LEISURE TRAVEL May 2018 Prepared by: Rosemarie Payne, CDME Director Leisure Travel, USA & Canada RECAP Trade Shows/ Missions/ Events May 2018 5/1-2 JetBlue Call Center Training Orlando, FL 5/3-6 International Women s Show Novi, MI 5/7-11 Travel Impressions / Sales Calls Chicago, Rockford, IL & Milwaukee, WI 5/14-18 Travel Impressions / Sales Calls Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus & Pittsburgh 5/16 Rochester Travel Professionals Meet Your Rep Night - Rochester, NY 5/17 Professional Travel Agents of North America - Baltimore, MD 5/29-6/01 Sunwing Product Launch - Halifax and Moncton, Canada JetBlue Call Center Training - Orlando, FL May 1-2, 2018 ATTENDANCE: 85 Retail PARTICIPATION: Sirata Beach Resort, TradeWinds Island Resorts and The Don Cesar Hotel DISTRIBUTED: 85 Destination Magazines, 85 Beach & Culture Maps, 85 Pens This training is for the JetBlue Call Center Agents. The training consists of 3 different groups of agents with destination training along with individual property training. Our training day was shared with the Fort Myers CVB and both CVB s hosted lunch for the agents. After meeting with the product managers, the JetBlue room night production has increased in St Pete Clearwater by 86% year over year. JetBlue continues to offer direct nonstop flights from Hartford, San Juan, Boston, Washington DC, Newark and JFK RECOMMENDATION: Visit St. Pete/Clearwater should continue to partner with JetBlue Airlines. The training is needed to help increase room nights for the destination and better customer service.
International Women s Show - Novi, MI May 3-6, 2018 ATTENDANCE: 28,000+ Consumers PARTICIPATION: Travel Resort Services (TRS, Inc.) DISTRIBUTED: 800 Destination Magazines, 1,200 Beach & Culture Maps Visit St. Pete/Clearwater returned to the annual International Women s Show held at the Suburban Collection Showplace, in Novi, MI. Given the improved economy in Michigan, the show was well attended compared to past years. WXYX (ABC affiliate) did an outstanding job with live coverage throughout the event. Both the Detroit News and Detroit Press promoted features of the activities and events being held during the weekend. Many inquiries we fielded were for family reunions, weddings, honeymoons, girlfriend geta-ways and spa experiences. Other Florida destinations included Daytona Beach, Ft. Myers/Sanibel and Visit Central Florida. Numerous other DMO s from around the US were represented. RECOMMENDATION: Visit St. Pete/Clearwater Leisure Travel Department is going to table Women s Shows in FY 2019, to concentrate on other consumer shows with higher travel profiles. STAFFED BY: Gail Yeager Travel Impressions / Sales Calls Chicago, Rockford, IL & Milwaukee, WI May 7-11, 2018 ATTENDANCE: 240 Retail Travel Agents and Wholesale PARTICIPATION: The Don Cesar Hotel DISTRIBUTED: 225 Destination Magazines, 225 Beach & Culture Maps, 225 Pens Rockford, IL is one of our top inbound cities with Allegiant Air. Visit St. Pete/Clearwater met with 5 Travel Agencies in Rockford and provided updates about the destination and Allegiant. Agencies include: Camelot Travel, Hutchins World Travel, Lindstrom Travel, AAA Rockford and Illinois International Travel. Travel Impressions continues to do a great travel show series with key partners. The Chicago show brought in over 150 Travel Agents, Milwaukee had an additional 70 agents. This evening event is a trade show with only 10-15 suppliers. The Don Cesar booked a room block for an upcoming wedding party while at the show. Travel Impressions is now a part of Mark Travel. RECOMMENDATION: Visit St. Pete/Clearwater should continue to partner with Travel Impressions. The show offers a great return for the investment. In addition, the Travel Impressions show series usually includes multiple cities near each other. This feature gives suppliers the ability to target a variety of feeder markets. 2
