Sunshine Matters

Me and Ed Schroeder at Mile Marker 25 in Pensacola Beach

I am delighted to announce that more than 3,700 Florida volunteers in 34 coastal counties covered the Sunshine State’s 825 miles of beaches Saturday in a celebratory event documenting – in more than five thousand real-time photos – the great conditions of Florida’s sandy shores.

The Great VISIT FLORIDA Beach Walk may well have been the world’s biggest beach rally and photo fest. Volunteers from elementary school students to realtors and from dog-walkers to kayakers spent Saturday morning walking at least one beach mile and uploading real-time photos of what they saw. The 5,200+ images show beautiful beaches, glorious sunrises, healthy wildlife, and beach-lovers having a great time. Continue reading »

As we previewed at Governor’s Conference, VISIT FLORIDA will host the “Great VISIT FLORIDA Beach Walk” on November  6 to clear up any doubts about the status of Florida’s beaches in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The event will bring together thousands of residents and volunteers across the state to walk their favorite mile of Florida beach and take photos proving that every one of the Sunshine State’s beaches are as pristine as ever.  Continue reading »

I am pleased to share that after many months of collaboration VISIT FLORIDA has launched America’s first state trails-tourism website offering comprehensive information about more than 100 of the Sunshine State’s trails and greenways.  Found at trails.VISITFLORIDA.com, this special micro-site assists visitors worldwide with planning and booking their outdoor adventures by providing detailed descriptions of Florida’s trails by city, activities, trail length or surface, as well as links to the individual trail websites and interactive maps showing the exact plot of a given trail so users can see nearby outfitters, hotels, campgrounds and restaurants.  Continue reading »

As part of the 43rd Annual Florida Governor’s Conference on Tourism, being held September 26-28 at the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate, VISIT FLORIDA announced today the launch of several new features to the VISITFLORIDA.com website and a statewide special event being organized to show the world that Florida’s beaches are as beautiful as ever. Continue reading »

In January, VISIT FLORIDA announced the launch of our new spring 2010 “Your Florida Side” marketing campaign, which ran through early May.  VISIT FLORIDA contracted with Strategic Marketing & Research, Inc. to conduct research quantifying the “Your Florida Side” campaign’s return on investment by assessing the level of incremental travel that it generated.  Continue reading »