Sunshine Matters

This year’s 43rd Florida Governor’s Conference on Tourism, held September 26-28 at the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate, was a success with more than 800 attendees, nearly 100 exhibitors and sponsors, and more than 30 expert speakers.

For those attendees who could not get to all the sessions or for industry members who were unable to attend the conference, I am pleased to announce that VISIT FLORIDA has collected video and audio recordings of most of the sessions, as well as the PowerPoint presentations many of the speakers used.   In addition, the speech given by Ed Fouche, Chairman of the VISIT FLORIDA Board of Directors, during the opening dinner which was a perfect example of how “Teamwork” triumphs in the end and the VISIT FLORIDA presentation by Chris Thompson and Will Seccombe, are also available for you to see.  These materials have been stored in one easy-to-access location on the VISITFLORIDA.org website.  Continue reading »

As we previewed at Governor’s Conference, VISIT FLORIDA will host the “Great VISIT FLORIDA Beach Walk” on November  6 to clear up any doubts about the status of Florida’s beaches in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The event will bring together thousands of residents and volunteers across the state to walk their favorite mile of Florida beach and take photos proving that every one of the Sunshine State’s beaches are as pristine as ever.  Continue reading »

I am pleased to share that after many months of collaboration VISIT FLORIDA has launched America’s first state trails-tourism website offering comprehensive information about more than 100 of the Sunshine State’s trails and greenways.  Found at trails.VISITFLORIDA.com, this special micro-site assists visitors worldwide with planning and booking their outdoor adventures by providing detailed descriptions of Florida’s trails by city, activities, trail length or surface, as well as links to the individual trail websites and interactive maps showing the exact plot of a given trail so users can see nearby outfitters, hotels, campgrounds and restaurants.  Continue reading »