Destinations

Florida Has A Plan

Visit Florida’s president and CEO, Ken Lawson reports that while Hurricane Irma was a very dangerous storm and several communities sustained serious damage, many areas of Florida did not see significant impacts.

And last week, VISIT FLORIDA was talking to the leadership of the state’s Destination Marketing Organizations, to get a county-by-county damage assessment and to review plans to best promote our state to visitors.

“The vast majority of DMOs were happy to report that their destination is open for business. The areas of our state that were more impacted are rebuilding and planning to reopen as soon as possible,” Lawson writes.

And this week, VISIT FLORIDA is set to launch its hurricane response marketing plan to invite visitors back to the Sunshine State “in a responsible way, where we focus marketing on unaffected areas while providing real-time information and updates on locations that continue to strengthen every day.”

Lawson continues, “This plan will provide an authentic view of Florida to assist potential visitors as they make travel plans. Campaign tactics will be digitally focused with a series of true-view videos from destinations across the state – an aggressive push to energize our Share a Little Sunshine advocates to share real-time images of the state with #LoveFL, as well as customized plans to support the communities that were directly impacted by Hurricane Irma.”

He notes as well that, “We are continuing to share real-time travel safety updates on our Florida Now page. Our local DMO Partners are also updating their websites to serve as a post-hurricane information resource.”

And he concludes, “The Florida tourism industry has recovered from many storms over the years, and I have no doubt that our communities and our state will quickly rebound from Hurricane Irma as well.”