LEISURE TRAVEL MARCH Rosemarie Payne Sales Director RECAP

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1 LEISURE TRAVEL MARCH 2009 Rosemarie Payne Sales Director RECAP Recap of Trade Shows/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 TRADESHOWS/SALES MISSIONS NTS Shows-FL March 2-3, 2009 ATTENDANCE: Cocoa Beach Approx 85 agents West Palm Beach Approx 110 agents PARTICIPATION: Dolphin Beach Resort provided a giveaway DISTRIBUTED: Visitor Guide 100 Area Guide 100 Beach Guide 100 1

2 Once again, these shows prove to be an excellent venue to reach the in-state drive market. Two agents said they had clients booked at TradeWinds and the Hilton Clearwater Beach. Agents were quite interested in hearing about the many things we have to offer in addition to the beach experience. Many expressed interest in the Salvador Dali Museum, the Clearwater Marine Aquarium and wanted info. on girlfriend getaways and FAM trips. STAFFED BY: Cindy Powell Funjet Vacations Product Launch-TX March 3-6, 2009 ATTENDANCE: Houston Approx 300 agents PARTICIPATION: San Antonio Approx 100 agents Austin Approx 100 agents Don CeSar Beach Resort & Spa, Sirata Beach Resort, and TradeWinds Island Resorts DISTRIBUTION: Quality Hotel on the Beach DISTRIBUTED: Visitor Guide 400 Area Guides 400 Funjet Vacations top VIP agents were allowed access to the trade show prior to the official start time. This allowed more one to one time with the agents for a destination overview regarding upcoming events such as the Grand Prix and spring training baseball. Other Florida exhibitors included hotels from Orlando and the Miami and Ft Myers CVB s. Even though Texas is a secondary market for our area, we attend these events due to receiving complementary booth space which significantly lowers our costs to attend. STAFFED BY: Rob Price VISIT FLORIDA Travel Agent Dinner, Providence, RI March 4, 2009 ATTENDANCE: 38 Travel Agents PARTICIPATION: N/A DISTRIBUTED: N/A 2

3 Prior to the AAA Marketplace in Providence, we co- hosted a travel agent dinner along with VISIT FLORIDA and several other Florida destinations. Many agents were inquiring about condominium rentals for family vacations and reunions Interest in learning more about some of our unique communities such a Gulfport and other arts and cultural areas Ft. Lauderdale & Beaches of Sanibel/Ft. Myers were other destinations that co-hosted the event. STAFFED BY: Gail Yeager AAA Travel Marketplace-Foxboro, MA March 6-9, 2009 ATTENDANCE: 15,111 PARTICIPATION: Quality Hotel on the Beach DISTRIBUTED: Visitor Guide 525 Area Guide 450 Beach Guide 450 AAA Travel Marketplace is a consumer travel show for the high end travel consumer from New England and the northeast corridor. This was our fourth year participating in the VISIT FLORIDA section Attendance was up 8% from 2008 with a record level of attendance Senior Market interested in seasonal condo rentals and families interested in the destination for beach accommodations with family activities Additional partners with VISIT FLORIDA included Greater Ft. Lauderdale CVB, Greater Miami, and Beaches of Sanibel/Ft. Myers. STAFFED BY: Gail Yeager 12 Hours of Sebring Auto Race -Sebring, FL March 18-22, 2009 ATTENDANCE: approximately 180, ,000 consumers PARTICIPATION: Crystal Palms Beach Resort 3

4 DISTRIBUTED: Visitor Guide 100 Area Guide 350 Honda Grand Prix Rack Cards 600 This event attracts nearly 200,000 race fans from all over the world. Car clubs from Porsche, Audi and Corvette had their own brand corrals set up that attracted thousands of wealthy owners to this four day racing event. Overall, this is a great event to promote our race; however I recommend having a large banner promoting the Honda Grand Prix if we return next year. This event is ideal to create interest in ticket sales for our event in April, but since the Grand Prix is in peak season, there is marginal impact on hotel occupancy. STAFFED BY: Rob Price NTS Shows-PA and NJ March 22-27, 2009 ATTENDANCE: Philadelphia, PA Approx 100 agents Langhorne, PA Approx 100 agents Allentown, PA Approx 100 agents Mount Laurel, NJ Approx 100 agents PARTICIPATION: Sunset Vistas provided the event give-a-way via the Internet contest DISTRIBUTION: Clearwater Regional Chamber of Commerce DISTRIBUTED: Visitor Guide 400 Area Guide 400 Philadelphia (West Conshohocken, PA) One agent had a group of 12 at the Sheraton Sand Key, in town for Spring Training, another agent has a family she books every year at the Don CeSar for March. Lots of Spring Training travel and agents were asking for more direct e- mail updates from the CVB on special offers. Langhorne MLT participated in the shows to promote the Delta Airlines service from Newark. MTL has taken over the Delta Vacations program that kicks-off July 6 th. Allentown Agents love the Allegiant service to PIE and they said since most airlines no longer pay commissions, the fact that Allegiant doesn t either is not that significant. Our biggest competition from this part of PA is Direct Air s service to Myrtle Beach. Mount Laurel great turn out, over 100 agents. In talking with the agents they really like the Seminar series that NTS offers prior to the tradeshow. It is an hour long destination training seminar and agents say they really benefit from the information. We are in negotiations with NTS to host three Seminar series next year in our top markets. STAFFED BY: Rosemarie Payne EDUCATIONAL FAMS 4

5 TUI-Netherlands Educational FAM March 5-6, 2009 ATTENDANCE: 15 Travel agents PARTICIPATION: Hilton Clearwater Beach, Marriott Suites Clearwater Beach on Sand Key, and Dolphin Racer (Starlite Cruises) DISTRIBUTED: Visitor Guide 15 Area Guide 15 Beach Guide 15 Signature Bag 15 TUI, one of the Netherland s largest tour operators sponsored a Florida Educational FAM through Travalco, their receptive for 15 of their top selling agents. During their 6-day visit to the state, they visited Orlando, Miami, Ft Myers, Sarasota, and St Pete/Clearwater. Although here for only one night, we were able to host this group to a dolphin watch cruise and to showcase our new Beach Walk on Clearwater Beach. The group unanimously agreed that they loved our beaches and wished they had more time to spend. Special thanks to the Hilton Clearwater Beach for housing this group STAFFED BY: Cindy Powell OTHER Travelocity-Site Inspections March 5, 2009 Tours included Tarpon Springs, Dunedin, and Innisbrook Resort & Golf Club Orbitz March 11, 2009 Joanna Cook with visited the VSPC office to review production numbers and new reports UPCOMING EVENTS 5

6 Sales Missions April /3 I-95 Welcome Center Spring Festival-Yulee, FL 4/4-5 Spring Fiesta in the Park-Lake Eola-Orlando, FL 4/4-8 Travel South Showcase-Orlando, FL 4/13-16 National Trade Shows-Pittsburgh/Harrisburg, PA, Columbia, MD Mclean, VA 4/21-22 Atlanta Sales Mission 4/30-5/3 International Women s Show-Novi, MI Educational FAM Trips 4/2-5 TAM FAM - Brazilian Educational Visit 4/5 Expresstours Brazil 5/3-7 Neckermann-Germany 6/21-24 Willy Scharnow-Germany 6