Visit St. Pete/Clearwater’s annual winter marketing blitz in the area’s massive feeder markets of New York City and Chicago has received a lot of attention lately—-thanks in part to a first-ever guerrilla campaign aimed at Millennials. This year, in addition to captivating beach scenes on subways, buses (video), office tower elevator screens and coffee cup sleeves blanketing both cities, VSPC initiated a second campaign featuring snowmen, snow stencils and magnets touting a sole “WinterBlows.com” call to action. The mystery campaign was featured on ABC 7 in Chicago and Fox 5 in NYC in addition to garnering headlines across Florida. So far, the campaign has generated more than 1 million impressions across Twitter and Instagram.
Visitation Numbers Outpace State’s Record-Setting Growth In Florida’s best tourism year ever, the St. Pete/Clearwater area outpaced state averages in a number of key metrics, including percentage growth in international visitation and the significant barometer of average daily room rate (ADR). In calendar year 2014, St. Pete/Clearwater saw a 6.5% increase with international visitation compared to a 2.6% increase statewide. Similarly, ADR averaged 5.7% growth around the state, but rose by 7.4% locally. Rounding out the record year wasthe single-highest December Tourist Development Tax total in Pinellas County history, a 17% increase over last year, pulling inmore than $2.4 million. That total helped push the calendar year 2014 collections to a record $35,823,246.00 re-qualifying Pinellas as one of Florida’s high-impact tourism counties a title originally received in 2013.
New Responsive Design Website Goes Live – Visitors to VisitStPeteClearwater.com will experience an all-new website this month, after a year-long process of moving from a traditional website to a responsive design website. After a planned roll-out of the new site, Miles Media, VSPC’s tech vendor, started funneling a portion of web traffic to the new site last December, allowing designers a chance to see how visitors interacted with the site to make appropriate changes before this month’s complete unveil. Responsive design tailors content to the device one is using to access the site and follows best practices based on web research, which shows that more than 50% of VSPC’s web traffic will stem from mobile phones and tablets this year. As with all digital initiatives the site is not a finished product, instead it will be modified as necessary based on industry trends and ongoing usability studies. The March Tourist Development Council meeting will be a joint workshop discussion with the Board of County Commissioners at 9 am on March 18.
Vote now for your favorite Bay Area beach is USA Today’s 10Best Readers’ Choice Best Florida Beaches at www.Top10.com. Readers can vote daily through March 16th. Nominated local beaches include Fort DeSoto Park, Caladesi Island, Pass-a-Grille Beach, and Clearwater Beach.
If you use Amazon, consider signing in via “ SMILE.AMAZON.COM “ and designating a charity from over a million to choose from. They feature national ones such as St. Jude, ASPCA, etc; however you may search for anything you like in a box just below. We chose a family favorite, Great Explorations Children’s Museum on 4th St N. by Sunken Gardens. Amazon donates 0.5% of the price of your eligible Amazon Smile purchases to the charitable organization of your choice. AmazonSmile is the same Amazon you know. Same products, same prices, same service. Support your charitable organization by starting your shopping at smile.amazon.com.