Sunshine Matters

VISIT FLORIDA recently hosted our first annual Dallas Travel Trade Luncheon, bringing a ray of Florida sunshine to this growing domestic market.  Texas is the sixth ranked feeder state for visitors to Florida and the Dallas area is the Sunshine State’s eighth leading origin Designated Market Area (DMA).  Over the last two years, Dallas has shown a double digit percentage growth, with nearly 800,000 visitors flying to Florida from the city each year.

This highly successful travel event, held at the III Forks restaurant in North Dallas, brought together nearly 60 travel professionals from the area and was co-hosted by four of VISIT FLORIDA’s tourism industry Partners – Visit Orlando, South Seas Island Resort, Westgate Resorts and Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa.  As part of the luncheon, each of the Partners had the opportunity to give presentations to the attendees on their local attractions and destination amenities.

VISIT FLORIDA shared information on our current “Must Be The Sunshine: Warmer Side of Winter” brand campaign, the 2014 VISIT FLORIDA Magazine – the Official Florida Travel Industry Guide – and the Florida Specialist Program.  Each of these are great resources travel professionals can utilize when selling Florida to the consumer.

For those who may not be aware, the Florida Specialist Program is designed specifically for travel professionals to build their product knowledge of the Sunshine State and includes topic areas on general Florida as well as Florida weddings.  Travel professionals can become VISIT FLORIDA Specialists and receive four continuing education credits by completing the course at edu.recommend.com.

In the coming months, VISIT FLORIDA will be hosting two more travel trade events – in the Chicago area on March 18 and in the Philadelphia area on May 1. For more information on any of these upcoming events, please contact me at wmcqueen@VISITFLORIDA.org.