Sunshine Matters

As you may be aware, VISIT FLORIDA began partnering with American Express and Florida Travel + Life magazine this past June on a new television series featured on the Discovery Channel called Florida Travel + Life’s Affordable Luxury.  The series is all about getting acquainted with affordable luxury in Florida and features a different destination in the Sunshine State each show.  Three episodes have aired so far – the first focused on Daytona, the second on Northwest Florida and the third on Miami. 

Filming for upcoming episodes are planned for early 2011 in Palm Beach, Ft. Lauderdale and the Florida Keys, with more destinations to come later in the year.  Already complete are two episodes shot in Bradenton and the Space Coast.  The Space Coast episode is set to air on March 5 and the Bradenton episode will premiere next Saturday, February 12 at 7:30 a.m. on the Discovery Channel.

The show reaches more than 170 million cable household subscribers through its airings on the Discovery Channel, Discovery HD Theater, the Travel Channel, Sun Sports and R&R TV.  In addition, Florida Travel + Life has created a microsite that features webisodes from the series, as well as sweepstakes offers, travel deals, weekend getaway packages and various blog topics including “small town appeal” and “local waters.”  To date, the series has received an average of 125 video plays daily and nearly 24,000 sweepstakes entries.

The cross promotional opportunties with this partnership extend to other travel sites within the Bonnier family, including DestinationWeddingMag.com and SpaMagazine.com, which enjoy 250,000 monthly impressions, as well as print ads that run in Florida Travel + Life, Cruising World, Baby Talk and other magazine titles delivering an audience of more than 7 million per issue.  There are also individual e-newsletters prepared for each episode that go to over 19,000 subscribers.  Plus, the series is promoted to 1,144 Florida Travel + Life Facebook fans, 2,555 Twitter followers and thousands of attendees at various travel events, such as the Caribbean Tourism Conference and Florida Travel + Life’s Reader’s Choice Awards.

In support of each episode, VISIT FLORIDA’s Public Relations team prepares a social media alert that provides additional insight on vacation experiences from the featured area and offers a preview of content from the upcoming episode.  The alerts are sent to travel and consumer media in key feeder markets nationwide and travel bloggers online.

I would like to thank the Bonnier team and all the local destination marketing organizations who have worked closely with VISIT FLORIDA on content for the episodes.  I encourage everyone to tune in (or set your DVRs) to watch the show.  Be sure to check your local listing for the exact air time or visit www.floridatravellife.com/affordable-luxury for more information.