Sunshine Matters

As part of the 43rd Annual Florida Governor’s Conference on Tourism, being held September 26-28 at the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate, VISIT FLORIDA announced today the launch of several new features to the VISITFLORIDA.com website and a statewide special event being organized to show the world that Florida’s beaches are as beautiful as ever.

Announced for the first time today and scheduled for Saturday, November 6, the “Great VISIT FLORIDA Beach Walk” will be a fun day for residents and volunteers to “Share a Little Sunshine” by taking photos and videos of their favorite Florida beach and uploading them to VISIT FLORIDA’s innovative Florida Live site.  The goal of the Beach Walk is to showcase these images so that when combined they serve as a real-time depiction of all 825 miles of Florida’s beaches.  This will allow the Sunshine State to put an end to any doubts in the minds of visitors anywhere in the world that every single one of Florida’s beautiful beaches are in fact clean, clear and open for business.

“While it should be a lot of fun and certainly for a great purpose, this project is a tremendous undertaking.  So, I would like to especially thank Volunteer Florida for agreeing to organize the hundreds of volunteer photographers and videographers statewide who will collect images of every mile of beach in Florida on November 6th,” said Christopher L. Thompson, President and CEO of VISIT FLORIDA.  “Many thanks as well go out to the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association and the Florida Lottery for their help with promotional support for the event.”

Today, VISIT FLORIDA also unveiled that the most visited destination marketing website in the country – VISITFLORIDA.com – is now available in a mobile version.  All the content on the award-winning consumer site can be accessed on any mobile device.  Some of the new features include “Near Me Now” functionality for mobile devices with GPS-enabled capabilities and video displays. The mobile site also offers featured cities, featured experiences, featured deals, real-time content from VISIT FLORIDA Insiders, articles, photos, events and favorites allowing users to save listings, photos and other information to put together their own Florida vacation plans.

“With more than 4 billion mobile users in the world today, the creation of a true mobile version ─ not just an app ─ of the VISIT FLORIDA website allows us to have the most powerful connection possible with our visitors,” explained Will Seccombe, Chief Marketing Officer for VISIT FLORIDA.  “This is a remarkable new way for us to deliver content from the top-rated destination marketing site to users around the globe.”

Another new feature unveiled today was the trails.VISITFLORIDA.com website which will launch Oct. 4 with information on more than 100 Florida trails.  This special micro-site, developed by VISIT FLORIDA in partnership with the Office of Greenways and Trails, features interactive maps showing the exact plot of a given trail so uses can see nearby tourism-related businesses, such as hotels and outfitters.

“VISIT FLORIDA is committed to continuously increasing its relevance to customers and the industry by providing improved resources that make planning a vacation to the Sunshine State a better experience,” said Seccombe.  “Having recently made free web listings for tourism businesses available through VISITFLORIDA.com, and now with the addition of a mobile platform, detailed trails information and expanded content on Florida Live, VISIT FLORIDA is truly leading the way in utilizing technology and compelling content to establish ourselves as the trusted source for travel planning.”

VISIT FLORIDA unveiled all of these new features during its annual Florida Governor’s Conference on Tourism, an event hosted each year to bring members of Florida’s number one industry together to share best practices, exchange information and hear from experts what to expect going forward.