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— Dawit Habtemariam
Visit Florida seeks to revitalize tourism to the Northwest's overlooked hidden gems. Visit Florida CEO and President Dana Young said the destination marketing organization won a $10.5 million grant earlier this month to promote the region's eight counties.
Young spoke to Skift about grants, new travel trends in the state, how Los Angeles became a top inbound market, visa wait times, and more.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
$10.5 million to promote tourism to Northwest Florida
Skift: Visit Florida was recently awarded $10.5 million from Triumph Gulf Coast, a state-funded nonprofit organization, to promote the Northwest region.
Dana Young: All eight counties were included in a group of counties believed to have been affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill many years ago. All of these counties came together with the support of the County Commission and partnered with Visit Florida to obtain this grant.
Northwest Florida is very beautiful and kind of what you imagine old Florida to be, but the beaches in that area, known as the Florida Panhandle, are really nice, less crowded, and certainly not as developed as South Florida. These counties are geographically large, but some are sparsely populated and rural. That's the only thing that feels different.
What is the marketing strategy for this hidden gem?
We plan to implement a two-pronged marketing approach aimed at smoothing out seasonality and introducing the region to new markets across the United States. A regional campaign called “Adventure Within Reach” will focus on adventure travel opportunities in all eight counties. .
Second, we will work with the DMO to develop individualized marketing programs for each of our eight counties to highlight the specific things we want to showcase nationally.
What other campaigns are you running?
This year, we actually got a $5 million budget earmarked specifically for nature-based travel, trails, and trail towns. We started this campaign last year. Many people don't realize that there are over 15,000 miles of trails in Florida and that just hiking is not a trail. These include hiking, biking, kayaking, paddleboarding, scuba diving, and horseback riding. A fishing trail has also been established. Focusing on those adventure activities is definitely a boost for us.
We're definitely seeing a real trend of people traveling impulsively, people who can just get up and go. So we want to target millennials and young people who travel impulsively with a campaign focused on increasing appeal and increasing ready-to-go spring bookings.
NAACP Impact of travel advisories on treaties
Last year, the NAACP issue a travel advisory In Florida.Skift meeting reported on competition waves withdraw from the state Due to controversial legislation. What impact has it had on Florida's event calendar?
My understanding, solely from conversations with DMO heads in the state, is that meetings that were canceled for whatever reason had three or four people lined up to take their place. Revenue in 2023 increased by 13%, with meeting and convention bookings growing faster than leisure bookings. So I think this type of recommendation is more of a publicity stunt than anything else.
Latin America sees strong recovery, but visa wait times don't help
How is the Florida Latin American tourism source market performing? Is it affected by long waiting times for tourist visas?
Latin America is doing really well. Mexico is a particularly shining star right now. Visitor numbers to Mexico are at their highest since we began tracking the numbers.
The issue of visa waiting times remains very real and the impact on us is very significant. Florida is disproportionately affected by this because it receives a large number of visitors from Central and South America.
Brazil's tourist numbers recently reached 1 million. This is the first time since 2019 that this level has been reached. Many of them are new visa holders.
I have met directly with the State Department many times to talk about wait times and what they are doing. And after those meetings, it's kind of funny, some markets see their wait times go down and then go back to normal a few months later. I don't know what's going on there, but they could definitely do better.
sightseeing Fort Myers Recovery from Hurricane Ian
In the fall of 2022, Hurricane Ian devastated Lee County, home to Fort Myers. How has tourism in the area recovered? I know it caused a lot of notoriety and destruction.
The negative earned media was huge. All they did was show destruction over and over again, resulting in around $164 million in earned media.
I went there about six months ago and spent three days touring the area, and the truth is, they're doing well. Although visitor numbers are increasing, they are down about 29% from before the 2022 hurricane. However, considering the limited number of accommodation facilities that were open, they are gradually reopening, which is a very good thing.
As of April 11, 77% of hotel rooms had reopened, and airports saw a significant 29% increase in March compared to last year. There are also some newly opened properties. Fort Myers Beach is home to a wonderful new resort, the Margaritaville Resort. Everything is heading in the right direction.
Californians flock to Florida
During the pandemic, Florida wasn't locked down for too long and marketing didn't stop. Please move on. What are the long-term implications of this?
Since 2019, our numbers have been truly amazing. Our travel spending increased by 10.2% from 2019. We saw an increase in our domestic market share, but that share primarily came from California. That's kind of fun.
Before 2020, we didn't do any marketing at all in California. We don't market in Los Angeles or the West Coast. That's because people from California usually vacation in Hawaii or Mexico for a warm-weather vacation. But during the pandemic in 2020 and early 2021, we started marketing in certain cities in California, Oregon, and Washington.
LA has gone from being a completely under-the-radar area to being a top 10 inbound market. They wanted freedom and they found it here in Florida.
of florida michelin star The charm of gourmet tourism
Like Discover Atlanta, Visit Florida also partners with Michelin to review local cuisine. What's in return?
This is the third year of our partnership with Michelin. Orlando, Miami and Tampa each invested $150,000, and Visit Florida invested $150,000.
Prior to our partnership with Michelin, 37% of respondents believed Florida had unique regional cuisine. Two years into his partnership with Michelin, 51% of respondents believe Florida has unique local cuisine.
When we set out to do this, we wanted to focus on the cuisine of the entire state, not just these three cities. We've started his two different food-based video series focusing on food from all over Florida. Very popular.
Is the Michelin Guide helping to attract culinary talent to Florida?
absolutely. More and more chefs are moving to Florida from other cities for a chance to reach the stars. Many restaurants are open. That means a better quality of life for Floridians and visitors.
visit florida tick tock
Congress just passed a bill giving TikTok nine months to find a new owner or be banned in the United States.
We were well ahead of the legislative push that many states, including Florida, had made. We decided this wasn't the platform we wanted to use and stopped using it, but it didn't affect our reach in any way.
We feel like we're the smartest people in the room. We did it early and already have other plans in place. Many state tourism boards will struggle to fill the void, as we cautiously did long ago.
