LEISURE TRAVEL DEPARTMENT

Transcription

1 LEISURE TRAVEL DEPARTMENT MAY 2006 REPORT Prepared by: Nancy Foster Director Leisure Travel Recap of Trade Shows/Missions Attended See details below May /3-7 Travel Professional of Color-Las Vegas, NV 5/6-10 TIA Pow Wow-Orlando, FL 5/9-10 Pentagon Show-Washington, DC 5/18 Mark Travel Res Center-Orlando, FL 5/19 Welcome Center I-75 5/25-28 IGLTA-Washington, DC TRADE SHOWS/SALES TRIPS Travel Professionals of Color Annual Travel Conference-Las Vegas, NV May 3-7, 2006 ATTENDANCE: 125 Travel Agents PARTICIPATION: Brochure Distribution-Travel Resort Services, Inc. Our first attendance for this 5 th annual conference. Attending this conference gave us the opportunity to spotlight our destination to minority travelers. This specialty market is growing at a rapid pace and promoting Multicultural and Heritage Tourism will prove successful. Partnered with Visit Florida during a table top trade show. Distributed our visitor guides, maps, cultural literature. Met and networked with leading minority travel agency owners, independent contractors and outside sales representatives who have the potential to sell our destination. Presented a destination workshop on power point for agents. This gave them an overview of the county and beaches along with upcoming area events. Participants were excited to learn about Palmer and becoming a Florida s Beach Specialist. 1

2 Agents interested in our local African American History and places of interest for this niche market heritage. Many questions regarding family reunions, weekend get-a-ways. Pow Wow-Orlando, FL May 7-10, 2006 ATTENDANCE: 5,000 Tour Operators and media from around the world gathered in Orlando for a week of appointment sessions with suppliers from across the U.S. Total attendance for this year s conference reached 5,000. Pow Wow is the largest travel convention held in the U.S. dedicated to the international marketplace. Optimism was evident as buyers sought out the 11 suppliers from our area who attended Pow Wow this year. Our section was quite busy with traditional partners wanting updated information, seeking co-operative programs, arranging for future site inspections and educational trips, looking for value-added opportunities and new properties to add to their programs. Some concerns were expressed from the traditionals as to lack of inventory and increased rates; however, they are experiencing this all over Florida it seems. We had a number of requests from non-traditional countries including France, Turkey, and China. Latin America seems to be picking up as well. Visit USA Committees provided good update information on current status in their marketplace, which helps us in future promotions. Barbara Schuch-Beckers from Central Europe and Kimberly Hartley-McMurray from Canada also worked the booth all week. Leads and inquiries are being provided to our industry as requested by the tour operators. STAFFED BY: Nancy Foster, Barbara Schuch-Beckers, and Kimberly Hartley-McMurray Pentagon Sun and Fun Travel Show-Washington, DC May 9-10, 2006 ATTENDANCE: 20,000 PARTICIPATION: MOSI, Clearwater Regional Chamber This annual show is an excellent way to target government professionals for the summer travel season because of their high income demographic and ample vacation time. Over sixty exhibitors attended this sold out event including Orlando resorts and Universal Studios. Nearby Mac Dill Air Force Base, golfing, beautiful beaches and close proximity to the Orlando attractions were the top reasons for interest in our destination. Over ninety percent of individuals polled said they were interested in leisure vacations and did not expect to pay per diem rates for personal travel. I meet with Dan Yount, Chief of the Army Leisure Travel Services to explore adding Pinellas County properties to their contracted travel program. All interested accommodations 2

3 can me for Mr. Yount s contact information. This could be a new market segment to tap into for year round business. Overall, the show was very busy and our area was represented as a top choice for a Florida beach vacation. STAFFED BY: Rob Price Mark Travel-Orlando, FL May 18, 2006 ATTENDANCE: 175 Reservations Department/Management Staff INDUSTY PARTICIPANTS: Sirata Beach Resort, TradeWinds Island Resorts, Alden Beach Resort, Belleview Biltmore Resort, Holiday Inn SunSpree Marina Cove, Marriott Suites on Sand Key Mark Travel Corporation includes 16 nationally recognized vacation companies; some they own and some they manage for leading airline and hotel partners. This was our annual destination day training reservations staff and management. Reviewed our upcoming summer and fall area events. Highlighted Palmer and our Florida s Beach Specialist test. We hosted a special meeting with Mark Travel Management Staff and key Brand Managers from Spirit Vacations, Southwest Vacations to update them on our destination. We announced our annual Mark Travel Educational trip for August 6-12, This will give the staff the opportunity to see our destination first hand. I -75 Welcome Center, (with Visit Florida) Florida May 19, 2006 ATTENDANCE: This Red Carpet Day was arranged by Visit Florida. Our display booth was located inside the I-75 Florida Welcome Center to welcome travelers entering the state. As travelers arrived, we greeted them with a red carpet runner, balloons, and our logo beach balls being tossed through the air. Spoke with folks from all over the United States and many from Georgia who were headed for a long weekend visit to Florida. Numerous were headed to Pinellas County. We distributed our visitor guides and area maps. A Television reporter from WGTV (CBS station) interviewed me along with the Welcome Center staff regarding the activities for the Red Carpet Tourism day. The interview was shown on the 11pm local news addition in Valdosta, GA and Jacksonville, FL. 3

