LEISURE TRAVEL. January 2011 Prepared By: Rosemarie Payne, CHME Director Leisure Travel, USA & Canada

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1 LEISURE TRAVEL RECAP January 2011 Prepared By: Rosemarie Payne, CHME Director Leisure Travel, USA & Canada Tradeshows/Missions January /9-11 American Bus Association Conference & Marketplace 1/13 VISIT FLORIDA Philadelphia Trade Event Philadelphia, PA 1/21-23 Great Vacations Expo AAA Columbus, OH 1/21-25 Florida Huddle Daytona Beach, FL & TWIGS - Orlando 1/25-26 Snowbird Extravaganza Lakeland, FL 1/29-30 Travel and Adventure Show Chicago, IL TRADESHOWS/SALES MISSIONS American Bus Association Conference and Marketplace January 9-11, 2011 ATTENDANCE: 55 Appointments with Tour Operators N/A 75 Visitor Guides & Area Guides The American Bus Association Marketplace is a conference for leisure and SMERF group travel. Appointments are the core of the show and allow buyers and sellers to meet face to face with prescheduled seven-minute appointments. In addition to the appointments ABA offers professional educational seminars and numerous networking opportunities. The latest trends appear to be programs geared towards Military groups, Student groups, Music performances, Culinary, Eco-tourism and History related travel. Shorter trips scheduled with air/motorcoach combination are also popular for our destination. The Green Movement is increasing in popularity for motorcoach travel and Hub & Spoke travel is preferred by the senior market due to packing and unpacking each travel day. VSPC had forty nine prescheduled appointments and six were added during the show. RECOMMENDATION: VSPC will continue to attend motorcoach shows in STAFFED BY: Gail Yeager

2 VISIT FLORIDA Travel Agent Event Philadelphia, PA January 13, 2011 ATTENDANCE: 45 travel professionals N/A 60 Visitor Guides and 60 Area Guides This event was held at an upscale restaurant near the King of Prussia area just outside of Philadelphia. The format consisted of ample time to network with the travel agents at a cocktail hour followed by round table presentations. The round tables were an excellent and personal way to educate the agents on the new Dalí Museum, Phillies spring training baseball, and the upcoming movie, Dolphin Tale. Other co sponsors included CVB s from Amelia Island, Ft. Myers & Sanibel, Central FL., Daytona Beach, Miami, Panama City, and Pensacola. RECOMMENDATION: This is an excellent feeder market for our destination and by partnering with VISIT FLORIDA we maximized our resources. VSPC will participate in this event in STAFFED BY: Rob Price AAA Great Vacations EXPO Columbus, OH Jan 21-23, 2011 ATTENDANCE: 14,000+ Alden Beach Resort, St. Pete Beach 1025 Visitor Guides This was the first year VSPC participated in the third annual AAA Great Vacations Expo held in Columbus, Ohio. Visitors attending the expo throughout the three days were interested in our destination with particular interest in family vacations and weekend get-a-ways. There were a wide variety of Florida destinations represented including the Panama City CVB and the Beaches of Sanibel/Ft Myers VCB. AAA Great Vacations Expo offered a full line of presentations and special guests included the Travel Channel s Samantha Brown. RECOMMENDATION: This is an excellent market for VSPC and the show was very well promoted. VSPC will attend next year. STAFFED BY: Gail Yeager

3 Florida Huddle, Daytona Beach, FL & TWIGS Orlando January 21-25, 2011 ATTENDANCE: Approx. 75 Buyers & Suppliers at the TWIGS Golf Tournament, 87 Domestic & International Buyers at Huddle along with 36 members of the Travel Media PARTICPATION: N/A 40 Visitor Guides and 40 Area Guides VSPC along with 17 area accommodation partners attended the 2-day Florida Huddle appointment show in Daytona. Buyers included partners from the US, Canada, UK and Europe. VSPC had a full appointment schedule with 40 meetings. Domestic Operators reported strong sales for the first quarter of 2011, while our UK & German partners are reporting slow sales for summer. Canadian reports were mixed, but we did discuss several new marketing opportunities for the winter selling season. Rosemarie Payne & Mary Haban hosted 8 wholesale & media clients from Canada and Tracy Vaughn from VISIT FLORIDA to a VIP dinner to strategize about the market and talk about new Canadian initiatives to increase business to our destination. TWIGS was attended by key international & domestic buyers and continues to be a very valuable networking opportunity for the travel industry. Following Florida Huddle, VSPC Hosted a Post Huddle Council of Advisors FAM. This was an informal FAM to introduce 9 of our top clients to the new Dali Museum and have them visit Winter in person to learn more about the movie opening this fall. The Hyatt Regency Clearwater Beach hosted an Industry Dinner for the Council Members and it was attended by 30 members of our travel industry. Other FAM sponsors included Barefoot Beach Resorts, Marriott Suites Sand Key, Painting with a Twist & Renaissance Vinoy. Brad Liski with the Canadian Traveller joined the group for the Dali Tour. RECOMMENDATION: VSPC will attend both TWIGS & Florida Huddle 2012 in Ft. Lauderdale. STAFFED BY: Rosemarie Payne, Rob Price, Mary Haban Snowbird Extravaganza Lakeland, FL Jan 25-26, 2011 ATTENDANCE: 36,000+ Consumers Museum of Fine Arts and MOSI 1800 Visitor Guides and 1300 Area Maps This was the fifth year VSPC participated in the Snowbird Extravaganza held in Lakeland, Florida. This is a premier consumer show for the Canadian Senior Market. Attendees were winter residents in and around the Lakeland/Orlando area.