Travel Impressions/Sales Calls Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus & Pittsburgh May 14-18, 2018 ATTENDANCE: 200 Retail Travel Agents & Wholesale PARTICIPATION: The Don Cesar Hotel DISTRIBUTED: 200 Destination Magazines, 200 Beach & Culture Maps, 200 Pens Cincinnati, OH is one of our top inbound cities with Allegiant Air and it is one of the few cities that offer daily flights to St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport (PIE) from Cincinnati International Airport. Visit St. Pete/Clearwater met with 8 Travel Agencies in Cincinnati and 4 Travel Agencies in Dayton. Allegiant also has flights to PIE out of Dayton, OH. Agencies for Cincinnati included: Provident Travel, The Travel Authority, Wayfarer Travel, Travel Leaders, Joy Tour and Travel, Cruise Holidays. Agencies in Dayton include: Huffman Travel, Far Hills Travel, Uniglobe Travel and the Travel Authority. Travel Impressions continues to do a great travel show series with key partners. The Columbus show brought in over 70 Travel Agents. Pittsburgh brought in an additional 75 agents. This evening event is a trade show with only 10-15 suppliers. Travel Impressions is now a part of Mark Travel and growth is expected with the merger. RECOMMENDATION: Visit St./Pete Clearwater should continue to partner with Travel Impressions. The show offers a great return for the investment. In addition, the Travel Impressions show series usually includes multiple cities near each other which gives the suppliers the ability target different feeder markets. Rochester Travel Professionals Meet Your Rep Night, Rochester, NY May 16, 2018 ATTENDANCE: 52 Retail Travel Agents DISTRIBUTED: 60 Destination Magazines, 100 Beach & Culture Maps. The attendees are qualified members of Rochester Travel Professionals organization. The trade show format allowed Visit St. Pete/Clearwater to meet the agents one-on-one to update them about destination hotels, attractions and what is New & Now in the destination. We were also given time to make a formal destination presentation along with a question & answer period with the agents. During our time in NY, we visited three of the local AAA Travel offices presenting to the travel agents and hotel reservations staff that sell our destination. RECOMMENDATION: The Rochester, NY area is serviced by Southwest Airlines, Delta and American Airlines therefore it is important we keep the Travel Agents in this area up to date and well informed. The Leisure Travel department will consider hosting a Florida event in 2019. STAFFED BY: Gail S. Yeager 3
Professional Travel Agents of North America, Baltimore, MD May 17, 2018 ATTENDANCE: 68 Retail Travel Agents DISTRIBUTED: 75 Destination Magazines Visit St. Pete/Clearwater co-hosted the evening event with Ft. Myers/Sanibel and Florida s Space Coast and Visit Central Florida. The attendees are qualified Travel Agents with a few Tour Operators, Group Incentive Coordinators, Meeting & Event Planners and Home- based Agents. The trade show format allows us to meet the agents one-on-one to update them on our destination, attractions and hotels. RECOMMENDATION: VSPC Leisure Travel Department will consider in attending in the 2019 Florida Destination event. It is very important that our destination is represented during these well attended travel shows with PTANA (Baltimore Chapter). STAFFED BY: Gail S. Yeager Sunwing Product Launch: Halifax and Moncton Canada May 29-June 1, 2018 ATTENDANCE: Halifax: 125 Retail Travel Agents Moncton: 75 Retail Travel Agents DISTRIBUTED: 125 Destination Magazines, 100 Beach & Culture Maps, 100 Pens Visit St. Pete/Clearwater attended Sunwing s Product Launch to support the direct flights on Sunwing from Halifax to PIE. Since Moncton is about a two-hour drive, Visit St. Pete/Clearwater also attended the Moncton Product Launch. The Halifax show was a successful event and very well attended. Florida is an extremely popular destination for Halifax. Florida does compete with the all-inclusive resort pricing in Mexico and the Caribbean, however, with the surge in crime in Mexico, Florida is even more of an option. Moncton was a little smaller, but well attended. Travel agents inquired on direct flights from Moncton to St. Pete/Clearwater. RECOMMENDATION: Visit St. Pete/Clearwater should continue to partner with Sunwing and attend the Halifax and Moncton every year. 4
UPCOMING TRADE SHOWS/MISSIONS/EVENTS 6/21-23 CCRA Travel Trade Show - New York, NY 6/25-27 Allegiant Call Center Training - Las Vegas, NV EDUCATIONAL VISITS 5/04-06 Trailfinders Ireland FAM 5/05-08 Tours2America Dutch FAM 6/08-09 TUI Suisse FAM 7/13 TUI Germany FAM 7/22-24 Virgin Holidays UK FAM 5