Sunshine Matters

Last week, Governor Scott and VISIT FLORIDA announced another record quarter for tourism, with Florida welcoming over 88 million visitors through the first nine months of the year.  This represents a 3.3 percent increase over last year, which is great news. Even with this success, we are continuing to aggressively market our state to finish the year.  We are doubling down on our success by launching our new 4th Quarter Blitz Campaign, which will encourage last-minute, impulse getaways for consumers during the holiday season.  The campaign will include digital advertising, radio promotions, Facebook Live broadcasts, and shopping mall takeovers targeted towards our largest markets on the East Coast, such as Atlanta, New York, Boston and Philadelphia.

The targeted digital advertising elements will include Google TrueView, Taboola, Adara, and Quantcast.  These elements use digital algorithms to help distribute Florida holiday-themed content to targeted consumers across a number of platforms.  The radio promotions will air in Detroit, Houston and Atlanta and be featured on nationally-syndicated shows such as Elvis Duran, Mario Lopez, Delilah and Bobby Bones.  These promotions will give listeners a chance to win a trip to Florida, but also keep Florida’s sunshine top of mind during the winter season.  The Facebook Live broadcasts will feature six Florida cities and focus on the warm weather at some of our state’s brightest attractions and destinations.  And finally, with our shopping mall takeovers, we’re placing fresh content on cutting-edge video boards and ad panels at some of the busiest, high-end malls on the East Coast, such as Lenox Square in Atlanta and King of Prussia in Philadelphia.

With these elements in place, our 4th Quarter Blitz will help last minute travelers and shoppers wrap up some sunshine this holiday season as we round out another successful year for tourism in our state.

Earlier this month, VISIT FLORIDA attended World Travel Market London 2017 (WTM), the second largest annual international travel tradeshow.  Now in its 38th year, WTM has long been a must-attend business-to-business event presenting a diverse range of destinations and industry sectors to the U.K. and other international travel professionals.  This year, the show attracted more than 51,000 senior travel industry professionals, government ministers and international media, as well as 5,000 exhibitors from 182 countries. Continue reading »

Late yesterday, Governor Rick Scott announced that Florida set another tourism record by welcoming the highest number of visitors of any nine months in the state’s history with 88.2 million visitors.  This represents a 3.3 percent increase over the 85.4 million visitors from the same period in 2016.  This includes 77.6 million domestic visitors, 7.9 million overseas visitors and 2.7 million Canadians visitors.  Governor Scott made the announcement at Azucar Ice Cream Company, a locally-owned ice cream boutique that has been nationally recognized as one of Little Havana’s top tourist destinations. Continue reading »

Last week, VISIT FLORIDA launched its Canada Takeover winter marketing campaign to attract Canadian visitors to Florida. The campaign kicked off with “Florida Day” in Toronto that saw Governor Rick Scott and Consul General of Canada Susan Harper, along with five of VISIT FLORIDA’s Industry Partners, host consumer-engagement activations, a media reception and a press conference. Continue reading »