Destin, Florida!!! Is Ready for Taylor Swift

Timeshare realtors in North Florida are turning the new song into a financial opportunity, while Destin’s mayor says he wants to use the ‘T-Swizzle’ attention to fund the arts.

Destin, Florida, the classy, pearl earring-wearing older sister of its wilder and perhaps more well-known Panhandle counterpart Panama City Beach, has earned one of the modern world’s top accomplishments: a mention in a Taylor Swift song. In “Florida!!!” off of her new album, The Tortured Poets Department, Swift and Florence Welch croon:

So you work your life away just to pay
For a time-share down in Destin (Take me to Florida)

The lyric didn’t go unnoticed by the town itself. Destin’s mayor, Bobby Wagner, told Thrillist that he woke up on April 19, just hours after Tortured Poets Department was released, to hundreds of notifications about the song.

“I was not sure exactly what was going on, but I quickly realized that Taylor dropped an album last night,” Wagner recalls. “We’re super honored to be the only city that was mentioned in her ‘Florida’ song. I think it’s an awesome moody song and we were just very happy and excited to be a part of the T-Swizzle community.”

Now, he and other staff working for the people of Destin, Okaloosa County, and the neighboring town of Fort Walton Beach, are scrambling to capitalize on the moment and prepare for the impact. Destin-Fort Walton Beach’s tourism director, Jennifer Adams, was giddy when she described the excitement in her office about Swift’s name drop.

“We’ve not only seen more searches on Google, but we’ve had a lot of inquiries into the welcome center,” Adams says. “And lots of locals. Everybody really, really seems very pleased. We’re thrilled.”

Destin, a picturesque city nestled along 30A, a highway that stretches down the Panhandle’s coast, isn’t a stranger to tourists—or even famous people. The neighboring beachtown of Seaside, Florida, was the filming location for The Truman Show (1998), and Adams detailed that just recently, controversial country artist Jason Aldean shot a music video in town.

Plus, Mayor Wagner told Thrillist that 60% of Destin’s economy comes from tourism. But even with a steady influx of out-of-towners, Destin doesn’t have the infrastructure for a true Swift Lift.

That doesn’t mean Wagner isn’t trying to seize this once in a lifetime opportunity. Swift sang about Destin—not Cocoa Beach or New Smyrna Beach or Appalachacola, after all.

“Naturally we’re trying to reach out to her,” Wagner says. “Granted, we could never accommodate the amount of people for a tour. I mean, you’d really see a failure of gridlock traffic if we were to try to host a Taylor Swift concert in Destin.”

Instead, Wagner is trying to take the focus away from the Destin timeshares with however many minutes of fame the city does have. “I absolutely respect her art and can attest because my fiance’s a songwriter—but, well, I think we have one timeshare group in Destin,” Wagner says. “We have 14,000 locals that live here. So while she mentions timeshares, we are definitely much more than timeshares.”

Adams echoed this sentiment, saying that her favorite part of “Florida!!!” was an entirely different lyric. “I know she says timeshare, but I think one of the strongest things she says is when she mentions that when you come here, you’re a guest,” Adams says. “We host 8 million guests a year. So when she says, ‘you come as a guest,’ you do come as a guest.”

Wagner himself is a trumpet player with a strong appreciation for music and music education; he attended music programs at the local public schools. He hopes that while he has the attention of Swifties from around the world, he can get people to support local music programs, even if they don’t plan on visiting the white sand beaches and emerald Gulf Coast waters.

“We’re really hoping to use this new exposure and potentially some of her raving fans to just bring awareness to bringing more music to kids of all ages in Destin and Okaloosa County,” Wagner says. He suggests Swifties consider supporting the Mattie Kelly Arts Foundation, which focuses on bringing music programs and education to underserved kids in North Florida.

Taylor Swift is now good for North Florida tourism

Government officials in Destin weren’t the only ones excited about the local namedrop. Timeshare real estate agents in the area quickly jumped on the lyrical bandwagon to—you guessed it—sell more time shares. 

“Destin is one the country’s great beach destinations and is often overlooked. We’re excited that people will be exploring our community,” Erin Maloney, General Manager, Club Wyndham Beach Street Cottages, told Thrillist in a statement.

And outside of city limits, other neighboring cities are angling for a piece of the pie.

“It’s funny because even our neighbors are posting, ‘Hey, Destin’s great, but why don’t you come to Pensacola?’” Adams says. “We all joke around, but we’re not competitive. We like to let people know who Northwest Florida is. We’re a tight-knit region.”

Destin locals have mixed feelings about getting the shout out from Taylor Swift

Destin might be a popular tourist destination, but it’s still a small southern town at heart. In the Facebook group Let’s Talk Destin, I asked local residents what their thoughts were on getting a shoutout from one of the most famous women in the world. There were some, like local Layne Franks, who simply “couldn’t care less.”

Others were surprised that a smaller city in Florida would make it to Swift’s radar. “I was expecting her to say something about Miami possibly but was not expecting Destin,” Ashley Byrnes wrote. In general, locals were worried over an added influx of tourists. Even Mayor Wagner acknowledged that more tourists could equal more traffic. “While tourism does create traffic, it is also part of our lifeline,” Wagner says.
“It’s part of the economy and having people come to Destin and visit for whatever they want is where we all make our living,” Wagner continues. “So it’s a balance and I think the Taylor Swift Army would be great tourists to come check us out.”

But, if you don’t want to get stuck in classic summer beach traffic in Destin, Adams recommends visiting another time of the year. “We do have a lot of people coming in the summertime, but I also recommend coming in the fall and the spring. The beach is open year round.”

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