With the shimmering Gulf of Mexico as its backdrop and a honey-toned Southern landscape of magnolia trees and Spanish moss running through its interior, Northwest Florida is at the junction where the South crosses the tropics. The resulting vibe of Southern gentility blended with beach casual gives the region its distinctive flavor, whether your palate is set for conch fritters and a margarita or pecan logs and sweet tea.
“We have that Southern small-town kind of feeling, and it’s nice, yet it’s also like being in the Caribbean without needing a passport,” notes Tisha Maraj, CHSP, sales and marketing manager for the Emerald Coast Conference Center in Fort Walton Beach. “We have that mix. You’re stepping back in time, but you’re also getting state-of-the-art facilities.”
It’s an apt description for Northwest Florida, home of centuries-old historic sites and old-fashioned seaside towns, and yet waiting in the wings are a number of new hotel developments and the first new-build international airport in the U.S. since the late 1990s.
Panama City Beach
The new airport, Panama City-Bay County International Airport, is being developed on 1,300 acres of a 4,000-acre site, with a 10,000-foot runway, a 125,000-square-foot terminal with seven gates and all the post-9/11 security measures built into the facility from the start.
The $318 million project is slated for completion in May 2010, and Panama City Beach is ready to welcome full-size commercial jets for the first time, says Dan Rowe, CEO of the Panama City Beach CVB.
“We think that when the first planes start flying in here we’ll get a lot of interest from business travelers,” he says. “It will allow us to go out and reach markets effectively unlike what we’ve done before.
“The goal is not to displace our current customer base—we have a lot of customer loyalty,” he adds. “But with the expansion and the growth, we’ll have a lot more. We think that corporate America will find us.”
The new airport is part of an overall season of growth for this “Beach Lover’s Beach,” whose momentum has slowed somewhat along with the economy but has still seen 19 resort and condominium projects completed over the past few years as the region heads to an all-time high of more than 25,000 rooms.
“Since the 1950s, Panama City Beach has been one of those quintessential beach towns with a lot of mom-and-pop hotels,” Rowe notes. “Over the last few years, we’ve undergone a renaissance. The condominiums that are being developed are just first rate. We’re starting to get more upscale fine-dining restaurants, and we are enhancing the look and feel of the destination.”
Among the most significant—and popular—new developments is Pier Park, an open-air shopping, dining and entertainment complex located on 93 acres near the City Pier and featuring a range of retailers and restaurants, including Florida favorites Ron Jon Surf Shop and Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville. There are plans to further expand, adding more dining and entertainment options.
“It will give groups a great opportunity to come down and have wonderful dine-arounds,” Rowe says. “Many of our group properties offer shuttle service to Pier Park, which makes it more convenient.”
Many group properties also are offering enhancements of their own. Edgewater Beach Resort, for one, is putting $250,000 into its conference center, upgrading soft goods and making other improvements; while the Bay Point Marriott Resort has launched a new off-site option for groups, taking them via water shuttle to nearby Shell Island, a seven-mile-long island between the Gulf and St. Andrews Bay. And nearly all the major properties have added spas, including the Holiday Inn SunSpree Resort, whose new SeaWatch Spa is part of a three-story conference and entertainment center that includes the SeaWatch Martini Bar, where delegates can gather after they’ve experienced the video and teleconferencing capabilities of the Shangri-La Conference Center.
“We’re still maintaining that fun-in-the-sun attitude,” Rowe says. “It’s all about coming here and having a really good time.”
Beaches of South Walton
Fun times and peaceful solitude characterize the vibe in the Beaches of South Walton, an enclave of 15 communities set just west of Panama City Beach. Here, picture-perfect settings of blue-green waters and gleaming white sands lead straight to wooden boardwalks that allow visitors to literally climb toward a vision of long-ago Florida that many thought didn’t exist anymore.
Yet here it is, in towns with whimsical names—Watersound, Seaside, Rosemary Beach, Watercolor—decked out in sun-washed, Victorian-era architecture and wrapped around quaint squares lined with art galleries, boutiques and ice cream shops.
