Florida is ready for tourists — in fact, most of the state has been ready since a couple of weeks after the last hurricane blew through.

Huge sections of the state suffered minimal damage or none at all, despite television newscasts that seemed to show all of Florida either storm battered or under water.

JAY REEVES/AP (ENLARGE)
The Flora-Bama Lounge on the Florida-Alabama line was hit by Hurricane Ivan in September. It hopes to reopen in April.
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"Most of Florida is fine," said Betsy Couch, a public relations representative with Visit Florida, the state tourism agency. "One of the things that really helped was Florida's building code. Newer buildings can withstand up to 150 mph winds."

Visit Florida is urging tourists to "Come See for Yourself," in a sweepstakes promotion on its Web site, www.visitflorida.com. You can view Web cams of specific areas and sign up to win a four-night trip for two to one of six locations, including AirTran Airways tickets, resort accommodations and an Alamo car rental.

Along the Panhandle, where Hurricane Ivan landed, most resorts east of Pensacola were open within days or a couple of weeks after the storm. Ditto, Florida's Space Coast, where Hurricane Frances paid a visit. Orlando's theme parks were back in business right after hurricanes Charley and Frances. Jacksonville and surrounding areas, virtually untouched by the storms, are gearing up to play host to Super Bowl XXXIX on Feb. 6.

But other areas that Atlantans love have been a little slower to recover.

In southwest Florida, Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte, hit by Charley, are rebuilding, with most restaurants, hotels and tourist attractions open and eager for business, said Becky Bovell, director of the Charlotte County Visitors Bureau.

Though the area lost one major hotel, the Holiday Inn-Harborside, it will be replaced by a Hilton Garden Inn — "a beautiful resort with condos on the water" — within the next year to two years, Bovell said. A new conference and events center also is planned.

Other parts of Charlotte County, including the West County beach community, escaped virtually untouched. For updates, Charlotte County Visitors Bureau, 941-743-1900, www.pure florida.com.

Also thanks to Charley, Sanibel and Captiva lost many of the Australian pines that shaded the islands, though most resorts are open and welcoming visitors. Information: Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau, www.leeislandcoast.com.

In the Pensacola area, perhaps the hardest hit in all of Florida, recovery is still under way after extensive damage from Ivan. Some hotels on the beach will not reopen until spring.

"This was an incredible storm. We never had one that bad before," said Cindy Barrington, information specialist with the Pensacola Visitors Center, speaking from her temporary office at the Chamber of Commerce while the visitors center is repaired.

While most hotels within the city are back in business — and filled with construction workers and families displaced from their damaged homes — Barrington said only one hotel on Pensacola Beach is operating, the Comfort Inn.

A small portion of the Pensacola Beach is open to tourists, but the rest is considered a construction zone and accessible only to residents and workers. That situation should improve by spring. The Hilton Garden Inn on the beach plans to reopen this month, and the rest are aiming for May or June. Many condo rentals on the beach suffered heavy damage and it's unclear when they'll be welcoming guests, she said.

In Gulf Islands National Seashore, Fort Pickens remains closed, but repairs are under way to the road and to the visitors and administrative buildings, with a hoped-for reopening in June. The fort itself, built in the 1820s and 1830s to deter warships threatening the United States, wasn't damaged. To check the park's status: 404-562-3100, www.nps.gov.

On the positive side, Pensacola visitors still will have plenty to do: the National Museum of Naval Aviation at the Pensacola Naval Air Station has reopened, along with the Pensacola Zoo, the city's historic area and museums, and landmarks such as Joe Patti's Seafood market. The Pensacola Visitors Center can give vacationers up-to-date information on lodging and attractions; www.visit pensacola.com, 1-800- 874-1234.

Another landmark, the Flora-Bama Lounge on the Florida-Alabama state line on Perdido Key (www.flora bama.com), remains closed with a goal of reopening in April in time for the lounge's annual Mullet Toss (April 22-24). Though owner/manager Joe Gilchrist had to cancel the 18th annual four-mile run because of road construction, the bar's popular Polar Bear Dip went off on schedule Jan 1. The lounge set up a temporary tent across the street for New Year's Eve revelers and for the "polar bears" the next day.

Parts of the lounge were damaged extensively, but Gilchrist sees his glass half full. "It's a lot tougher on the slab people — what we call the people who've lived here for years and returned to find nothing but a slab where their house was," he said. "We'll have to rebuild, but we have a U-Haul of memorabilia we saved to put back on the walls. It'll be like it was, only better."

Other parts of the Panhandle fared far better than Pensacola. Panama City benefited from being on the fringes of Ivan and from a $25 million beach nourishment project that protected some properties from the storm and the beaches as well, said Amanda Keefer, an account executive with Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown and Russell.

"Ivan helped to speed along PCB's revitalization project," Keefer said, because hotels that had been scheduled to close or be refurbished just did so a little earlier. More than 35 condominium projects are under construction or planned, she said.

The Beaches of South Walton, 13 beach communities stretching along the Panhandle from Seascape east to Inlet, will have 48 public beach accesses reopened by spring, said Kriss Titus, executive director of the Walton County Tourist Development Council. Some resorts are expanding and new ones will be opening, including two this summer, a 58-room luxury resort called Hotel Saba in Rosemary Beach and a new Hampton Inn and Suites in Miramar Beach; a Residence Inn by Marriott and a Courtyard by Marriott, both in Sandestin, will open by fall.