Sunshine Matters

During a press conference at The Jacksonville Zoo & Gardens this morning, Governor Rick Scott announced that Florida set another record in tourism by welcoming the highest amount of visitors of any nine months in the state’s history with 85 million visitors.  This record amount of out-of-state and international visitors represents a 5.5 percent increase over the same period last year.  In the third quarter of 2016 (July-Sept.), 26.9 million visitors came to the state, an increase of 5.1 percent over Q3 2015.  This marks Florida’s largest third quarter for visitation ever.  The average number of direct travel-related jobs in quarter three of 2016 was also a record high, with 1,241,300 Floridians employed in the tourism industry – up 4.1 percent year over year. Continue reading »

I am pleased to announce that VISIT FLORIDA has selected JeffreyGroup as our new agency of record to spearhead public relations efforts in Latin America.  The agency was selected to manage media relations and influencer marketing efforts in the region.  With a combined 1.9 million visitors and $2.7 billion in spending annually, Mexico and Brazil rank among the top countries for visitation and visitor spending in the state. Continue reading »

Last week, VISIT FLORIDA attended World Travel Market London 2016 (WTM), the leading global event for the travel industry. Now in its 37th 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 51,500 senior travel industry professionals, government ministers and international press who conducted more than 865,000 on-stand appointments that lead to over £2.5 billion in industry deals being negotiated and signed. Continue reading »

I am proud to announce that last night VISIT FLORIDA received a Silver WOMMY in the Advocacy Award category for our Share A Little Sunshine campaign.  The WOMMY Awards were presented by the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, the official international non-profit trade association dedicated to word of mouth and social media marketing, as part of the Social Media Week conference being held in Chicago.  Now in it’s 11th year, the WOMMY’s recognize the most innovative, inspiring and impactful marketing campaigns from across the globe.  The Advocacy Award category, new for 2016, was created to spotlight the best employee, brand or customer advocacy marketing program to achieve a business outcome. Continue reading »

In an effort to showcase Florida’s diverse destinations by bringing attention to the state’s less visited rural areas, VISIT FLORIDA began a travel trade show partnership in 2014 with the Original Florida Tourism Task Force, doing business as Visit Natural North Florida.  As a result, the task force, which represents 14 counties in North Central Florida, was able to show a 16 percent increase in tax revenues for the region between July 2015 and February 2016. Continue reading »