LEISURE TRAVEL JUNE 2016 Prepared by: Rosemarie Payne, CDME Director, Leisure Travel USA & Canada

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1 LEISURE TRAVEL JUNE 2016 Prepared by: Rosemarie Payne, CDME Director, Leisure Travel USA & Canada RECAP Trade Shows / Missions / Events June, /31-6/1-4 Seattle Sales Mission & Cruise 360 Vancouver, BC, Canada 5/31 6/7 Vancouver Sales Mission, Canada 6/6-7 Allegiant Call Center Training, Las Vegas 6/11-12 Women s Expo-West Palm Beach, FL 6/14-16 ASTA Quad City Sales Mission 6/20 CCRA New Orleans, LA Seattle Sales Mission & Cruise 360 Vancouver, BC, Canada May 31 June 4, 2016 Seattle Mission: 1 Airline Representative, 1 VISIT FLORIDA Representative, 22 Travel Agents, 5 Industry Partners and 2 VSPC Staff Cruise 360: 2,000 Travel Agents TradeWinds Island Resorts, Sirata Beach Resort, Travel Resort Services, Bilmar Beach Resort, VISIT FLORIDA Seattle: 23 Eco Bags, 23 Destination Magazines, 23 Beach & Culture Maps, 23 Chihuly Kisses, Dolphin Beanies Cruise 360: 396 Destination Magazines, 350 Beach & Culture Maps, 300 Trade Show Bags, and 350 Luggage Tags Seattle: VSPC partnered with VISIT FLORIDA to host VSPC s first ever sales mission in Seattle to promote the direct service on Alaska Airlines from Tampa to Seattle. The dinner was held at Chihuly Glass and Gardens to promote St. Pete s Chihuly museum. It was a fantastic opportunity to educate the travel agents on our destination and promote the recent accolade of America s #1 Beach. There was one agent so impressed she made a visit to our destination several weeks later. Cruise 360 Vancouver: Cruise 360 is the largest and only official conference for the cruise industry. VSPC participated at the two day trade show to engage with travel agents and promote the destination. The travel agents attended the conference coming from all parts of the USA. The VSPC Oculars were available at the trade show to give the travel agents the 360 degree experience of SPC.

2 RECOMMENDATION: VSPC should consider attending Cruise 360 in 2017, which will be held in Fort Lauderdale. VSPC should visit Seattle biannually to continue to create awareness of our area. Vancouver Sales Mission May 31 - June 7, 2016 Vancouver Mission: 27 Travel Agents GOGO Vacations/Flight Centre Travel Group - Call Center Training 15 Staff TradeWinds Island Resorts Seattle: 27 Eco Bags, Destination Magazines, Beach & Culture Maps, Dolphin Beanies, Partner Collateral Flight Centre 40 Eco Bags, Destination Magazines, Beach & Culture Maps, Luggage Tags, Partner Collateral Attended the Seattle VIP Travel Agent Dinner at the Chihuly Gardens and Cruise 360 Trade Show in Vancouver. Monday, 6/6 GOGO Vacations/Flight Centre Travel Group training. This group of call center staff was not that familiar with St. Pete/Clearwater and our proximity to Orlando. With the new WestJet, nonstop service from Vancouver into Central Florida, promoting St. Pete/Clearwater as part of a twin-center holiday was ideal. TradeWinds also presented details of their properties. Tuesday, 6/7 Promoting air service on WestJet was also our messaging to the travel agents that attended our VIP Dinner at the Fairmont in Vancouver. We received great feedback from the agents who attended, saying they learned a lot about our destination and would sell it to their customers. This market has huge potential to grow over the next few years and is a segment of Canada that VSPC and partners are just starting to educate on our destination. We hosted key agents from Expedia Cruise Ship Centers, Flight Centre Travel and Talk Travel Media. RECOMMENDATION: VSPC should visit Vancouver & Seattle biannually to continue to create awareness of our area. STAFFED BY: Rosemarie Payne, Director, Leisure Travel Allegiant Air Call Center Training: Las Vegas, NV June 6-7, Allegiant Airlines Vacation Call Center Representatives Sirata Beach Resort, Holiday Inn & Suites Clearwater Beach, Postcard Inn, Clearwater Beach Marriott Suites on Sand Key, Travel Resort Services,

