Sunshine Matters

Ranked sixth among countries for international visitation to the Sunshine State in 2014, Colombia is an important global market for VISIT FLORIDA.  To ensure Florida stays top of mind for in-country travel trade and media, our International Sales & Market Development team recently completed a sales mission to Medellin and Bogota, and was highly visible during the 34th edition of ANATO.

Last year, an estimated 511,000 Colombians traveled to Florida, which represents a 27 percent increase over the previous year.  Many cities in Colombia currently have direct service into Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, as well as numerous flight connections throughout the state.

As part of the two-day sales mission, VISIT FLORIDA and 12 of our Industry Partners conducted educational seminars for 325 local tourism trade representatives and members of the media in both key cities.  The meetings provided the perfect setting to share in-depth details on what’s new in Florida tourism from the statewide and individual destination perspectives.

Following the sales mission, the international team participated in Vitrina de ANATO in Bogota.  This event is the country’s largest travel trade show hosted by the Colombian National Association of Travel and Tourism.  With more than 37,000 travel agents, tour operators and journalists in attendance, VISIT FLORIDA and our Partners took full advantage of our prominent booth location at the front entrance to the International Hall.  

To learn more about VISIT FLORIDA’s international marketing efforts, please check out our online Marketing Planner or contact me at cjones@VISITFLORIDA.org.