During last Thursday’s VISIT FLORIDA Boardof Directors meeting, held in Daytona Beach Shores, local legislators Senator Evelyn Lynn and Representative Pat Patterson addressed the group to thank the tourism industry for all they do for the great State of Florida and to expound on issues they expect to be taking up in the coming committee weeks and 2010 Session. Representative Dean Cannon, incoming Speaker of the House, was also in attendance to advocate for his House bill regarding offshore drilling and to establish a dialogue going forward with tourism industry leaders on this controversial and important issue. Continue reading »
I am proud to announce that Florida Monthly magazine’s readers have named VISITFLORIDA.com the Best Florida Web site as part of their 14th Annual Best of Florida Awards. Earlier this year, the magazine’s readers were asked to nominate and vote for their choices in 130 different catagories – and they chose US!
VISIT FLORIDA, along with the other winners, is featured in the September issue of Florida Monthly and will appear on their Web site at www.floridamagazine.com for an entire year. Please visit our award-winning Web site at www.VISITFLORIDA.com and see for yourself what makes it so great.
Selling the Sunshine is indeed a Florida Tradition. Florida welcomed 8 million visitors in 1957, 30 million in 1977, 40 million in 1990 and 84 million visitors last year. The tremendous growth of the Florida Tourism industry was not an accident. The industry has been aggressively marketing the Sunshine State to travelers worldwide for decades, and the success that we enjoy today is the result of the hard work and innovation of Florida’s tourism marketers over the years. This fun look at the advertising efforts over the years is a great motivator to remind us all how lucky we are to continue the tradition of “Selling the Sunshine.”
In conjunction with the U.S. Travel Association’s annual Travel Leadership Summit in Washington D.C., VISIT FLORIDA partnered with the California Travel & Tourism Commission to host the “Golden State Meets Sunshine State” Congressional Reception. The event was held Tuesday, September 15, 2009 at The Terrace above Charlie Palmer Steak Restaurant, just a few blocks away from the Nation’s Capitol. Continue reading »
Three members of the VISIT FLORIDA staff – David Dodd, Joyce Stillwell and I – recently attended the annual Educational Seminar for Tourism Organizations (ESTO), hosted by the U.S. Travel Association. The event was held Aug. 30 – Sept. 1 in Reno/Tahoe, Nevada. Staff attends this important event each year in order to network with our peers from across the country and benefit from the sharing of best practices. Continue reading »
