Bangkok--Jan 31--eTurboNews
At the Fort Lauderdale Convention Center, Visit Florida announced it will partner with the premier marketplace showcasing the Sunshine State.
"For the first time in its history, Visit Florida, now on its tenth year anniversary, has entered into an agreement with Huddle International to aggressively support and promote Florida Huddle. We welcome this strategic affiliation between Florida's source for travel planning and Huddle International," Visit Florida Sales vice-president Eileen Forrow said.
Tourism's longest running single show Florida Huddle running January 29 to 31st, now on its 30th year, gathers travel wholesalers, tour operators, receptive tour operators and incentive buyers who feature Florida as destination. Buyers meet face-to-face with Florida suppliers representing the spectrum of travel industry products and services. With a record-breaking 18,010 mutually-matched appointments between buyers and suppliers, show organizers Huddle International reports 1,145 buyer matches and 1,039 suppliers-only requests; 213 buyers (40 percent domestic), the remaining 60 percent coming from 28 other countries. "A huge number of representation by 298 properties exceeds other major shows' totals," said Lynn Warren, Huddle International LLC president.
Events in the state such as this only help to boost tourism numbers reportedly to go up by 3.2 percent in year 2006. The Travel Industry of America forecasts no more than a 2 percent average increase of visitors to the US. Visit Florida announced it has surpassed the 80 million mark.
Although the international numbers are still a little behind the numbers pre-9/11, the domestic visitation has increased by 100 percent. Florida tourism employment has exceeded 1 million. "International visitation has reached 5.5 percent increase from 2004 with almost a double digit increase from the international markets. And we are still working hard to attract these overseas visitors," said Chief Operating Officer Visit Florida, Chris Thompson.
Since Florida's largest markets, the United Kingdom and Canada, are affected by the forthcoming biometric passport requirement and US passport requirement deadline respectively, Thompson underscores the need to strike a balance between security and access. "The deadlines need to be complied to.
But Visit Florida plays an active role on the issue of extending the passport requirement deadlines. There is a lot of pressure, and we are all concerned," added Thompson. The federal government understands the impact to tourism. As expressed by the Secretary of State and the Department of Homeland Security, there will be some impact to tourism economy.
However, Thompson said there is a significant accomplishment in the interest government pays to tourism and the effects of the new tourism initiatives, 4 years after September 11.
If there is anything that challenges the state tourism, it is competition, according to Dennis Edwards, Senior Vice President, Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau. "It is so much easier for people these days to travel around. Products are available in great numbers worldwide. But the opportunities of the Florida industry lie in the continued strength of the British Pound, Canadian Dollar and the Euro against the US dollar." The currency situation just makes it much easier for people travel to Florida.
Fort Lauderdale is this year's Florida Huddle host city.
Virginia Haley, Executive Director of the Sarasota Convention and Visitors Bureau, next year's Florida Huddle host, echoed competition as Florida tourism's major challenge in 2006. "We have overcome the issues of signage, getting visitors to go from one destination to the other; but it is ability for them to travel and explore all corners that will make the difference in choice."
The short-term impact of Hurricane Wilma's devastation in Cancun, Mexico diverts traffic to Florida. "We hear about it but we are dealing with it in the most sensitive way, careful not to aggressively pursue the market," said Edwards.
"We are not attracting the Cancun market with a predatory approach as this is a sensitive time. But we welcome what comes our way, including groups and meetings markets coming out of New Orleans," said Thompson who added they are working hand-in-hand with the emergency response teams in the state level and local areas in preparation for what seems to be a more active hurricane season this 2006.
Further to Thompson, the Brady anti-gun campaign perceived by the industry to torpedo tourism activities (when the Brady campaigners handed out alerts at the Miami International Airport for one month, warning tourists not to mess with Floridians for fear of violence), did not have a significant impact on numbers. "It was a high profile, special interest project which had very little effect on our numbers. Unfortunately, we don't have any way to quantify the dip caused by the month-long Brady campaign." It was more a media activity for them, and not an issue of genuine concern for the safety and security of visitors.
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