Sunshine Matters

Last week, VISIT FLORIDA’s International team attended ITB Berlin, the world’s leading travel tradeshow. ITB Berlin, held March 7-11 in Berlin, Germany, hosted approximately 10,000 exhibitors and organizations from 186 countries eager to promote their destinations to more than 170,000 convention attendees.

At this year’s convention, VISIT FLORIDA’s pavilion included 68 Florida attendees from 22 Industry Partners including DMOs, hotels and attractions.

Miles Saunders, Media and Content Manager at Discover Crystal River, said, “This has been our most successful ITB ever, and we could not have done it without VISIT FLORIDA. The German market is our most important international market and the connections we have made are phenomenal. As a smaller destination, we rely heavily on VISIT FLORIDA and were proud to be a part of their presence.”

The first three days of the travel show are dedicated to trade professionals only, while the latter two are designed to spotlight destinations to consumers. VISIT FLORIDA staff had a full schedule of nearly 50 appointments with tour operators and travel brands and met with 60 key journalists and bloggers on the trade show floor. In addition, VISIT FLORIDA staff members participated in the Speed Blogger Event and the Visit USA Media Breakfast which offered even more one-on-one time with some of ITB Berlin’s 5,500+ accredited journalists and bloggers representing approximately 100 countries.

For the sixth year in a row, VISIT FLORIDA hosted a signature travel trade and media event, providing our Partners the opportunity to network with 180 European travel trade representatives and journalists in a unique atmosphere. This year’s event, sponsored by The Beaches of Fort Myers and Sanibel as well as Eurowings, was held in the Pan Am Lounge at House Eden, the luxurious apartment building used in the 60’s and 70’s to house flight crew from the famous Pan American Airways.

Tamara Pigott, Executive Director of The Beaches of Fort Myers and Sanibel, said, “ITB is an incredibly important tradeshow for The Beaches of Fort Myers and Sanibel. Because of our Partnership with VISIT FLORIDA, we were able to cohost this year’s Pan Am Lounge event with Eurowings and promote the six weekly Eurowings flights from Germany to Fort Myers starting in May.”

Also during ITB Berlin, VISIT FLORIDA sponsored the LGBT ITB Party by TomOnTour at The Reed Club. This party, which is by special invitation only, reinforces VISIT FLORIDA’s commitment to serving the LGBT travel community on a global scale, and helps promote the Sunshine State as one of the world’s premier gay and lesbian destinations.

Suya Davenport, Corporate Director of Leisure Sales at Benchmark, a global hospitality company, said, “ITB Berlin is a great show that offers Benchmark the opportunity to develop new relationships with the German market and build on our relationships with the Florida destination Partners who attend. “We have hotels throughout the state, so our partnership with VISIT FLORIDA is very important to our company. This tradeshow is just one of the many reasons our company is a VISIT FLORIDA Partner.”

To learn more about VISIT FLORIDA’s international marketing efforts, visit VISITFLORIDA.org and check out our online Marketing Planner.

VISIT FLORIDA recently attended ITB Berlin, the world’s largest travel fair.  The international travel market proved to be highly competitive, with 189 countries on-hand to promote their destinations to 174,000 attendees.  The VISIT FLORIDA booth was the largest in the Brand USA pavilion, with 95 Florida industry representatives. Continue reading »

VISIT FLORIDA recently attended ITB Berlin, the world’s largest travel fair.  With an event this grand in scale and knowing that a picture is worth a thousand words, I thought it might be fun to share a photo essay to help tell the story.

The international travel market proved to be highly competitive, with more than 180 countries on-hand to promote their destinations to over 113,000 attendees. The VISIT FLORIDA booth was the largest in the USA pavilion, with more than 90 Florida industry representatives. Continue reading »

This past week, March 9-13, I was in Germany for the 45th edition of ITB Berlin, the world’s leading travel trade show.  With very strong industry support, VISIT FLORIDA coordinated the largest stand within the USA pavilion with 80 Florida industry partners in attendance.  Surprisingly, when we arrived we discovered that spring had sprung with Berlin experiencing mild temperatures and blue skies.  So, if weather is any indicator, we should expect a sunny future for international tourism arrivals in 2011, keeping with the trend we experienced in 2010. Continue reading »

International visitors represent 11.7% of all Florida visitors.  In 2009, Florida welcomed nearly 9.5 million international visitors from 165 countries – who collectively spent over $5.8 billion in Florida.  This represents a decline of  3% in visitation and a 12% decline in spending from international visitors.  We could chalk the losses up to the global recession and presume that as the economy improves Florida will see international visitors return, but that would be a huge mistake. Continue reading »