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Tourism leaders share ideas to keep visitors flocking to Florida

 
Published Sept. 2, 2015

TAMPA — Florida has raised the bar every year over the past four years in the number of visitors who have flocked to the Sunshine State for the warm weather, the beaches and the roller coasters.

More than 97 million people vacationed in Florida last year. During the first half of this year, 54 million visitors came here, which is the most ever for a six-month period, according to Visit Florida, the state's tourism agency.

All this success raises the question: How long can this rate of incredible growth to continue?

Visit Florida officials unveiled the agency's strategic plan Tuesday at the Florida Governor's Conference on Tourism at the Tampa Convention Center in front of more than 1,000 tourism industry professionals. At the conference, they weighed some of the challenges ahead, like fluctuations in consumer spending and a growing number of destination competitors, and outlined some of the agency's lofty goals.

By 2020, Visit Florida wants to raise the overall visitor spending in the state to $100 billion annually. That's $18 billion more than the spending recorded in 2014.

"So much of our business is changing, and at an accelerating rate," said Susannah Costello, the vice president of global brand for Visit Florida. "But our business is still about converting consumers into visitors. That much hasn't changed."

Moving forward, Visit Florida will try to close the gaps between Florida's traditional high tourism seasons and focus on promoting those "off times," usually in September and March, to a new kind of a traveler. New promotional marketing campaigns for each season of the year target a different demographic. In spring, Visit Florida markets to families who traditionally travel around school schedules. In the winter, Florida plays up its sunshine, beaches and warm weather for a getaway from the cold. In the fall, the agency is now going after travelers without kids — romantic trips or group trips for people who want to "extend the summer" a bit longer.

Instead of marketing just to other Florida destinations, as local tourism bureaus often do during the summer, Visit Florida tried something new and marketed Florida to dog lovers through a new kind of social media campaign. Dog lovers were encouraged to tweet photos of their pets around Florida with the hashtag #DogsloveFl. Visit Florida sponsored a "Pet Pix Photo Contest" on the Live With Kelly and Michael show on ABC.

This new style of engaging with visitors on social media is something the agency hopes to expand on, Costello said.

Visit Florida is also reaching out to new potential visitors in cities it hasn't reached before, like Dallas and Houston. Tourism boosters are also hoping for a nonstop flight from Florida to China to build on the international market, despite the country's recent economic woes.

But plenty of factors stand in the way of Florida maintaining its projection for growth.

Canada's economy shrank over the first six months of this year. And now that the U.S. dollar has improved over the Canadian dollar, the usual "snowbird" traffic may be cut short, said Sean Snaith, director of the University of Central Florida's Institute for Economic Competitiveness.

"Eventually, I think we will see this drag show up in the tourism numbers," Snaith said at the conference Tuesday. "But I hope I'm wrong."

As the recovery continues, people will continue to travel, but consumers aren't spending as much as they used to, he added.

The upcoming presidential election could also affect travel plans for some people.

"It's not uncommon for people to put plans on hold and see what the climate is like, depending on who wins," Snaith said.

Contact Justine Griffin at jgriffin@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8467. Follow @SunBizGriffin.