The Key West Hotel and Motel Association is no more. The new name is the Florida Keys and Key West Lodging Association.
"We will now represent all of Monroe County and all licensed lodging products," said Association president Michael Proimos.
These "products" include timeshares, RV parks, campgrounds, licensed transient rentals, licensed condo vacation clubs, bed and breakfasts, inns and guesthouses, as well as the traditional hotel and motel products.
"The time has come to change the way we do business," Proimos said. "Our industry has broadened its base with a variety of new products. We must also broaden our organization."
But Peter Herrick, who served as executive director of the Hotel/Motel Association in the late 1980s, says he questions the reorganization.
"A virtue of hotels and motels is that they're built, by and large, to be just what they are— so they seldom erode the housing supply for permanent residents or intrude on our neighborhoods," Herrick said. "The same cannot be said for some of the lodging categories now brought under the Association's umbrella— such as transient rentals.
"The Key West Hotel and Motel Association was the voice for a lodging option posing no great threat to what little remains of the chance for normal working people to find housing they can manage to pay for in quiet, stable neighborhoods," he said.
Herrick suggested that the direction of the new association will now be in the hands of membership drawn from other areas of the Keys where viewpoints about land use and neighborhood conservation may not always be compatible with those that predominate in Key West.
"Proimos explains that the broader base was necessary because the hotel/motel designation of the past is no longer representative of the variety of lodging choices available to tourists," Herrick said. "An odd justification— sort of like saying that the National Association of Bran Cereal Manufacturers is not representative of the variety of menu choices available to breakfasting Americans, and therefore the bran people have no choice but to join forces with producers of foods more apt to clog our arteries or leave us with gas."
Peter Ilchuk, who has been the executive director of the United Way of Monroe County since 1993, has been named the new full-time president of the Florida Keys and Key West Lodging Association.
"The hospitality industry is the largest employer in the Keys and critical to our community's economic viability," Ilchuk said. "As president, my first priority will be to continue to make sure our visitors enjoy the Florida Keys. For that to happen, our Association's members must be able to operate their properties successfully, and the activities of the Association should reinforce their efforts.
"As an Association, we also need to address the needs of our industry's employees to assure they have adequate housing and incomes so they can continue to provide a high quality of service to our guests. And we need to continue our active involvement in the community."
Under the reorganization, Association members will elect a Chairman of the Board and Board members to oversee and direct the activities of the Association.