It is within this idyllic setting that meeting space abounds, whether your group gathers in a Gulf-front gazebo, a vintage post office, a two-story wooden house in the middle of town or a full-service resort.
“We like to get people to think outside those four walls because our meeting venues are really, really unique,” says Pamela Watkins, director of sales and special events for the Beaches of South Walton Tourist Development Council. “There’s something for everyone. We can handle up to about 2,000.”
Enchanting backdrops for smaller events are available in places like Rosemary Beach, home to several large lawns for outdoor events, and the photogenic Seaside, whose charming cottages are steps away from the beaches. Larger groups, however, will want to check out places like the Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa, with 32,000 square feet of meeting space, and Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort, offering 65,000 square feet of flexible meeting space within a sprawling, 2,400-acre property that fronts the beach and the bay.
“Thirty-five years ago, we started as a residential neighborhood and it’s evolved into a group destination,” says Diana Theriot, Sandestin’s sales manager. “Now we do about 60 percent group and 40 percent transient; a little more than seven years ago, it was the opposite.”
Theriot credits the 2002 addition of the Village of Baytowne Wharf—with its 32,000-square-foot Baytowne Conference Center—for pushing group numbers past transient figures, but the resort certainly has enough recreation to please both: 72 holes of championship golf, a tennis center, a full-service marina, 17 swimming pools and an entire shopping village with restaurants and outdoor cafes.
Emerald Coast
Heading west from the Beaches of South Walton, emerald waters and golf greens converge on another slice of the good life in Northwest Florida: the Emerald Coast, where 24 miles of powder-white sands—no kidding; it really feels like powder—encompass the seaside towns of Destin, Fort Walton Beach and Okaloosa Island, home of the Emerald Coast Conference Center.
In addition to its spectacular location, the center boasts 35,000 square feet of column-free meeting and exhibit space, a 21,000-square-foot ballroom and 12 meeting rooms of varying sizes, making it handy for everything from board meetings to trade shows, though the center does host its share of military meetings, notes Tisha Maraj, the center’s sales and marketing manager.
“It’s not surprising, considering that Eglin Air Force Base and others are right here,” she says. “But we have a healthy mix, and we have the space for larger groups. I’d like to see controlled growth, but with an eye on the environment.”
As anyone who visits Northwest Florida probably notices within a few minutes, the environment is everything here, with parks and refuges at every turn, and beaches that are not hidden but showcased by hotels, resorts and other waterfront venues. Year-round sunshine gets people outdoors to tee off on fairways created by renowned golf course designers like Finger, Dye and Fazio; explore places like the Blackwater River State Forest; or discover an underwater panorama of reef clusters courtesy of the Hundred Fathom Curve, which brings the deep-sea closer to shore.
Yet there have been plenty of new developments as well, including an expansion at the airport and the debut of several resorts: the Palms of Destin Resort and Conference Center, which opened in spring 2007; Emerald Grand at HarborWalk Village, which premiered in summer 2007; and the Waterscape condo resort, which was unveiled earlier this year.
The new resorts join such established properties as the meetings-friendly Pelican Beach Resort & Conference Center, with nearly 5,000 square feet of meeting space, including a ballroom and the Terrace Room.
Pensacola
The westernmost city in Northwest Florida is also its oldest, and actually is one of America’s first European settlements. Claimed by the Spanish in 1559, Pensacola eventually came under the domain of four other governments—Britain, France, the Confederacy and the U.S.—hence its nickname, “City of Five Flags,” and its wealth of historical and archaeological sites, including Historic Pensacola Village, where guests explore the past in furnished period houses, museums and one of Florida’s oldest churches.
