Sunshine Matters

Today, VISIT FLORIDA announced the launch of our integrated digital “Sunshine Moments” summer marketing campaign.  The campaign’s media plan focuses on reaching families through highly-targeted digital advertising buys on Facebook, AOL, Yahoo and several other key social media sites.  The $1.1 million, five-week social media-driven campaign is expected to result in more than 315 million online impressions.  The announcement was made during a satellite media tour held in St. Petersburg, which included nearly 30 media outlets from around the country. Continue reading »

I’m pleased to share VISIT FLORIDA’s preliminary estimates* of visitors to Florida for the first quarter of 2011 (January – March) which show an estimated 23.3 million travelers visited the Sunshine State.  This represents an increase of 3.3 percent from the same period in 2010.

Preliminary estimates for the first quarter of 2011 show a 2.0 percent increase in domestic visitors, a 14.4 percent increase in the overseas market and an 8.1 percent increase in Canadian travel to Florida.  Of the 23.3 million visitors Florida welcomed this past quarter, domestic visitation represents 19.8 million or an estimated 84.8 percent of total; overseas visitors at 2.1 million or 9.1 percent of total; and Canadian visitors at 1.4 million or 6.1 percent of total.  Florida’s tourism-related employment for the first quarter of 2011 was 1,003,200, up by 52,300 jobs, which reflects a 5.5 percent increase when compared to the same period of 2010. Continue reading »

VISIT FLORIDA and our public relations agency Ketchum were honored with the Travel and Tourism Silver SABRE Award for “Tourism Crisis Management – Gulf Oil Spill” at the annual Holmes Group North American SABRE Awards ceremony held this week in New York City.  The SABRE Awards are recognized as the largest public relations awards competition in the world, attracting more than 3,500 entries from more than 40 countries. The awards celebrate PR campaigns that demonstrate the highest levels of creativity, integrity and effectiveness and recognize excellence in public relations programming by highlighting best practices from around the world.  Continue reading »

VISIT FLORIDA is celebrating National Travel and Tourism Week with the release of a new public service announcement (PSA) for our Share a Little Sunshine program featuring Governor Rick Scott.  The PSA showcases the importance of tourism as a job creator and encourages Floridians to help the state by joining in the movement at ShareaLittleSunshine.org. To view the PSA, please click here. Continue reading »

VISIT FLORIDA recently concluded our highly successful 2010-11 media missions and receptions program with two final events held last week in New York City.  Working with our tourism industry Partners and Communications Committee members, VISIT FLORIDA made a change to the program this year by converting all the desk-side media missions in our key feeder markets to media receptions.  Amid the post-oil spill misperception fall-out regarding the condition of Florida beaches, this shift to receptions allowed more Partners to reach a greater number of media in each market. Continue reading »