If you’re looking for Mickey, you’re in the wrong place. It’s not that you won’t have a great time along Florida’s central west coast, it just feels a bit more grown up and cultured in the land of Dali and the Ringling Museum, where the seashore wins awards and fine dining can follow a day at the beach or a night at the opera.
Still, it’s no less magical, as your group will discover when they confront massive sea creatures at the Florida Aquarium, take a sightseeing cruise on gleaming Tampa Bay, peruse 6,000 orchids at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, or tour the sponge docks at Tarpon Springs. Okay, and maybe stop in at a theme park—Busch Gardens.
Tampa
It will be the kickoff heard ’round the nation, as Super Bowl XLIII touches down in Tampa for the fourth time next year, putting Central West Florida in a spotlight few other events can achieve.
“Just from the sheer exposure of being under the microscope for the world to see, it brings untold millions of dollars of impact, indirectly and directly, into the destination,” says Norwood Smith, vice president of sales for Tampa & Company, the CVB’s new name. “It’s just an overall impact in both the meetings market and the leisure market. After Super Bowl, you see at least a 30 percent or 40 percent spike in interest. It’s a wonderful thing.”
Indeed, Smith is anxious for visiting media covering the game to see all the new developments in the Tampa area, from the new Embassy Suites connected to the Tampa Convention Center (which will play host as media headquarters) to the new Riverwalk, a waterfront promenade linking the convention center to hotels, cruise terminals, parks and green spaces, and attractions like the Florida Aquarium, the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center and the Channelside entertainment complex. Projected for a 2011 final completion date, most of Riverwalk will be in place for Super Bowl, Smith confirms.
“What the media love about coming here is three-quarters of them don’t even have to bus in or rely on motorcoaches,” Smith says, pointing to the convention center’s proximity to downtown dining, lodging and attractions, not to mention the streetcar route that heads straight into Ybor City, Tampa’s Latin Quarter of restaurants and clubs.
It’s certainly an advantage your group can enjoy, should you choose downtown Tampa as your headquarters—especially in the coming years as the area experiences an artistic renaissance of sorts, with three new museums in development, all located along the Riverwalk. Construction is starting this spring on a brand-new Tampa Museum of Art (the current facility is being torn down), which will be separated by a children’s garden from another new facility, the Children’s Museum of Tampa. Designed for kids from infancy through elementary school, the museum will be accented by a fountain and lush landscaping along the riverfront.
Finally, the Tampa Bay History Center “will be Tampa’s scrapbook and tell the story of how our area started,” Smith says. “The wonderful thing for meeting planners is that all these museums will be perfect off-premise venues for special events.”
Another meetings hub for groups that choose Tampa can be found in the Westshore District, closer to the airport, a business center of industry and hospitality—and great shopping. The area is home to a variety of meetings-friendly hotels, including the newly rebranded InterContinental Tampa (formerly the Wyndham), with 21,000 square feet of flexible meeting and event space, a fitness center and a rooftop pool. Also in Westshore are the Renaissance Tampa Hotel International Plaza, offering 12,500 square feet of meeting space, and the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay, with 445 rooms, more than 22,000 square feet of function space and the newly reopened Oystercatcher’s seafood restaurant.
But look for the Westshore District to offer even more for meetings in the next few years. Not only will the Clarion rebrand as a Crowne Plaza with 10,000 square feet of meeting space, but in the first quarter of 2009, the area is expecting a 255-room Westin, offering 7,500 square feet of meeting space and Florida’s first Aquaknox restaurant, while the state’s 10th Ritz-Carlton hotel will open in Westshore’s Rocky Point area in 2011, with 269 guest rooms and 176 luxury residential units.
St. Petersburg/Clearwater
Like Tampa, the St. Petersburg/Clearwater CVB has a new name as well—Visit St. Petersburg Clearwater (VSPC)—coupled with a sleek new logo and even a new executive director, D.T. Minich, former director of the Beaches of Fort Myers and Sanibel VCB.
