Sunshine Matters

VISIT FLORIDA is tapping into emerging markets by taking advantage of a new Emirates airline service.  For the first time ever, this new service gives potential visitors from the Middle East, Africa and India direct access to Central Florida and further supports the state’s first direct service to the region, a non-stop flight between Miami and Doha with Qatar Airways, launched in the last 12 months. With its inaugural flight on September 1, 2015, Emirates now offers daily non-stop flights from Dubai to Orlando on a Boeing 777-200, 266 seater. Continue reading »

Last week, VISIT FLORIDA created a co-branded stand for IMEX Frankfurt, a global marketplace for meeting professionals looking to book and organize worldwide meetings, events and incentive travel programs.  This year, the event welcomed 3,500 exhibitors, 3,900 hosted buyers, 4,900 trade visitors and 62,000 business appointments. Continue reading »

Last week, VISIT FLORIDA and four of our industry Partners participated in the Ignite Business Event (iBE) Expo in Toronto as part of Canada Meet Week.   iBE Expo is an experiential, interactive and informative marketplace for buyers of meetings, incentive travel services and business events in Canada. This one-day event, which drew more than 840 Canadian meeting planners, is specifically tailored to connect planners with suppliers, while offering continuing education and keynote speakers from various industries. Continue reading »

VISIT FLORIDA’s International Marketing & Events team recently hosted a five-day sales mission to visit with key travel agencies and tour operators in Norway, Denmark and Sweden.  The week-long event, which included several added-value activities, offered a great opportunity for VISIT FLORIDA and five of our Industry Partners to provide updates on what’s new in Florida to a total of nearly 300 Nordic travel trade representatives. Continue reading »

VISIT FLORIDA and 13 Florida aviation and tourism industry partners participated in last week’s 20th World Route Development Forum in Chicago.  The forum, which serves as the largest global gathering of the route development community from the world’s airlines, airports and tourism authorities, consists of four main components: meetings, networking, an educational conference and route exchange airline briefings.  World Routes 2014 attracted more than 3,000 delegates representing 300 airlines, 800 airports and 200 tourism organizations. Continue reading »