always been and will continue to be a very, very welcoming state That is evidenced by the incredible tourism numbers that we presented, last week and at this board meeting, and Visit Florida is committed to continue that message of being welcome to everyone," Young said.

Rachel Covello, owner and publisher of OutCoast.com, said she was surprised to learn that the page was gone.

“I noticed about five or six weeks ago, while I was at another tourism trade show, that the website was not there," she said. "I was actually trying to show a colleague that Visit Florida had an LGBTQ landing page, so I was kind of surprised to see that it wasn't there.”

Visit Florida says there are more people visiting the Sunshine State than any other time in history.

“If we want to keep those numbers going, we really have to truly welcome everyone. And this was not a welcoming decision," said LGBTQ+ advocate Maryann Ferenc.

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