“This is a fantastic destination with so many new and positive changes occurring,” Minich says. “Our ongoing goal is to modernize the look and feel of the CVB. We believe [the new brand] is just one step in that direction.”
Among the first tasks Minich is undertaking is increasing the number of FAM tours for meeting planners and partnering more with Tampa & Company to get the word out about the destination. The two already share representation in Washington, D.C., and Chicago offices.
Something else Minich wants to get the word out on is downtown St. Petersburg, which is “really starting to blossom into a great place, with so many new shops, restaurants and galleries,” he says. “They’ll be breaking ground on the new Dali museum, which will almost double in size, and the new facility will have even more space for groups.”
Another claim to fame that the St. Petersburg/Clearwater area consistently enjoys—beaches that crack the top 10 of “America’s Best Beaches,” an annual list compiled by coastal researcher Dr. Stephen Leatherman, or as he’s called in the lab, “Dr. Beach.” On the 2007 roster, Caladesi Island State Park is ranked No. 2, while Fort DeSoto Park reached the top spot in 2005. In order to enhance its showstopping beaches, the Clearwater Chamber of Commerce is in the midst of a $30 million Beach Walk project, which includes the construction of a beachside promenade featuring landscaping and enhanced beach views. The project is slated for completion in 2009.
Then there are the hotels and resorts, which run the gamut from historically classic, including the Don CeSar Beach Resort and the Renaissance Vinoy Resort & Golf Club, to brand new and trendsetting, such as the Sandpearl Resort, Clearwater Beach’s first new beachfront resort in over 25 years, featuring 253 rooms and 20,000 square feet of meeting space. In 2010, another new property will join the lineup: the Grand Bohemian Hotel and Residences, touted as St. Petersburg’s first luxury, mixed-use hotel and residential destination. Comprising 166 guest rooms and suites, the property also will include 16,000 square feet of meeting, banquet and prefunction space.
Sarasota
Incredible beaches are a hallmark of Sarasota, a leisurely slice of Old Florida located south of the Tampa Bay area. In fact, Sarasota’s Siesta Beach landed in the No. 10 spot of Dr. Beach’s 2007 list. Yet the CVB is eager to let planners know what else this coastal enclave offers; hence its new brand campaign, “Beyond the Beaches.”
“It’s focused on bringing awareness to the year-round activities that take place throughout Sarasota and Her Islands,” says Anne Zavorskas, the CVB’s director of marketing. “These efforts will also positively impact the meetings marketplace, offering travelers an ideal destination for business as well as romance, family fun and exploration.”
So get set to include outdoor gems like Selby Gardens, an open-air and under-glass museum of more than 20,000 colorful plants, on the itinerary. The 9.5-acre bayfront property also has 10 rooms available for group rentals, including the Mansion, with two main rooms downstairs and five smaller rooms upstairs; and the Great Room by the Bay, featuring glass windows that face the sunset.
Of course, when you’re on the “Cultural Coast,” you might want to include a stop at one of Sarasota’s numerous museums and art galleries—the legendary Ringling Museum is a must—or take in a performance at the Sarasota Opera House or the Asolo Center for the Performing Arts.
The meetings and conventions that have already discovered Sarasota range from “small to large, along with some that occur multiple times throughout the year,” Zavorskas says. “We also have groups that rebook annually with our hotels.”
Those hotels might be beachside, cityside or bayside, like the Hyatt Regency Sarasota, with 294 guest rooms and more than 20,000 square feet of function space. If you’re looking for sand and surf right outside the door, try the Lido Beach Resort, with meeting space for up to 250 people, or Longboat Key Club and Resort, which recently completed a $6.5 million room renovation and caters to small groups of up to 150 with customized events, team-building activities and group golf tournaments.
For More Info
Sarasota CVB 941.955.0991
www.sarasotameetings.com
Tampa & Company 813.223.1111
www.visittampabay.com
Visit St. Petersburg Clearwater 727.464.7200
www.floridasbeachmeetings.com
