Nobody comes to the Sunshine State to stay indoors. True, the meeting and convention attendee by necessity spends a certain amount of time surrounded by four walls and a multimedia presentation, but after hours, they’re just like any
visitor to Florida—eager to hit the golf course, the beach and the theme parks, or indulge in any number of outdoor recreational activities.
“Florida stands out from other warm weather destinations because of its diversity,” says Steven Bonda, CMP, sales manager of meetings and conventions for Visit Florida. “Where else can you go bioluminescent kayaking, go shipwreck diving, play a championship golf course or lay on the beach at America’s top-rated beaches, all within a few days?”
For many visiting attendees, the only answer is to give it a try.
Links to a Great Time
Golf is big business in Florida. According to figures released by the Florida Sports Foundation, this $6 billion industry draws close to 1.5 million visitors a year to the state for the sole purpose of playing golf. You might think the main reason can be summed up in a word—weather—but with more than 1,200 courses throughout the state, variety and quality definitely come into play.
“From us to Doral to the TPC Sawgrass and Orlando’s Bay Hill, there are such great golf courses in Florida,” says James Gelfand, vice president of sales, marketing and revenue development for the PGA National Resort and Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, which just unveiled a new David Pelz Scoring Game School to complement its David Leadbetter Golf Academy. “It’s also the people. They’re top-notch and they truly understand how to enhance the golf experience.”
That’s good news for planners who may not be sure how to incorporate golf into the after-hours agenda beyond setting the team loose on the links; not that a simple round of golf among attendees doesn’t have its advantages.
“Meeting groups use golf to network, to compete and as a team-building event,” Gelfand says.
Golf can also be an attraction, when combined with a visit to the World Golf Hall of Fame at St. Augustine’s World Golf Village; a learning experience, when attending a golf academy such as the one at Ponte Vedra Inn & Club; or just plain fun when turned into events like the nighttime Neon Putting Tournament at Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club, north of Tampa.
In fact, the only downside to golf in Florida, at the moment, has more to do with the sagging economy than a dearth of superior facilities.
“Golf is a little down as a revenue generator,” Gelfand says. “Some groups are thinking twice. They may not be as extravagant with the food and beverage and golf cart expenditures, but they’re still doing contests and may be pulling in sponsors to help underwrite the cost. You can’t replace the networking and interaction that golf provides. That won’t go away.”
Beachy Keen
In Florida, the nearest beach is closer than you think. In fact, there isn’t a spot in the state more than an hour’s drive from Florida’s spectacular coastline, which is fringed by sand and palm trees for 1,200 miles. And there’s hardly a date on the calendar when you can’t enjoy the beaches, especially in subtropical southern Florida and the Keys.
Dazzling white sand so soft it’s almost fluid defines the beaches of Northwest Florida, where rolling dunes topped by waving sea oats separate emerald-green Gulf of Mexico waters from the sunwashed seaside towns that go with them, including Destin, Seaside, Rosemary Beach and Watercolor.
If you’re looking for seclusion, the Gulfside area of Florida’s northwest “Big Bend” is one of the few undeveloped coastlines left in the U.S., a rugged stretch where forests, jungle and rivers meet at the water’s edge. Meanwhile, Fort Clinch State Park, Amelia Island and Ponte Vedra Beach along Northeast Florida’s Atlantic coast beckon sunseekers with wide, expansive sands and rolling dunes.
Miles and miles of sandy stretches along Florida’s central Gulf coast include the award-winning beaches of St. Petersburg/Clearwater, which are consistently ranked among the country’s best by coastal expert Dr. Stephen Leatherman, “Dr. Beach,” who gave Caladesi Island State Park—set two miles off the coast of Dunedin—the top spot in 2008. Farther south, the pristine key and island beaches of Sarasota and Bradenton, and the idyllic retreats of Sanibel, Captiva and Marco islands are among Southwest Florida’s many sandy hideaways.
Head east across the state and drive right onto the beach at Daytona or New Smyrna Beach, or surf onto the golden sands of Melbourne and Cocoa Beach, all part of Central East Florida’s dazzling Atlantic coast.
