Visit Florida’s Playbook: Tourism CEO on Marketing, Conventions and Luring Californians

Visit Florida is about to jump start tourism to its overlooked hidden gems in its northwestern region. The destination marketing organization was awarded a $10.5 million grant earlier this month to promote the eight counties in that region, said Visit Florida CEO and President Dana Young.

Young spoke with Skift about the grant, emerging travel trends in the state, how Los Angeles became a top inbound market, visa wait times, and more.

This interview was edited for clarity and length.

Skift: Visit Florida was recently awarded $10.5 million from Triumph Gulf Coast, a state-funded non-profit, to promote its northwestern region.

Dana Young: All eight counties that were included in the group of counties that were deemed impacted by the Deepwater Horizon Oil spill many years ago. All of those counties came together with support of their county commissions and they partnered with Visit Florida to get this grant. 

Northwest Florida is so beautiful, sort of what you would think of old Florida, but beaches in that area, which we call the Florida Panhandle, are absolutely magnificent and uncrowded and certainly not as developed as you would see in South Florida. The counties are geographically large, but they're less populated, some are more rural. It's just a different feel up there. 

What’s your marketing strategy for this hidden gem?

We're going to do a two-pronged marketing approach that aims to level out seasonality and introduce that region to new markets around the U.S. There's going to be a regional campaign called "Adventure within Reach" t