Sunshine Matters

Last week, the domestic VISIT FLORIDA Marketing and Events team had the pleasure of visiting the Tampa area for a familiarization tour (FAM) with Visit Tampa Bay.  Since the team focuses on marketing the entire state to meeting professionals and travel agents throughout the country, department FAMs serve as a perfect opportunity to become better acquainted with the destinations we represent.  This FAM focused on Tampa’s meeting offerings and included visits to the Hilton Tampa Downtown, the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel & Marina, the Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation, the Tampa Convention Center and Saddlebrook Resort.

The Tampa area has been very busy this past month.  Visit Tampa Bay and the Tampa area properties and venues just hosted another successful Gasparilla Pirate Fest, Tampa Bay’s unique historic pirate-themed festival featuring the Gasparilla Invasion.  And now, the area is gearing up to host the International India Film Academy (IIFA) awards, better known as the “Bollywood Oscars,” from April 24-26, 2014.  The awards weekend is expected to draw 30,000 or more visitors to the area.

As the Marketing and Events team is often at trade shows and events representing the entire state, this FAM tour was very beneficial as an introduction to the unique meetings offerings in Tampa.  In past years, our team visited with CVBs in other parts of the state, including Visit Central Florida.  Finding these types of department FAMs greatly beneficial, we’re looking forward to meeting with more Partners this way in the future.

We’d like to extend a special thanks to our CVB host, Visit Tampa Bay, for coordinating a great educational FAM that truly highlighted the Tampa area and its immense meeting potential.  Another special thanks to the Hilton Tampa Downtown for hosting our Marketing and Events team.  Thank you again to each of our hosts; we had a great time Discovering Tampa Bay.