Keep going and you’ll find yourself in South Florida, which stretches from the windswept sands of Hutchinson Island and Hobe Sound to the glittering shores of Palm Beach and farther south to the resort-studded beaches of Fort Lauderdale and Miami.
Extending southwest from the mainland, the Florida Keys offers a chain of small, secluded beaches that are the launch point for diving, snorkeling and deep-sea fishing adventures.
But if sunbathing, shelling and swimming don’t give delegates enough beach time, planners can set social and business events right on the sand, utilizing oceanfront gazebos, boardwalks, decks and tents.
Outside Chances
While some attendees may be content to while away their beach hours relaxing on the sand, others may turn their beach day into a play date, discovering eco-adventures at coastal sanctuaries like the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve near Naples, an amazing world of pristine, mangrove-fringed waterways and freshwater habitats that visitors explore via guided canoe and kayak tours.
Canoe trails are a popular feature of the J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island, one of the state’s top bird-watching spots, while egrets, herons and even a dolphin or manatee may accompany a paddling trek through the salt marshes of the Talbot Islands State Parks and Timucuan Preserve in Northeast Florida.
Nature takes center stage on the central east coast of Florida, home to the colorful birds of Pelican Island, which is the country’s first National Wildlife Refuge, and along the Indian River Lagoon National Scenic Highway, which also traverses Canaveral National Seashore, an important nesting area for sea turtles from May to August.
In summer, the waters of Indian River take on a life of their own as bioluminescent creatures in the water become living lights, producing a greenish underwater glow that illuminates schools of fish, manatees, dolphin, stingrays and skittering blue crabs.
Underwater adventures also await divers and snorkelers exploring the natural reefs off Key Biscayne near downtown Miami and farther south within the clear, shallow waters of Biscayne National Park, one of the few aquatic parks in the world.
Complementing the state’s natural underwater reefs and corals are a host of wreck sites—ships and barges, airplanes, tanks, even a water tower—many of which were intentionally sunk to create fish and underwater plant habitats. Among the many sites: the Wreck Trek off the coast of Miami Beach that includes two U.S. Army tanks sunk in 1994; Key Largo’s Spiegel Grove, a retired U.S. Navy ship that is one of the largest vessels ever to be purposely scuttled for the creation of an artificial reef; and the 465-foot Empire Mica off the coast of Panama City Beach, which was not purposely scuttled but torpedoed by a German submarine in 1942.
Interior Designs
But offshore diving and snorkeling aren’t the only options in the Sunshine State. Florida’s interior is completely waterlogged as well, starting in North Florida and North Central Florida, where crystal-clear springs make eerily beautiful sites for cave diving, though you have to be certified (many venues offer instruction). Underwater caves open to divers can be found in Peacock State Park/Orange Grove, Cow Spring, Telford Spring, Little River Spring and Devil’s Den, among others.
Meanwhile, interior waterways crisscross the entire state, from the northern borders through the lake and river regions of Seminole and Osceola counties down to the Florida Everglades, providing the wet context for water activities of every kind, including airboat rides, dinner and cocktail cruises, fishing expeditions and quiet paddling jaunts.
Back on dry land, your group may be clamoring for what some feel is Florida’s signature leisure experience—the theme parks—and between SeaWorld’s new Aquatica waterpark, Busch Gardens’ recently unveiled Jungala animal habitat and Universal Studios’ upcoming attraction, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, these entertainment behemoths are constantly adding features to broaden their appeal well beyond the pre-teen set. And anything added for the leisure guest is another facet the planner can work with. At Universal, for example, the new Simpsons ride can be rented for after-hours group events, while Walt Disney World’s new American Idol Experience—featuring singing contests in a 1,032-seat theater—is available for a complete buyout.
“Most people think of the attractions and theme parks as the experience you have when you’re on vacation,” says Tammi Runzler, vice president of convention sales and services at the Orlando/Orange County CVB. “But there is such a different side to that. We can arrange really creative events, very dynamic technical tours and a lot of educational opportunities that are very unique to the parks and attractions. It definitely gives the business traveler a different perspective on the theme parks."
