LEISURE TRAVEL FEBRUARY Rosemarie Payne Sales Director

Transcription

1 LEISURE TRAVEL FEBRUARY 2009 Rosemarie Payne Sales Director RECAP Recap of Trade Shows/Missions February /31-2/2 St Louis Travel Show-St Louis, MO 2/6-2/8 Southern Women s Show-Savannah, GA 2/1-3 Florida Huddle-Orlando, FL 2/6-8 New York Times Travel Show-NYC, NY 2/20-22 Boston Globe Travel Show-Boston, MA 2/21-22 Adventures in Travel Expo-Washington, DC 2/23-27 Canadian Sales Mission-Toronto, Canada 2/25-26 National Trade Shows-Nashville and Knoxville, TN TRADESHOWS/SALES MISSIONS St. Louis Travel Show - St Louis, MO January 31-February 1, 2009 ATTENDANCE: 16,000 DISTRIBUTION: JC Resorts DISTRIBUTED: Visitor Guides 850 Area Guides 850 NOTES This was our first year exhibiting at the St. Louis Travel Show & Tastes of the World. The show is a two-day consumer event held in St. Charles, MO. This upscale event featured 250+ travel and culinary-based exhibitors. 1

2 The vast majority of consumers attending know our destination and many had vacationed at properties on St. Pete Beach and Clearwater. Interest in resorts with golf courses and upscale spa facilities. Leisure travel appeared to be a 50/50 split between flying and driving to our area. Several travel agents attended to picked up our visitor guides and beaches guides for their clients and office supplies. Southern Women s Show-Savannah, GA February 6-8, 2009 ATTENDANCE: 13,500 DISTRIBUTION: N/A DISTRIBUTED: Visitor Guide 750 Beach Guide 600 This consumer trade show is focused on attracting women between the ages of who make over 80 percent of their family purchases. This event allows us to promote our destination to our key demographics and from the Georgia drive market. There were many consumers who said they had visited Ft. Desoto and many others interested in returning to experience Caladesi Island. While the family market is still number one, we saw a continuing trend of consumers interested in girlfriend get-a-way weekends and upscale spa retreats. NY Times Travel Show New York, NY February 6-8, 2009 ATTENDANCE: Approximately 50,000 PARTICIPATION: TradeWinds Island Resorts DISTRIBUTION: Quality Beach Resort and Clearwater Regional Chamber DISTRIBUTED: Visitor Guide 700 Area Guide 900 This was our sixth year at this show and the attendance was excellent. All weekend there was a line of people waiting to enter the show each morning. We spoke to many people who have reservations for area within the next 60 days and many others with plans to visit 2

3 but have not booked their accommodations just yet. The booking window is becoming shorter and many people are making reservations within 2 weeks of their departure. The beaches and Spring Training Baseball were the main topics of interest. There were 11 Florida exhibitors including VISIT FLORIDA and CVB s from Ft Myers, Gainesville, Bradenton, Polk County and the Space Coast. Most of the other Florida exhibitors shared booth space within VISIT FLORIDA s area however our free standing corner booth drew more attention and showcased our destination as having the premier beaches in Florida. STAFFED BY: Rob Price Boston Globe Travel Show Boston, MA February 20-22, 2009 ATTENDANCE: 17,000+ PARTICIPATION: Don CeSar Beach Resort & Spa DISTRIBUTION: N/A DISTRIBUTED: Visitor Guide 750 Area Guide 875 NOTES This is the third year VSPC has attended the Boston Globe Travel Show. This year there were over 200 exhibitors and consumers attended the show. Over $2 million in travel was booked onsite. The travel show opened Friday afternoon exclusively to 350 travel industry professionals and featured an opening reception. VISIT FLORIDA had a featured destination showcase area with several partners included. The Florida Keys & Key West, Anna Maria Island/Longboat Key, Beaches of Ft. Myers & Sanibel, and VSPC all had individual booth locations. Adventures in Travel Expo Washington, DC February 21-22, 2009 ATTENDANCE: Over 400 travel professionals 13,000 consumers DISTRIBUTION: Clearwater Regional Chamber 3

