TAMPA — Tourism boosters from Key West to Pensacola will head to Tampa next week to talk about the future of the state's biggest economic driver — its visitors.
Representatives from Florida destinations will convene at the Tampa Convention Center beginning Monday for the 49th annual Governor's Conference on Tourism. This is the first time in the event's history that it has been held in the Tampa Bay area, said Visit Florida president and CEO Will Seccombe. It's also the first time it has been in a convention center. With more than a thousand tourism officials from cities across the state and from its many parks and attractions planning to come, the conference is expected to shatter its record for attendance this year, Seccombe said.
"As the event continues to grow, there's not a whole lot of hotels in the state that can handle the amount of meeting space and number of rooms we need," he said. "It's the one time a year where big businesses and small businesses in Florida's tourism industry get together and reflect on what's happened and where we're going. There's a lot of work to be done during these few days."
The state has celebrated four years of record-breaking growth in tourism with more than 97 million coming to the state last year. It's on pace for a fifth in 2015 — more than 54 million visitors came to the Sunshine State in the first half of this year, the most ever for a six-month period, according to Visit Florida, the state's tourism industry agency. More than 1 million Floridians are employed by the industry.
"This is a really concentrated group of people who are strictly interested in Florida tourism coming together," said David Downing, executive director of Visit St. Pete-Clearwater, Pinellas County's tourism marketing arm. "It's a good bellwether for the demand for visitation in the state and often sets the tone of what to expect for the next year."
Visit Florida will unveil its strategic plan on how to market the state as a destination over the next five years at the conference. Boosters also plan to talk about the state's biggest challenges. Some of the biggest questions will likely be how long can Visit Florida and local visitors bureaus expect this rate of enormous growth to continue?
"We've had tremendous momentum and success over the last few years. But we need to double down and look at every way we can continue to build on this," Seccombe said. "We're operating in a hyperactive global industry that is very competitive. Billions of dollars are being spent to lure people to other destinations and away from Florida. The conference is a place for us to come up with fresh and inspiring ideas to stay ahead of the curve."
Downing said he expects Airbnb, an online room sharing service, to be another hot topic this year. The travel website has created a way for residents to rent out apartments or rooms in their homes to travelers for a fee. The company has come under fire because users who list their homes have evaded paying bed taxes, as hotels and other vacation rentals have to pay. Last year, the tax collector in Palm Beach County filed a lawsuit against Airbnb and other travel booking websites like CouchSurfing.com for this reason.
Santiago Corrada, president and CEO of Visit Tampa Bay, is looking forward to showcasing Tampa Bay and all the region has to offer to other tourism officials. In between meetings, conferencegoers can take a tour of Cigar City Brewery and experience the restaurants in Ybor.
"This is an exciting time to share our city as downtown Tampa continues to evolve," Corrada said.
Contact Justine Griffin at jgriffin@tampabay.com. Follow @sunbizgriffin.