Sunshine Matters

As the state’s official source for travel planning, VISIT FLORIDA provides visitors with two key resources for discovering all there is to see and do in the Sunshine State.  The first is VISITFLORIDA.com, the most trafficked destination marketing organization website in the country.  The second is the VISIT FLORIDA Magazine, the state’s premier travel planning publication.

The most significant driver for traffic to the website and readers of the magazine is VISIT FLORIDA’s highly-successful domestic advertising campaign, Your Florida Side Is Calling.  For every $1 spent on tourism marketing, VISIT FLORIDA generates more than $177 in tourism spending and $11 in new sales tax collections.

In an effort to better understand the role the website and magazine play in converting viewers into visitors, VISIT FLORIDA commissioned a conversion study designed to measure the impact of these two tools and overlay those results with the advertising effectiveness research to see the comparative impact.  The study revealed that, of the 4.5 million visitors to the website during the survey period (excluding residents/relocators), 78% subsequently traveled to the state – representing 3.5 million visitors.  Among those website visitors who had not decided to visit the state prior to going to the site, 56% subsequently traveled to Florida.  This totaled one million visitors whose direct spending equaled $3.4 billion. Continue reading »

I’m pleased to share VISIT FLORIDA’s preliminary estimates* of visitors to Florida for the first quarter of 2011 (January – March) which show an estimated 23.3 million travelers visited the Sunshine State.  This represents an increase of 3.3 percent from the same period in 2010.

Preliminary estimates for the first quarter of 2011 show a 2.0 percent increase in domestic visitors, a 14.4 percent increase in the overseas market and an 8.1 percent increase in Canadian travel to Florida.  Of the 23.3 million visitors Florida welcomed this past quarter, domestic visitation represents 19.8 million or an estimated 84.8 percent of total; overseas visitors at 2.1 million or 9.1 percent of total; and Canadian visitors at 1.4 million or 6.1 percent of total.  Florida’s tourism-related employment for the first quarter of 2011 was 1,003,200, up by 52,300 jobs, which reflects a 5.5 percent increase when compared to the same period of 2010. Continue reading »

In order to capitalize on the success of last year’s award-winning marketing campaign, VISIT FLORIDA announces the year-two launch of “Your Florida Side Is Calling” in key markets throughout the U.S.  The fully-integrated campaign generated more than $147 in tourism spending and $9 in new sales tax collections for every $1 spent on marketing during its first year in 2010.  This return on investment is three times higher than in 2009. Continue reading »

I would like to share the text from a VISIT FLORIDA media release that was sent out late yesterday afternoon:

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (May 20, 2010) – Preliminary estimates* of visitors to Florida for the first quarter of 2010 (January – March), released by VISIT FLORIDA®, the official tourism marketing corporation for the State of Florida, show an estimated 22.7 million travelers visited the Sunshine State.  This represents an increase of 2.7 percent from the same period in 2009.

Continue reading »