4 This tradeshow gives our destination great exposure to the senior drive market in Central Florida. They tend to travel midweek to the beach with a one or two night stay. They also travel for sightseeing, local attractions & museums and shopping. Numerous group leaders or travel escorts from mobile home parks or condo associations were very interested in our destination. Fox News covered this event live both days. That exposure definitely increased the attendance for this show. Our destination was also represented by Jeff Clauss from the St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport. RECOMMENDATION: VSPC will continue to attend this valuable tradeshow in STAFFED BY: Gail Yeager Adventures in Travel Expo Chicago, IL January 29-30, 2011 ATTENDANCE: The Adventures in Travel Expo invites over 200 Travel Professionals to the event and approximately 40,000 Consumers TradeWinds Island Resorts, Alden Beach Resort, Don CeSar Beach Resort 600 Visitor Guides, 600 Area Guides, Partner Materials The show was very well attended both days. VSPC and accommodation partners distributed over 450 bags of collateral during the 2-day show, as well as additional brochures. Consumers in this market know our destination and look forward to warm summer geta-ways at the beach. The new Dali is also of particular interest to this market. Other Florida destinations that participated in the Travel Expo and had booths in the Florida section were Disney Vacation Club, Florida Keys & Key West and Stuart/Martin County CVB. RECCOMENDATION: VSPC should definitely return in This has become one of our best attended consumer shows held in one of our top origin markets. STAFFED BY: Rob Price

5 CANADIAN MARKET UPDATE Part of the VSPC/VISIT FLORIDA sanctioned co-op with itravel2000 includes a social media component. The Florida FANatic, Perry Joseph, will be in St. Pete/Clearwater to serve as the official media correspondent, videographer and blogger for itravel2000 s website. His objective is to showcase the destination to millions of Canadians via video and blogs during and after his visit to tie in with our campaign. Perry will be in our area March 27 31, Sales Opportunities for the 3 rd Quarter went out to the industry and included two FREE initiatives to Canada with the CT World of Travel Shows in both western and eastern Canada. Two dates have been confirmed for events in Toronto. VIP client event at the Toronto Grand Prix is set for Sunday, July 10 th and the 9 th Annual Beaches & Baseball client event at the Rogers Center will be Friday, August 26 th and will be attended by the VSPC Leisure Travel & PR departments as well as the Sports Commission. The Toronto Sun newspaper is currently running a contest for consumers to win a trip to St. Pete/Clearwater for the Honda Grand Prix March 25 27, Other sponsors include the Postcard Inn, Palm Pavilion Restaurant and itravel2000 that are supplying the air and car rental. The winner of the 10 th Annual Best Beach Contest, which was featured in the December Travel Courier Magazine, is Gary Swayze from New Wave Travel in Toronto. WestJet & Sirata Beach Resort were the prize sponsors. Members of the Condo Alliance met with VSPC to form a committee to discuss their objectives for reaching the Canadian Market. The Alliance was meeting again 2/25 to create a clear set of goals for this market and will continue to look for ways to partner with VSPC. January 14-16, 2011 Jeff Clauss from PIE & the Alden Beach Resort attend a Transat Holiday consumer show in Halifax to promote Transat s return to the St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport this winter. The new VSPC Visitor Guides were distributed. The VSPC Toronto Online Media Campaign will begin February 28 th and run through April 10 th. The primary objective is to drive traffic to The campaign will be monitored on a weekly basis, with ongoing optimization throughout the flight. Target audience Adults with interest in Florida travel.

6 UPCOMING EVENTS Sales Missions February /3-6 Iceland Air Mid-Atlantic Workshop & Travel Seminar Reykjavik, Iceland 2/10 VISIT FLORIDA Educational Trade Event Providence, RI 2/11-13 Boston Globe Travel Show Boston, MA 2/15-17 Sales Blitz Atlanta, GA 2/22-25 Travel South Showcase Atlanta, GA 2/25-27 The New York Times Travel Show New York City, NY EDUCATIONAL VISITS Rob Price and Katie Marvin hosted Kristin Richmer with Allegiant Travel Company for a meeting with our attraction partners at the CVB Offices on January 20, and it was successful.