Sunshine Matters

An emphasis of the 2011-12 marketing plan is to build a rich report of Florida travel stories.  Since June 1, in addition to the successful Insiders program, more than 40 articles, photo essays and videos have been published on VISITFLORIDA.com.  Such as:

• Songs for a Sunshine State Summer
• A series on Urban Sanctuaries, starting with Tallahassee
• The Heavy Metal Tour for shipwreck diver.
• Unusual vacation rentals, from a house on stilts to your own private island
• Who has the best Cuban sandwich? Tampa or Miami?

Each of these stories, by an award-winning Florida journalist, was written for VISITFLORIDA.

The next obvious step was to show off this good work.  Here’s what we’ve done so far.

Starting this week, improvements to our home page functionality are making it easier for readers to find these stories.  Start at the top with the sliding Insiders module.

VISITFLORIDA’s Insiders post new information in their blogs every day.  Those headlines are now appearing dynamically under the Insiders’ image.  For instance, every time Lauren Tjaden updates her beaches blog, the new post publishes to the home page.

Further, a 10th sliding panel will be dedicated to our new content.  In the coming days, look for a feature package on How to Do Florida, our instructional video series on such Florida activities as sportfishing, surfing and lobstering.

Moving down the page, the “New Stories” section trumpets nine stories at a time. Watch it scroll through the choices, pick the story that most interests you.

Okay, now you know what’s new on VISITFLORIDA.com.  Spread the word.

Next for us? Distributing these stories of Florida to interested media partners. The St. Petersburg Times has confirmed its participation — hopefully the first of many dominos to tumble our way.