For a few months last fall and winter, all eyes were on Central West Florida.
First off, one of the newest franchises in baseball—the Tampa Bay Rays—beat Boston to take the American League championship and bring the 2008 World Series home to Tropicana Field. True, the Rays didn’t win but Tampa Bay certainly did, in terms of media exposure.
Then there was the Super Bowl, which kicked off for the 43rd time on Feb. 1 at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium and once again focused the nation’s attention on this Gulfside enclave southwest of Orlando, which actually stretches from Tarpon Springs down to Sarasota.
“These events definitely gave us a nice push,” says Norwood Smith, vice president of sales for Tampa Bay & Company.
“They attract first-time visitors,” echoes D.T. Minich, executive director of Visit St. Petersburg/Clearwater. “We’re hopeful this exposure will translate into meeting business.”
But with the major sporting events moving out, something else is moving in: the arts.
Tampa
Museums are on the move, and they’re coming to Tampa.
“Just in downtown Tampa, we’re probably experiencing more of an arts renaissance than any other city on the planet,” Smith says. “We have opened or will be opening three new museums in downtown Tampa. And all can be used as special event venues.”
Already open is the 60,000-square-foot Tampa Bay History Center, which tells the region’s story from its first native inhabitants through the Spanish conquistador and railroad tycoon eras and beyond.
“It’s just a wonderful venue to walk through and experience Tampa,” Smith says. “Also, it has a spectacular outdoor area and outdoor terraces, and catering by our very own Columbia Restaurant of Ybor City.”
In addition to its outdoor venues, the museum offers a large hall, an atrium and a conference room for group rentals.
Joining the history museum this fall will be the new 66,000-square-foot Tampa Museum of Art, and coming in spring 2010 will be another neighbor: the Glazer Children’s Museum. All the museums are part of downtown Tampa’s Riverwalk Project, the waterfront promenade linking the Tampa 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.
At press time, the Riverwalk was 50 percent finished, on target for its 2011 completion.
But as museums take over downtown Tampa, new hotels are enhancing the rest of its hospitality landscape.
Newly opened in January is the Westin Tampa Bay Airport, and if not for the word “airport” in its name, you might think you were at a resort. This “little jewel,” as Smith calls it, has its own private beach and 255 water-view rooms, a rooftop lounge with panoramic views of Tampa Bay, and 6,800 square feet of meeting space, including a 3,200-square-foot waterfront garden terrace.
Even newer is the 221-room Crowne Plaza Tampa Westshore, whose 9,000 square feet of meeting space includes new ballrooms and eight breakout rooms, while attendees and VIPs are pampered by an executive suite level featuring 50 cabana suites.
Also new on Tampa’s meeting scene is the La Quinta Inn & Suites–Temple Terrace, with 92 guest rooms and a meeting room for up to 60, while the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel & Marina completed a $16 million renovation, including the refurbishment of all 50,000 square feet of meeting space.
But hotel meeting space isn’t the only newsmaker in Tampa. The Lowry Park Zoo just opened an 11,000-square-foot event center, the Grand Hall, which is themed as an African courtyard and features a facade of authentic-looking hutch-style homes.
“You should see the lighting, though; it can do hundreds of different effects,” Smith says. “You don’t have to spend a dime to theme it, because it’s all there.”
In addition to the Grand Hall, the zoo added Reilly Reserve, a 3,000-square-foot elevated annex overlooking giraffes, elephants, zebras and more.
St. Petersburg/Clearwater
Like Tampa, St. Petersburg/Clearwater is focusing on the arts. Not that this beachy peninsula west of Tampa hasn’t always had its artistic side—it’s home to the Salvador Dali Museum, which houses the largest collection of Dali artwork outside Spain—but it’s about to get even more cultured. Ground broke last December on a new Dali museum, which at 66,450 square feet will nearly double the size of the current space.
In addition to more secure third-floor galleries for the Dali collection, the new museum will include an indoor/outdoor cafe and a rentable community room.
