TDC/CVB Feb 8 meeting offered an in-depth look into the 2011 marketing strategies as well as an opportunity to check out the newest TV Commercials.
The Real. Fun. Beach commercials were created to hit specific markets and have two versions in rotation, aimed at targeting Couples and Families.
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This is the second article in a series that explores 2011 Tourism Predictions for Panama City Beach.
We’ve checked in with the airport, and now it’s time to turn our questioning minds to the resorts.
In an effort to snag an idea of early predictions for the 2011 season, we touched base for a little Q & A session, with Paul Wohlford, Vice President of Sales & Marketing for the Resort Collection of Panama City Beach.
Jan 11th’s TDC meeting offered an eclectic mix of information.
Starting with the Vice-President of the Canadian Snowbirds, Nancy Hopcraft, who caught my attention with the mention of the ‘Birds working on a potential “Retiree Visa” allowing those who qualify an opportunity to spend more time in Panama City Beach (or anywhere in the Nation). It’s a wonderful idea, and one that’s sure to bring about an economic boost but we’re looking at least 2 years, before hearing any final words.
Continue reading “TDC Meeting, Spring Break, Swordfish & Snowbirds”
This is the first article in a series that explores 2011 Tourism Predictions for Panama City Beach.
Spring is right around the corner, and along with the knowledge of the coming season, we’re finding that our town is divided into three parts. The Optimists, The Pessimists and The Realists.
At times, it looks as though the Realists Team and the Optimists Team are on the same page, leaving the Pessimists to bemoan, well – everything.
For the most part, the Panama City Beach community is fanning those beginning sparks of excitement, while remaining optimistically cautious, over the vast potential of the 2011 tourism season.
Instead of sitting around speculating any longer, we decided to check in with some of PCB’s seasoned pro’s, those business savvy locals, who’ve been through this whole tourism thing a time or two.
This year for spring break, the Tourist Development Council (TDC) is marketing specifically to students based on geographic relevancy, based on whether it’s realistic to assume they’d actually come to our part of the country for Spring Break. Markets targeted are the Southeast, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, and Southwest.
Here are the numbers broken down.
In yesterday’s TDC Marketing Committee officials were all but applauding creative ways to cater to our college friends that spend so much money on our beaches every year. Tourism Director and CEO, Dan Rowe underscored the importance of having a strong spring season in light of last summer’s perilous dip in tourism revenue; this is crucial to be sure that we can recover from any damage to our brand and image from the oil spill that barely touched our shores. Spring Break 2011 is poised to be the best spring season we’ve ever had.
Spring Break on Panama City Beach has always, always, been a very tough board to balance. In past years, no matter how brilliant the public relations strategies, no matter how well-targeted the advertising and no matter how many overall arrests, no Spring Break season has ever been considered the smoothest of our four tourist seasons. In fact, although SB is without question PCB’s biggest economic boost, it remains the most polarizing topic throughout our great town; some love it, some hate it, some make money from it, others lose cash by the bucket loads. But what can be said is that 2010 was arguably one of the best years to date. Hotels had record numbers, businesses boomed and the number of major incidents declined considerably. So what was the big difference? How was 2010 more balanced than years past? Continue reading “2011 Will Be The Most Important Spring Break EVER”
Co-op Year 2
Last year, Panama City Beach business owners took Spring Break matters into their own hands creating a cooperative after the TDC decided to no longer fund advertising for Spring Break. The co-op turned out to be a great success, creating trackable information on Spring Break students, as well as new avenues through which to communicate with, market to and eventually drive spring breakers to our shores. In year two, the co-op is already on the ball, buzzing Spring Breakers via the nearly 15,000 fans on their facebook page about deals, information and dates.
Continue reading “5 Reasons Spring Break 2011 Will Be Better Than Before”
It’s that special time of year when we can finally sit back and assess the damage of Spring Break on Panama City Beach. Well, after interviewing Hotel and Condo representatives, living and breathing Spring Break as a resident and taking in the major incidents, only one conclusion could be made: 2010 Spring Break was a success.
This year’s Spring Break was different than previous Breaks for a number of reasons. The TDC’s stance had a huge impact. In past years, it was the TDC’s job to allocate marketing funds towards Spring Break. Hundreds of thousands of bed tax dollars, for years, were put toward drawing fun-loving students aching to party the week away. For 2010, the TDC decided not to allocate funds towards drawing big crowds, but put the monies towards “Spring Break Responsibly” campaigns and engaging in proactive Spring Break public relations activities. On top of that, the TDC requested of the city to hire auxiliary police during peak weeks, augment PCB PD to increase police presence along Front Beach Road, provide additional foot, canine and ATV patrols in areas of high Spring Break activity (including beach walkers to enforce littering, glass and other laws) and to fully implement the Special Events Ordinance to insure gatherings of college students at outdoor concerts and other assemblies have appropriate management and public safety plans in place. In other words, instead of spending money on bringing a crowd, the TDC worked on how to handle the crowd.
Continue reading “2010 Spring Break Largely A Success: One Setback”
As Spring Break nears its end and the tally on the damage, incidents and money is being rounded up, the talk of supplanting college spring break in favor of family spring break is spreading across the beach. As far as I know, family spring break is somewhat of a mythical idea. I’m sure families do getaway for the break, but is it enough business to cover the cost of it losing college spring break? Better still, would you bring your family here during your break?
It’s a simple question…
[poll id=”12″]
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