Sunshine Matters

As the college football regular season comes to a close, I am proud to announce the winning university in the Florida Fan Game contest. The Florida Fan Game is an initiative of VISIT FLORIDA’s Share A Little Sunshine program, engaging Floridians to support tourism by inviting friends and family to visit the state. The head football coaches at six of Florida’s major universities called on their fans to send digital invitations, earning points for their school in the Florida Fan Game. With more than 23,000 invitations sent, the University of Florida has earned the title of having “Florida’s No. 1 Fans.”

Between Sept. 2 and Dec. 5, fans of the six universities sent nearly 70,000 personal digital invitations. Florida State University fans were the contest runners-up, sending more than 20,000 invitations. The other competing schools were Florida A&M University, University of Central Florida, University of Miami and University of South Florida. The Florida Fan Game also resulted in adding 29,000 new actively engaged fans of the Share A Little Sunshine Facebook page, which now has more than 65,000 followers.

I want to congratulate the Gators for becoming Florida’s No. 1 Fans, but the real winners are Florida’s residents. We know every 85 visitors means a job for another Floridian.  With so many fans sending invitations and joining in the Share a Little Sunshine movement, the Florida Fan Game has certainly had a significant impact on Florida’s tourism industry.

Every visiting friend and relative trip adds an average of $1,125 directly into the state’s economy. The team at VISIT FLORIDA created the Florida Fan Game as a way to combine Floridians’ passion for college football and their love of the Sunshine State into a contest designed to increase tourism.

“We are proud that Gator fans have helped Florida’s economy in such a big way,” said Jeremy Foley, University of Florida Director of Athletics. “All the fans of the universities that played the Florida Fan Game can be proud of what we accomplished together for our state.”

In addition to working closely with statewide tourism businesses, IMG and the six participating universities, VISIT FLORIDA partnered with Southwest Airlines who provided $25 off coupons on flights to Florida for every invitation recipient.

VISIT FLORIDA also partnered with the Florida Association of Broadcasters and the Florida Cable Telecommunications Association who aired public service announcements by each of the six university head football coaches throughout the season.  The TV and radio spots featured head coaches Jimbo Fisher, Al Golden, Skip Holtz, Will Muschamp, George O’Leary and Joe Taylor.

“The Florida Fan Game tapped very successfully into the passion and competition that defines Florida football and leveraged it to increase travel to the state, scoring a win-win for the fans and the state’s economy,” said Will Seccombe, Chief Marketing Officer for VISIT FLORIDA.