Sunshine Matters

This year VISIT FLORIDA participated in METROPOLL XIV, a comprehensive study of meeting planners and the meetings market in North America, conducted by RRC Associates. The report, which provides a detailed description of meeting planners’ preferences and their perceptions of 40 North American destinations, was conducted over a dozen years allowing for trend analysis of important issues. This was the first time VISIT FLORIDA participated in the study, adding questions to determine how meeting planners viewed Florida as a meetings destination.

The meeting planners in the study reported that they select a site for their largest meeting between two and three years in advance and plan an average of 12-22 meetings a year. The top five factors most important to meeting planners when selecting a site are: convenient airline service (82%), easy for delegates to get to (82%), food and lodging costs (81%), travel costs to location (78%) and good hotels (76%).

The meeting planners that were surveyed for the Florida study were segmented into those who actively plan meetings in Florida (High Florida Affinity planners) and those who do not actively plan meetings in Florida (Lower Florida Affinity planners). High Florida Affinity planners are more likely to be from the Southern U.S. states.  High Florida Affinity planners are also more likely to hold meetings that are corporate in nature, such as trade shows, corporate meetings, international meetings, incentive meetings and sales meetings.

The specific study on Florida found that meeting planners rank the state extremely high on the characteristic “good value for the money,” indicating that Florida meetings deliver exceptional value. Meeting planners are highly likely to return to the host site they used in Florida – over 90% of meeting planners reported that they would return to the Florida destination that hosted their most recent meeting for a future meeting.

Florida maintains a very positive travel image among meeting planners of all types, standing out as a destination which is family-friendly and offers a variety of things to do. Florida rates at the top of its competitive set of destinations on the considerations that it be easily accessible for meeting attendees, offer convenient airline service and do so for a reasonable cost. Ease of travel and low cost of travel are the incentives most likely to draw meeting planners to Florida, regardless of whether they actively plan meetings in Florida or not. Among VISIT FLORIDA’s marketing efforts, meetings.VISITFLORIDA.com is seen by meeting planners as the most important source of information in planning meetings.