Sunshine Matters

VISIT FLORIDA recently participated in U.S. Travel Association’s 47th Annual IPW held in Orlando.  This year marked the 11th time Florida has hosted the travel industry’s premier international marketplace, bringing to the Sunshine State a record of more than 6,500 attendees.  The show consisted of international and domestic travel buyers, journalists and suppliers representing more than 70 countries.

As the largest generator of travel to the U.S., IPW is not a typical trade show.  In just three days of intensive pre-scheduled business appointments, more than 1,000 U.S. travel organizations from every region of the country representing all industry category components, as well as international and domestic buyers, conducted business negotiations that are expected to result in the generation of more than $4.7 billion in future Visit USA travel.

As the host state, Florida was well represented with a huge presence on the trade show floor.  In addition to increasing our booth size by 100 square feet, VISIT FLORIDA co-sponsored bus transportation with Visit Orlando and had significant branding at the convention center.

VISIT FLORIDA also brought in our international representatives from China, India, Latin America, Germany and the UK.  For the entire team, the three-day show was full of intensive pre-scheduled appointments, providing staff with an opportunity to bring tour operators and media up-to-date on what’s new in Florida, and updating them on new programming planned for 2015-2016.

VISIT FLORIDA’s Public Relations team was busy as well, meeting with more than 500 international and domestic trade and consumer writers in the IPW Media Marketplace.  One of our main PR focuses this year was promoting Florida’s diverse national and state parks, which are easily accessible from the state’s world class beaches and attractions.

To learn more about VISIT FLORIDA’s international trade show efforts, contact me at agonzalez@VISITFLORIDA.org.