4 Travelocity-Wilkes-Barre, PA May 24, 2006 ATTENDANCE: 150 res agents PARTICIPATION: TradeWinds Island Resorts Visit Florida arranged for us to go to the Travelocity call center in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Travelocity is an internet travel provider. The call center handles reservations for numerous vacation destinations. They book thousands of rooms in our county each month! Joann Strish is the manager of the Sales Effectiveness team. She was our contact onsite. The TradeWinds attended with us as well as three other CVBs. We were able to announce Caladesi Island as the new #2 beach for 2006! We gave destination presentations and material to approximately 80 call center representatives and provided information to an additional 70 call center reservation agents in the trade show. Introduced our website Floridasbeachtravel.com and educated the representatives about our Destination Specialist tool. A very useful resource in getting familiar with our area. Spoke with the manager of the Sales Effectiveness Team and made arrangements to possibly return on our own and train reservation agents in-depth about our area. STAFFED BY: Nancy Foster and Cyndi Christopher International Gay/Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA)-Washington, DC May 25-27, 2006 ATTENDANCE: 600+ PARTICIPATION: Brochure Distribution-Travel Resort Services, Inc. Our first attendance with this niche/vertical market. The conference consisted of workshops on GLBT travel marketing, sales, product development and public relations components of the gay travel niche. Participated in a Travel Trade Show. This gave us exposure with the general public located in the DC area. Numerous questions regarding the county accommodations being gay friendly or all gay resorts and gay family friendly accommodations. Interest in arts, entertainment of our local downtown areas. 4

5 OTHER MLT Vacations May 9, 2006 Cindy Venzinau, MLT Vacations Sales Representative, Edina, MN. Met with Cindy for site inspections of the Bellview, Hilton Clearwater Beach, Sheraton Sand Key, Marriott, Best Western, and the Alden. We sailed on the Dolphin Racer from South Pasadena for a dolphin watching cruise. We visited John s Pass, restaurants, shopping area. Gave Cindy an overview of the Trolley system (downtown St. Petersburg, to the beaches and along Gulf Boulevard. We reviewed our seasons with regard to particular areas, attractions and activities for the different age groups of our tourists. and Cyndi Christopher International Directors Forum May 12, industry representatives attended a forum to meet CVB International Directors Geoff Rowcliffe (UK and Scandinavia), Kimberly Hartley-McMurray (Canada) and Barbara Schuch- Beckers (Central Europe). An in-depth presentation was provided on the demographics, market conditions and destination perception of each country, with positive outlooks coming from all. Since this was immediately following International Pow Wow, the information was timely and relevant for future business opportunities. Festival Airlines Following a product development meeting, toured two executives of Festival Airlines from IL throughout the lower county to look at properties for their new start-up air service, which will begin in September from Rockford IL to PIE. STAFFED BY: Nancy Foster UPCOMING EVENTS Trade Shows/Missions June 2006 June AAA FL Spring Blitz 6/1-2 Gay Days-Orlando 6/6 Outside Sales Support Network (OSSN) Chapter Meeting-Tennessee 6/8 RSAA Board Retreat-New Orleans, LA 6/12-14 MLT Vacations Call Center-Minot, ND 6/13 Expedia Call Center-Arlington/Dallas, TX 6/14 Travelocity Res Center-San Antonio, TX 6/20-23 GoGo Worldwide Vacations Blitz-CT and Western MA 6/24 Southwest Airlines Employee Recognition Day 6/27-29 Atlanta Sales Mission/Air Tran Res Centers-Atlanta Training Trips 5

6 6/5-6 Kuoni Netherlands-Cancelled 6/11-12 Hotelplan-NL 8/6-12 Mark Travel (2 groups) 9/13-16 Thomson-UK 9/22-24 Florida s Beach Destination Specialist Educational 6