Next Tuesday, Florida’s elected officials will return to Tallahassee to address redistricting, the budget and other key issues during the 2012 Legislative Session. The following week, on January 18, the Partnership for Florida’s Tourism – a grassroots coalition designed to raise awareness of the importance of tourism and to increase public funding of tourism marketing – will [...]

This year VISIT FLORIDA participated in METROPOLL XIV, a comprehensive study of meeting planners and the meetings market in North America, conducted by RRC Associates. The report, which provides a detailed description of meeting planners’ preferences and their perceptions of 40 North American destinations, was conducted over a dozen years allowing for trend analysis of [...]

VISIT FLORIDA, an industry thought leader on so many fronts (see: Google Currents), has established a new standard with the conception, reporting and production of original content. This initiative started with the Insiders, the cast of bloggers who write consumer-friendly posts on such hot topics as beaches and family travel. And it continues with the [...]

Florida ranks second among all 50 states in total international visitation and first in visitor spending.  In 2010 alone, Florida’s tourism industry brought in 11.1 million international visitors from 144 different countries who spent $10.6 billion. As a unique opportunity for increasing international visitation to the state and improving the Sunshine State’s economy, VISIT FLORIDA [...]

Happy Holidays!  Today, VISIT FLORIDA put the finishing touches on our annual digital holiday card and sent out it to many of our friends, colleagues and fans around the world.  Since we may not have everyone’s email on file, we’ve posted it toYouTube and are sharing it through Sunshine Matters, as well.  We had a [...]

The U.S. Travel Association recently held its annual Marketing Outlook Forum in Ft. Worth, Texas.  The forum provides an opportunity for attendees to network with fellow tourism industry representatives from other states and serves as a great chance to learn and gain insight into what experts see as the trends for the coming year. The [...]

I am extremely proud to announce the launch of an innovative, first-of-its-kind digital brand awareness co-op program with Google. VISIT FLORIDA is the first partner to pilot this new program, developed by Google specifically for the travel industry. “The VISIT FLORIDA team has worked to craft a co-op program that leverages the online reach of [...]

I am proud to announce that VISIT FLORIDA is working with Google to publish travel stories on a new smartphone and tablet application called Google Currents that has just been released. Launching on Android devices, iPads and iPhones, Currents lets users explore online magazines and other content with the swipe of a finger.  VISIT FLORIDA’s [...]

Against the backdrop of increasing competition, massive disruption, and revolutionary technological advancements, 167 Florida tourism industry leaders met at the annual VISIT FLORIDA Marketing Retreat to begin to set the course for VISIT FLORIDA’s  2012-2013 Marketing Plan. I would like to personally thank all who attended for taking the time out of your very busy [...]

As the college football regular season comes to a close, I am proud to announce the winning university in the Florida Fan Game contest. The Florida Fan Game is an initiative of VISIT FLORIDA’s Share A Little Sunshine program, engaging Floridians to support tourism by inviting friends and family to visit the state. The head football coaches [...]

Sen Detert is considering a bill this session that would greatly facilitate toursim in florida by expanding the sister cities program: an idea that was started in the special session last year -- as each city in florida rapidly develops this network of relationships tourism is a key component of it. In Sarasota alone in addition to tourism from South America and elsewhere most of our top end RE sales are coming in many cases from the relationship... [read more]

To start upgrading your conference experience, please create your profile first. You can do that right here. And what can you do on this site? You can set up your own personalized schedule of events, including conference sessions and your personal appointments. Interact with other attendees! Build a network of people that you want to meet with. Set up an appointment with them and add it to your personal schedule. Learn about the speakers that wil... [read more]