Florida: the state that has it all
There is no doubting that when you visit Florida in a professional capacity you can feel the heat straight away, writes Graham McKenzie.
‘It is the heat of white hot tourism success. The story appears to go on and on with each chapter being a tale of more visitors, more revenue and ultimately more expansion. It’s all going rather well.
One physical example of what a good job the state tourism authority, Visit Florida, is doing is their annual trade shindig – The Huddle. This year’s event was held in Fort Lauderdale, itself a story of tourism success, and it was attended by more buyers, more suppliers and more media from around the world than ever before.
For the last three years Huddle has been owned and run by Visit Florida and they, through a process of gradual improvement, have bought it back from the brink of extinction. These are not my sentiments but those who have visited the show for hard commercial reasons.
Florida Huddle has always been an important fixture in the calendar, the timing falls right at the prime time for renewing agreements and sourcing new product in readiness for launching the following year.
"With Visit Florida’s stewardship there is certainly a renewed vigour about the show, " said James Killick, senior contracts manager – Florida Virgin Holidays.
The sentiment was backed up by many of the US buyers: ‘better’, ‘productive’, ‘enjoyable’ were just a few of the adjectives used.
Industry veteran Michael Robinson of Destination Golf, known for his curmudgeonly approach to travel conferences, had to admit ‘this is so much better than it was. With a few tweaks to the appointment system it will be a jolly decent effort’.
So it can come as no surprise that Florida’s intent is to become the number one destination in the world and whilst the final figures for 2014 are yet to be released ,an increase for the fourth quarter is widely anticipated.
This is alongside eye-catching facts such as almost 25 cents of each sales tax dollar is paid by a visitor to the state, one in every 10 Canadians visit Florida every year, and holidaymakers from 187 foreign countries have visited during the past 12 months.
Why the success? Why the growth? Well despite the bashfulness of the leadership that engages the industry, cajoles the politicians and comes up with marketing campaigns, it must have something to do with it. However, the overriding reason must be the product itself. From Gators to Cougars, Miami to Marco Island and from Key Lime to Conch Fritters, it appears to have it all.’
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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