“It will be spectacular—as iconic as the artist himself,” promises David Downing, assistant director of Visit St. Petersburg/Clearwater.
Going from Dali’s dramatic surrealism to the delicate glass sculptures of Dale Chihuly might seem like an unbridgeable gulf, but St. Petersburg is doing it, breaking ground on a museum dedicated to the sculptor’s work. The project has a green light, though a completion date hadn’t been released at press time.
“I think for those things to be moving forward in this economy really speaks to the depth of culture and support of the arts we have here,” Downing notes.
A dedication to the meetings market is evident in St. Petersburg as well, with the CVB stepping up FAM tours for meeting planners. “We’re trying to get as many planners down here as possible to experience the destination and see the product,” says D.T. Minich of Visit St. Petersburg/Clearwater. “We’re getting very positive responses. Our meetings and convention staff booked 100 percent more rooms last year than the year before. We’ve seen huge increases.”
The area has seen an increase in inventory as well, with the Hyatt Aqualea Resort and Residences Clearwater Beach set to open by the end of the year. The 250-suite property will feature meeting rooms and a dedicated business center.
Meanwhile, recent openings include the 105-suite Residence Inn by Marriott on Treasure Island and the 189-room Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites on Clearwater Beach, while the 416-room Hilton Clearwater Beach Resort has undergone a massive makeover.
While the hotel industry and new projects move forward, St. Petersburg/Clearwater’s natural attributes—beaches and spectacular weather—continue to draw international attention. “We retain the Guinness Book of World Records as the most consecutive days of sunshine,” says David Downing. “To this day, we average about 360 days of sunshine.”
Not only that, St. Petersburg/Clearwater’s own Caladesi Island State Park was named America’s Top Beach for 2008 by coastal expert Dr. Stephen Leatherman, aka “Dr. Beach.”
“Everything begins and ends at the beach,” Downing says. “But in between there are a lot of things to do, especially for meetings and conventions.”
Sarasota
Sarasota may be nicknamed Florida’s “Cultural Coast,” but this waterfront haven south of Tampa Bay has its own beach bragging rights, with Siesta Key taking the No. 3 spot on Dr. Beach’s 2008 list of the country’s best beaches.
“We’re thrilled to be included,” says Virginia Haley, president of Sarasota & Her Islands CVB. “We hope that travelers will visit Sarasota and experience [our] cultural, ecological, culinary and eclectic attractions.”
Foremost among those many attractions is Sarasota’s Ringling Museum of Art, the largest museum and university complex in the nation, which was donated to the state by John Ringling of circus fame. The 66-acre estate includes masterpieces by Rubens, van Dyck, Titian, El Greco and Gainsborough, as well as a collection of Cypriot antiquities purchased from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. True to its circus heritage, the Big Top makes a big impression here, too, as the “largest miniature circus in the world” features eight main tents, 152 wagons, 1,300 circus performers and workers, and more than 800 animals.
For groups, after-hours events can be held in the museum courtyard, on the terrace of the main house or in the Circus Museum backyard.
Planners can use other cultural venues in Sarasota as well, including Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, offering eight meeting rooms amid its lush tropical and subtropical plants; the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, featuring a 1,743-seat auditorium and a 6,000-square-foot foyer; and the Florida West Coast Symphony’s Beatrice Friedman Symphony Center, featuring small practice rooms, a large conference room and a 450-seat hall with a balcony and a stage.
Hotel meeting space is expansive—20,000 square feet at the 294-room Hyatt Regency Sarasota; 18,000 at the 266-room Ritz-Carlton; 12,000 at the 218-room Longboat Key Club and Resort; 6,000 at the 222-room Lido Beach Resort; and 2,900 at the intimate, 102-room Hilton Longboat Key Beachfront Resort.
For More Info
Sarasota & Her Islands CVB 941.955.0991 www.sarasotameetings.com
Tampa Bay & Company 813.223.1111 www.visittampabay.com
Visit St Petersburg Clearwater 727.464.7200 www.floridasbeachmeetings.com