4 DISTRIBUTED: Visitor Guide 525 Area Guide 700 Beach Guide 300 This was our second year at this show and the attendance was excellent. Many consumers are planning to travel to our destination within the next 90 days. People attributed Spring Training and affordable airfares as the driving factors for taking a vacation to Pinellas County. Other Florida exhibitors included Gainesville, Martin County, New Smyrna CVB, Space Coast and the Florida Keys Convention and Visitors Bureau. This year s attendance was greater than last year and therefore I recommend we exhibit again at this event. STAFFED BY: Rob Price Canadian Sales Mission-Toronto, Canada February 22-27, 2009 ATTENDANCE: 40 media for the luncheon 40 Travel Industry for the dinner event PARTICIPATION: Sirata Beach Resort DISTRIBUTION: Give-a-way from the Marriott Sand Key and their logo was featured on all printed materials for the events DISTRIBUTED: Visitors Guide 200 Area Guide 200 Media luncheon and travel industry trade dinner were very successful events at Canoe. Nicole Elko was an exceptional speaker and the industry was very impressed with her unique presentation on our area beaches. Sirata Beach Resort, Marriott Sand Key & WestJet sponsored the event give-a-ways. Appointments included meetings with Transat Holidays/Nolitours, Air Canada Vacations, ITravel2000, Carlson Marketing, Ultimate Golf Vacations and Thomas Cook Canada. Training included reservation staff at Sunwing and CAA Niagara offices. Attended the Skal Toronto dinner networking event. Travel agency sales calls in St. Catharines included CruiseShip Centers, Sears Travel, Marlin Travel, and Worldwide Travel One & Vision 2000 Travel. Outstanding week in Canada meeting with key wholesale partners and travel industry. STAFFED BY: Rosemarie Payne, Kimberly Hartley, Mary Haban National Trade Shows Knoxville, Nashville, TN February 25-26, 2009 ATTENDANCE: Knoxville 54 travel agents 4

5 Nashville 57 travel agents DISTRIBUTION: JC Resorts, Liberte Condo Rentals, Clearwater Regional Chamber DISTRIBUTED: Visitor Guides 200 Area Guides 200 These trade show/ dinner seminars allow us to promote our area to the top producing leisure travel agents in each city by exhibiting in a tradeshow format followed by individual presentations during dinner with the agents`. Both Allegiant Air from Knoxville and Southwest Airlines in Nashville, offer nonstop flights into our destination. Other Florida vendors in attendance were Port Canaveral Port Authority, 3 central Florida properties, and the Miami CVB. Overall the shows were effective by allowing us to reach the top two markets in Tennessee in a time and cost effective manner. STAFFED BY: Rob Price EDUCATIONAL FAMS Hotelbeds.com Educational FAM February 27, 2009 Hotelbeds Accommodations and Destination Services is a leading receptive operator based in Orlando. They are a business to business provider of incoming travel services to travel trade professionals worldwide. We hosted Penny McNamara, Hotelbeds new Product Manager for a trolley tour of downtown St. Petersburg, along with visits to the Hilton, Renaissance Vinoy, Courtyard by Marriott and The Hampton Inn. This was Penny s first time to our destination and she was excited to learn more about our world class museums and historical properties. During her visit we scheduled a date for VSPC to have a Destination Day of training in their Orlando office for their reservations staff and management team. UPCOMING EVENTS 5

6 Sales Missions March /2-3 National Trade Show (NTS)-Cocoa Beach and West Palm Beach, FL 3/3-6 Funjet-Texas 3/4 VISIT FLORIDA Reception-Providence, RI 3/6-8 AAA Market Place-Providence, RI 3/18-22 Sebring Car Race-Sebring, FL 3/23-27 National Trade Shows (NTS)-PA and NJ Educational FAM Trips 3/5-6 TUI-Netherlands 4/2-5 TAM FAM - Brazilian Educational Visit 4/5 Expresstours Brazil 5/3-7 Neckermann-Germany 6/21-24 Willy Scharnow-Germany 6