The Sunshine State got a little brighter in 2015: 105 million visitors, a record-setting figure according to Visit Florida, the state’s official tourism marketing corporation. In fact, 2015 became the fifth consecutive record year for visitation to Florida, exceeding the previous high of 98.5 million in 2014 by 6.6 percent.
The news was announced with great fanfare by Florida Governor Rick Scott (with Mickey Mouse standing by) on Feb. 18 at the Walt Disney World Resort, fulfilling a challenge to reach the 100 million mark posed by the governor more than two years ago.
But in typical Florida fashion, there will be no laurel resting. After delivering the good news, Gov. Scott threw down a new challenge, saying, “It’s time to set our goal even higher. ... I look forward to welcoming 115 million visitors to the Sunshine State this year.”
Meetings Mecca
If what’s happening on the meetings side is any indication, the state will reach that goal handily.
“Florida has a massive amount of meeting space,” notes Lily Etemadi, Visit Florida’s manager for meetings & travel trade. “But what I find really impressive is the amount of space we have under construction and in the planning stages. We have 384,000 square feet under construction and 1.4 million in the planning stages. That’s a lot of meeting space.”
Nothing unusual for a state that welcomed more than 4 million meeting delegates in 2014 and is actively courting more as part of its overall marketing strategy.
“Florida has been at the top of the bucket list for a lot of people for a long time,” Etemadi says. “When you’re talking about leisure travelers, meeting travelers aren’t far behind. Other destinations are learning how to leverage what they have for meetings. We’ve been leveraging what we have for so long, we know how to do it.”
And what leverage it is—endless acres in the great outdoors; beaches lining the coast from the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico; attractions like those in Orlando and around the state that have people from all over the world lining up; and all of it available for meetings, either as off-site venues or pre and post pleasures.
“Groups love to come to Florida because there’s so much to do here,” says Pamela Watkins, director of sales for Visit South Walton, a pristine strand of 16 beach communities on Florida’s northwest Gulf coast. “You can bring your spouse or your children and make a mini-vacation. Not every place is conducive to that.”
Indeed, in a state where even gas station attendants are coached in the art of visitor service, tourism is top-of-mind awareness.
“Tourism is in our DNA, and even more so with meetings,” Etemadi says. “We were one of the first states to lock onto meetings and how to do them well.
‘We’ve been in this game a long time,” she adds. “Our destinations really know how to make meetings happen.”
By the Numbers
And meetings are making things happen throughout the state, as tourism bureaus report gains across the board.
Tampa, for one, ended 2015 well ahead of its competitors from across the nation, according to data released by Visit Tampa Bay, with occupancy rates at 73 percent for the year—up 5.1 percent over 2014—revenue-per-available-room (RevPAR) in first place and ADR growth for the month of December leading the pack.
“Visitation has been at record numbers all last year and we’re very pleased with that,” says Cristina Duschek, a spokesperson for Visit Tampa Bay.
Tampa’s neighbor to the west, St. Petersburg/Clearwater, also just came off a rosy 2015.
“We booked 143,000 room nights; that’s pretty impressive for a CVB our size and without a convention center,” notes Suzanne Scully, director of sales, meetings and conventions for Visit St. Petersburg/Clearwater. “Our ADR also was up over 2014. Right now, we’re pacing on target for the upcoming year.”
When it comes to RevPAR, the Beaches of Fort Myers and Sanibel in southwest Florida has seen significant growth, reports the bureau’s director of sales, Anna Stone.
“We had the sixth-highest RevPAR growth in the nation,” she says. “We’ve grown tremendously. We’re competing with cities like Miami, St. Petersburg, Clearwater and Naples.”
One Size Does Not Fit All
Speaking of larger markets like Miami—where a huge convention center expansion is in the works—meetings are really living large. That’s particularly true in Orlando, where its attraction and hotel landscape are enjoying the same upward trajectory as its visitor numbers.
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“For 2016, we’re looking at a very good year. We’re seeing growth over 2015,” says Fred Shea, senior vice president of convention sales and services for Visit Orlando. “We have a lot of short-term business that’s continuing to grow. Three years ago we were looking at ’16 with concern, but ’13, ’14 and ’15 were so strong, it wiped away any concerns.”
Short-term business is booming in the southwest enclave of Naples/Marco Island, reports Debi DeBenedetto, group sales manager for the Naples, Marco Island, Everglades CVB.
“Short-term business is strong for all months in 2016, and 2017 has some solid business on the books,” she says. “We are continuing to see the demand in season through 2018.”
One caveat DeBenedetto notes—the potential of an election year economy to skew numbers.
“It will be interesting to see if this uncertainty carries over to all group segments as we start looking at future bookings,” she says.
Meanwhile, one area saying “so long” to short-term business is Pensacola, the westernmost city on the Florida Panhandle, where increased bookings are pushing lead times.
“We’re now at a year’s lead time; before we could do quick turnarounds but no more...it’s a supplier’s world again,” says Leslie Mathews, convention sales manager for Visit Pensacola. “It’s really squeezing our supply, but we expect our numbers to keep going up. I’m having to turn people down.”
With fly-in traffic increasing in this traditional drive destination, Mathews says more marketing dollars have spread the word about historic Pensacola, whose roots go all the way back to the Spanish conquistadors but include Civil War forts and the state-of-the-art Naval Air Station Pensacola.
“We’re no longer the wallflower at the dance,” Mathews says. “We have people looking at us in 2020 and 2021.”
Also feeling the effects of growth is Daytona Beach; its fabled speedway is turning into a stadium, adding more square footage to an area where the convention hub includes the 205,000-square-foot Ocean Center.“We’ve tripled the number of leads and definite business from first quarter 2014-2015 to first quarter 2015-2016,” says Linda McMahon, director of group sales at the Daytona Beach Area CVB. “It’s happening because of new energy and new development that has been steadily increasing. We’re also seeing increased airlift,” she adds. “But we do a lot of regional business from Florida and the Southeast because we’re such an easy drive. Florida is huge for that.”
One of the easiest drive-in destinations is probably Amelia Island, northeast of Jacksonville and minutes from the Georgia border.
“We’re the first destination when you come into the state, so that’s very accessible,” says Amy Lacroix, director of marketing, advertising and meetings for the Amelia Island TDC, which reports a rise in demand from group business.
“We booked 150,000 group rooms last year,” Lacroix says. “Last calendar year we ran just over 71 percent room nights.”