In fact, 2009 is a good time to explore history in Pensacola, as the city will be celebrating its 450th birthday through August; if your group times it right, you might get in on the fun during concerts March 26 and April 19, a Spanish Wine Festival April 3-5, the Battle of Pensacola reenactment and Heritage Festival May 8-9, the Juan Sebastian de Elcano tall ship visit June 3-9 and the De Luna Landing Celebration Aug. 15.
“Groups also can explore some of our historic sites, such as Fort Pickens and Fort Barrancas, St. Michael’s Cemetery and the Pensacola Lighthouse,” notes Ed Schroeder, director of the Pensacola Bay Area CVB.
Meanwhile, the city’s military legacy is spotlighted at the National Naval Aviation Museum, featuring 150 vintage aircraft, a Top Gun F-14 flight simulator and an IMAX theater. If you’re visiting on Tuesday or Wednesday morning, step outside and look up; you might see the famed Blue Angels as they perform thrilling aerial maneuvers in the skies above from March to November.
High-tech precision flying might outdo just about anything else you’ll experience in Pensacola, but local meeting facilities have their own bragging rights when it comes to state-of-the-art facilities and variety of venues. From vintage settings at the newly restored Saenger Theatre and the historic Pensacola Grand Hotel Crowne Plaza to new properties like the Sole Inn and Suites, and the upcoming Hotel Indigo and Best Western—both due in 2010—Pensacola’s meetings landscape continues to evolve.
Among the many significant developments was the recent reflagging of the Hilton Garden Inn to the Hilton Pensacola Beach Gulf Front, now offering 30,000 square feet of function space.
The hotel has had a tremendous impact on meetings and groups, according to Schroeder.
“The Hilton added meeting space to accommodate large groups, a four-star restaurant and a tower of luxury suites with a special suite just for meeting planners,” he says.
Another project moving forward in Pensacola is the Community Maritime Park, which will include a 3,500-seat, multipurpose stadium, a conference center, a maritime museum and a mixed-use development with retail and commercial space.
“A master developer has been approved and will begin work shortly,” Schroeder says. “The first phase of the park should be complete in 2010.”
Tallahassee
Florida’s capital city may be where the corridors of power lie, but rather than overwhelming visitors, this midsize neo-metropolis puts people at ease with rolling hills, lush canopy roads and Southern-style geniality. Closer to Atlanta than Miami, Tallahassee resembles a great Southern city with its Florida State Capitol buildings, fascinating museums, sprawling plantations and civil rights monuments, yet nature is never far away.
Groups can take a jungle cruise at Wakulla Springs State Park and Lodge—featuring one of the world’s deepest freshwater springs—or marvel at flocks of Canadian geese that winter on the grounds of St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge and Lighthouse. One of Tallahassee’s greatest natural resources is Apalachicola National Forest, a 630,000-acre wilderness of towering pines well suited for hiking and camping.
Once you come in from the great outdoors, Tallahassee’s variety of meeting venues is truly impressive. Traditional gatherings may be held at the Tallahassee-Leon County Civic Center, with its 69,000 square feet of convention space, or you can go way off the beaten path to The Moon, a 19,700-square-foot, multilevel space featuring a 75-seat lounge, a large stage and the latest in sound and video equipment.
One unique aspect of meeting in Tallahassee is the accessibility to the many historic buildings that double as venues for all kinds of events. Restored to its 1902 American Renaissance splendor, the Historic Capitol makes a memorable setting for receptions beneath its breathtaking, stained-glass dome. Attendees can stroll through exhibits on the history of Florida’s government and peek into the restored House and Senate chambers. Other historic meeting spots include Mission San Luis and the Brokaw-McDougall House, a restored downtown antebellum home.
For More Info
Beaches of South Walton TDC 850.267.1216 www.meetings.beachesofsouthwalton.com
Emerald Coast CVB 850.651.7647 www.destin-fwb.com
Panama City Beach CVB 850.233.5070 www.visitpanamacitybeach.com
Pensacola Bay Area CVB 850.434.1234 www.visitpensacola.com
Tallahassee Area CVB 850.606.2305 www.visittallahassee.com
