Visit Florida’s marketing approach also is aimed at offsetting figures that showed overall visits to Florida were down 1.2 percent during this year’s second quarter when compared to the same period in 2022. Domestic travel was down 2.4 percent.
Visit Florida President and CEO Dana Young said that while international tourism grows, the U.S. market is “our bread and butter” and “we have to keep giving them reasons to come back not once, not twice, but again and again and again.”
Entering the second year of a partnership with the Michelin restaurant guide focusing on Tampa, Orlando and Miami, the state will engage in a separate “culinary marketing campaign” for the rest of the state.
A second campaign is looking to market regions outside their peak seasons, such as emphasizing the Panhandle during the winter or South Florida as the summer heat takes hold.
Two other campaigns center on drawing people to areas that are not typical tourist destinations.
The agency has brought in the Adventure Travel Trade Association to help rural counties better market themselves as destinations. Meanwhile, the Department of Environmental Protection Office of Greenways and Trails is helping promote the more than 15,000 miles of water and land-based trails across the state.
Overall tourism numbers for 2023 are ahead of the pace for the first six months of 2022, thanks to an extremely strong first quarter.
This article appears in Sep 14-20, 2023.