Pence visits tourism-reliant Florida as Disney shops reopen

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence visited central Florida to meet with tourism officials Wednesday as the region’s biggest tourist destination — Walt Disney World — began reopening a shopping and entertainment complex.

During his trip to Orlando, Pence dropped off protective equipment at an upscale complex that houses seniors in apartments and a nursing facility as tourism, the state's biggest industry, continued taking steps toward reopening.

Some third-party shops at the Disney Springs complex opened Wednesday with new requirements and restrictions. All workers and visitors older than 2 must wear masks, temperatures will be checked at entrances to keep out anyone with a temperature 100.4 degrees (38 degrees Celsius) or higher and a limited number of people will be admitted to allow social distancing at the high-end outdoor shopping area with restaurants, movie theaters, a bowling alley and a Cirque du Soleil theater.

Walt Disney World and its crosstown rivals, Universal Orlando and SeaWorld, have been closed since mid-March in an effort to stop the spread of the new coronavirus. Officials haven't said when theme parks and hotels at the resorts will reopen.

Florida's tourist-reliant economy was crippled this spring with the closures of the theme parks, beaches, convention centers and hotels. More than 2 million Floridians have filed jobless claims in a state with a 10 million-person workforce before the pandemic.

Bars and nightclubs in Florida remain closed, and on Wednesday 100 bar owners and employees demanded their reopening at a protest outside the Pinellas County courthouse in Clearwater.

The U.S. Travel Association estimates that travel spending for the Memorial Day weekend nationwide will reach just a third of last year’s levels —...