Sunshine Matters

Last month, in an effort to keep Florida top of mind with international travelers, VISIT FLORIDA joined more than 6,000 attendees from over 70 countries in Denver, Colorado for this year’s IPW—the travel industry’s premier international marketplace and the largest generator of travel to the U.S.

IPW, which took place May 19-23, gathers travel professionals—including U.S. destinations, hotels, attractions, sports teams and transportation companies, and international tour operators, buyers and wholesalers from around the world—to meet in one place to help bring the world to America.

This year’s event was attended by approximately 1,000 U.S. travel organizations, more than 1,300 international and domestic buyers, and over 500 members of the media. Over the course of five days, there were 100,000 prescheduled business meetings between suppliers and buyers, expected to result in $4.7 billion in future international travel to the U.S.

VISIT FLORIDA was well represented with a huge presence on the trade show floor. In addition to key staff from across the organization, VISIT FLORIDA brought a strong contingent of international representatives from Canada, China, Germany, Latin America and the UK. The VISIT FLORIDA International team conducted over 180 pre-scheduled appointments with tour operators and travel trade professionals, and the Public Relations team held more than 50 media meetings in addition to facilitating executive interviews with international and domestic writers in the IPW Media Marketplace.

Elvi Cal, Vice President Product Development, TravelBrands, said, “We met with the VISIT Florida team at IPW in Denver mid-May and had very constructive discussions on driving more Canadians to the state. For TravelBrands, Florida is key to our future growth in the US, and from a Canadian outbound travel perspective, the state leads with 17% of visitors and also dominates in visitor nights and spending so it is crucial we work together to continue this trend. TravelBrands and VISIT FLORIDA have worked together for many years and the relationship is extremely valuable so we are thrilled to be key partners in possible joint marketing ventures.”

Elena Wang, Assistant General Manager, Galaxy Tour, INC, said, “As the top wholesalers in China, Galaxy Tours has developed in depth Florida-only products for the market and saw a big increase for Florida-related products during 2017 and the 2018 Chinese New Year holidays. With Delta launching their direct flight from PVG to ATL, Galaxy Tours would like to keep working with VISIT FLORIDA to develop more Florida products showcasing the diversity of Florida.”

To learn more about our international trade show efforts, visit VISITFLORIDA.org and check out our online Marketing Planner.

Brazil is one of Florida’s key global markets, ranked third for international visitation to Florida. Last week, to ensure the Sunshine State remains top of mind with Brazilian travelers, VISIT FLORIDA’s International Marketing and Public Relations teams participated in World Travel Market Latin America 2018.

Now in its sixth year, WTM Latin America was held April 3-5 at the Expo Center Norte in São Paulo, Brazil. As the world’s leading event for the travel industry in Latin America, the three-day show attracted 6,000 travel professionals and 598 exhibiting companies.

At this year’s convention, VISIT FLORIDA was joined by attendees from Industry Partners including Strategic Alliance Partners, DMOs and CVBs. In addition to coordinating the Florida Stand, VISIT FLORIDA held 25 trade show meetings, 21 media appointments, and hosted a media reception attended by 22 journalists and influencers.

Margarita Castaneda, Director of Marketing, Latin America and Caribbean, for the Hertz Corporation, said, “Our partnership with VISIT FLORIDA is extremely valuable and offers Hertz the opportunity to introduce our new brands to the Latin American market. Florida is the number one destination for Brazilians, so we were thrilled to be a part of the VISIT FLORIDA presence at WTM Latin America.”

Jack Wert, Executive Director of the Naples, Marco Island and Everglades CVB, said, “We would not be able to attend WTM Latin America without our partnership with VISIT FLORIDA. Having a presence in international markets is extremely important to our growth and being at this event with VISIT FLORIDA provides an opportunity to show Brazilian tour operators, travel agents and media that there is more to Florida than they know.”

VISIT FLORIDA could not have had such success at WTM Latin America without our Industry Partners, the Beaches of Ft. Myers & Sanibel, the Greater Ft. Lauderdale CVB, the Hertz Corporation, Naples, Marco Island, Everglades CVB, Simon Shopping Destinations and Visit St. Pete/Clearwater.

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

The VISIT FLORIDA team, including President & CEO Ken Lawson, stands with Industry Partners at WTM Latin America

VISIT FLORIDA and Industry Partners network with travel professionals at WTM Latin America.

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.

Earlier this month, VISIT FLORIDA attended World Travel Market London 2017 (WTM), the second largest annual international travel tradeshow.  Now in its 38th year, WTM has long been a must-attend business-to-business event presenting a diverse range of destinations and industry sectors to the U.K. and other international travel professionals.  This year, the show attracted more than 51,000 senior travel industry professionals, government ministers and international media, as well as 5,000 exhibitors from 182 countries. Continue reading »

January in London is famously gray, with an average of 19 rainy days and only 2-3 hours of sunshine per day.  That’s why, for the second year, VISIT FLORIDA and more than a dozen of our Industry Partners are joining forces to share “moments of sunshine” with potential Sunshine State visitors from the UK. Continue reading »