Visit Florida, the tourism marketing organization for the Sunshine State, is reviewing its PR account with an open call for proposals through mid-October.

While responses to an “invitation to negotiate” issued by VF aren’t due until Oct. 7, firms must indicate an intention to bid by Sept. 9. (View PDF of RFP)

VF, which conducted searches for social media, Canadian and Latin American PR support over the spring and summer, projects a $100-$150K budget for a PR agency of record.

The ITN notes tourism is Florida’s number one industry with 82M visitors spending more than $60B annually.

Ketchum worked with VF during last year’s BP oil spill in the Gulf and M. Silver & Associates has recently served as AOR for the organization.

On the PR horizon are the 500th anniversary of Florida’s discovery by Ponce de Leon in 2013 and a re-design of VF’s media website.

Tourism PR, crisis communications and digital savvy are capabilities sought by the organization.