Sunshine Matters

An oceanfront roller coaster.  Three million white lights.  The largest surviving wooden hotel in Florida.  All of this and more can be found in the Sunshine State.  Thirteen Partners from Florida braved the wintery New York City weather to share their stories with 35 media outlets during two receptions held in mid-November. Continue reading »

I am pleased to share that VISIT FLORIDA and IMG have once again teamed up with two of the state’s top brands – the Florida Gators and Florida State Seminoles – to harness the passion associated with their storied rivalry games and direct it toward the promotion of travel throughout Florida.  In addition to the tradition-rich football game between FSU and UF on Nov. 29 in Tallahassee, VISIT FLORIDA is also sponsoring the “Share a Little Sunshine Showdown” matchups in basketball and all other Olympic sports.  The partnership between VISIT FLORIDA, IMG and the Universities garners an increase in awareness for VISIT FLORIDA’s Share A Little Sunshine in-state tourism advocacy platform. Continue reading »

As VISIT FLORIDA seeks to promote and increase in-state bicycle tourism, I recently attended the National Bicycle Tourism Conference sponsored by People for Bikes in San Diego, CA.  Attending this four-day conference allowed me to network with bicycle advocacy organizations, other state tourism offices and bicycle event directors.  I was also able to take advantage of the opportunity to interact with nearly 250 bicycle event professionals, advocates, bike tourism leaders and cycling enthusiasts who attended this year’s event. Continue reading »

Today, Governor Rick Scott announced that according to VISIT FLORIDA’s preliminary estimates* 23.7 million visitors came to Florida in the third quarter of 2014 (July-September), an increase of 3.5 percent over the same period in 2013.  This represents the largest third quarter for visitation Florida has ever experienced, exceeding the previous high of 22.9 million in Q3 2013. Continue reading »

We all know Florida’s attractions are the best around!  To showcase the wide variety of attractions around Florida, VISIT FLORIDA’s Promotions department created the Ticket Bank program.  This program allows attractions Partners to provide tickets to their attraction for inclusion in consumer promotions, including Ticket Tuesdays.  When the tickets are used, the Promotions department will send a full recap to the Partner with samples of all exposure received. Continue reading »