3 Holiday Inn Harbourside, Clearwater Marine Aquarium, Bilmar Beach Resort, Sheraton Sand Key, John s Pass Village, City of Madeira Beach 148 Destination Magazines, 150 Beach & Culture Maps, 150 Tradeshow Bags, 150 writing pens VSPC and partners visited Allegiant Airlines Call Center for our annual training session for staff. VSPC and partners conducted a mini trade show in the call center offices to present the agents with any new updates. VSPC brought the 360 oculars to give the agents a 360 video tour of our destination it was a hit! VSPC and partners also met with Bonotel Exclusive Travel, one of the fastest growing luxury tour operators. VSPC had the opportunity to meet with the product, contract, reservation and data analytics managers with Bonotel. RECOMMENDATION: The Allegiant Las Vegas Call Center training is an annual event and will be held again in Palm Beach County Women s Expo: West Palm Beach, FL June 11-12, ,000 Consumers No Partner Participation 222 Destination Magazines, 250 Beach & Culture Maps, 230 Trade Show Bags, 150 Luggage Tags, 3 Cases of Sunscreen This was the first time for VSPC to attend The Palm Beach County Women s Show. The West Palm Beach area is a great drive market for consumers wanting to visit the west coast. VSPC was the only destination to attend this show. Many of the consumers mentioned they had wanted to visit St. Pete to experience the arts and culture scene, particularly the Dali. The term staycation was used often with many questions on the area and local hotels. Several consumers mentioned they had received the Destination Magazine in their local newspaper as an insert. RECOMMENDATION: VSPC plans to attend more consumer shows in Florida. Recommend attending this show in Jacksonville in 2017 and visiting the West Palm Beach area every other year. ASTA Quad Cities June 14-16, 2016 PARTICPATION: 55 Travel Agents Travel Resort Services

4 65 Destination Magazines, Beach & Culture Maps, 3 Beach Bags with Towels as Door Prizes This is an evening trade show and reception with travel agents that come from around the Davenport Iowa/Quad cities area. There were 20 vendors in attendance and we were given time to give a short presentation and mix with the agents. This is a great show because VSPC was able to push the Allegiant flights from the Quad City Airport directly into the destination. This was the first time VSPC attended this event. TRS partnered with VSPC and they were able to book 2 vacations while at the show. The agents were excited to learn about the new hotels coming into the destination. RECOMMENDATION: Recommend that VSPC continues to attend the ASTA shows. They are great way to present the destination to a number of agents that are not typically at the larger travel shows. STAFFED BY: Darryl Boggess, Leisure Travel Sales Manager CCRA New Orleans June 20, 2016 PARTICPATION: 55 Travel Agents No Partner Participation 65 Destination Magazines, Beach & Culture Maps, 3 Beach Bags with Towels as Door Prizes This is an evening tradeshow and reception with travel agents that typically work from home. There were 10 vendors that were able to give a short presentation and network with the agents. New Orleans is a fairly new market for VSPC and we were able to promote the Allegiant direct flight into the destination. The agents were excited to learn more about the St Pete Clearwater beaches. Most of their clients drive to Panama City, which can be to cold in the winter months. RECOMMENDATION: Recommend that VSPC continues to partner with CCRA. This is an excellent way to present the destination to a number of agents that are not typically at the larger travel agent shows. STAFFED BY: Darryl Boggess, Leisure Travel Sales Manager

5 CANADIAN MARKET UPDATE Madeleine Brydon, WestJet s Product Manager is interested in touring SPC after Huddle in Orlando. She is tentatively scheduled for a tour on January 13 th. She mentioned 70% of WestJet s sales are from travel agents with the other 30% being booked directly on their website. They are implementing a new system that will allow for multiple destination bookings. This system should be live by end of 2017/early This will help enable consumers to book a two center holiday on their own. She also mentioned that 20% of WestJet s business travels to Florida. WestJet had their first ever product launch in May. They had 50 suppliers in attendance, most of them being sun destinations. Despite the weak Canadian, WestJet said they will maintain their current flight schedule/routes and have no plans to remove any routes. UPCOMING EVENTS Sales Missions June, /5-8 Allegiant Airlines Sales Calls, OH 7/13-15 Mark Travel, Orlando, FL 7/28-31 Fiesta in the Desert, Phoenix, AZ 7/28-31 Travel Agents of Tennessee Conference, Nashville, TN Educational Visits 6/9-13 British Airways UK FAM 6/18-20 Hotelplan Switzerland FAM