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.

Florida communities have been busy in the week since Hurricane Matthew rolled up our East coast.  Several counties reported very serious damage from the storm, many areas were very fortunate to receive minimal damage and all of the state was impacted by the dramatic media coverage of the first major hurricane to hit the U.S. in a decade.  This week, I joined Carol Dover and her team with the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association to tour some of the areas of our state most impacted by the storm and to offer the assistance of the Florida tourism industry in their recovery efforts. Continue reading »

Hurricane Matthew was a very dangerous storm and, while we are fortunate that the vast majority of Florida did not see significant impacts, we do have several communities that sustained serious damage.

Last week, the VISIT FLORIDA team was focused on the safety of our visitors and fellow Floridians.  This week, we are shifting our focus to recovery and to letting the world know that the Florida tourism industry is open for business. Continue reading »

VISIT FLORIDA and 16 of our Industry Partners traveled to New York City earlier this week to share the Florida warmth with more than 40 top New York journalists, including Travel and Leisure, Frommer’s and Connexions Magazine.  For three hours, attendees escaped the freezing NY weather to enjoy vibrant Florida-inspired decor, while waitstaff in beach attire served Florida specialty drinks and hors d’oeuvers, including mini key lime pies. Continue reading »

This summer, in correlation with our seasonal campaign, VISIT FLORIDA expanded our efforts to include visitors’ beloved dogs.  #DogsLoveFL was a fully integrated campaign designed to create a fresh way to highlight summer travel in Florida, including the creation of social conversations that allowed our Partners to showcase their product. Continue reading »