Conexión Florida April 2018

Here’s our Conexión Florida Tourism column for April.

Last month we discussed how tourism developed and how it contributes to local economies. Over the past few weeks there have been some developments to tourism here on the Northern Gulf Coast that I thought you’d find interesting.

Tourist Development Tax (TDT), commonly known as Bed Tax, was set up to be paid only by tourists and to fund the promotion of tourism in the areas where it’s collected. Now, you may think that that just means it can only be spent on advertising a destination, but that’s far from the case. Bed tax, certainly in Florida, can be used for a whole range of projects. This ranges from providing life guards on beaches, creating museums, running convention centers, developing artificial reefs, building beach access, repairing beaches where weather or tides have caused erosion, through, of course, marketing a destination.

As TDT can generate substantial amounts of revenue, it has attracted the attention of some legislators who would like to use it for non-tourist related uses, for example paving roads in non-tourist areas for example. Consequently, proposals have been put forward in the Florida Legislature to change the rules.

Read the rest of the column HERE

Pretentious?

I was flicking though a newspaper the other day, the UK’s Daily Telegraph, and article caught my eye – ‘Why it’s cool to be a tourist, not a pretentious traveler’ (Read it HERE). It got me thinking….

Tourist, Traveler or Visitor?

Firstly I have to confess I wasn’t physically flipping through a newspaper made out of crushed up trees, I was reading the on-line version. I suppose therefore I was simply bothering a bunch of electrons, but that added to pondering as to how our perceptions have changed.

For example, does reading an on-line newspaper make me less of a reader? When we were actually reading a ‘paper’ paper, our eyes would fall on stories that wouldn’t immediately be our target interest. That expanded our reading list and maybe we found opinions that we didn’t agree with, or subjects that weren’t initially in our wheelhouse. It did give us a wider knowledge and leave us open to new thoughts and opinions. It broadened our view. These days we tend to select our interests and have the electrons present us with just what we expect and with which we are comfortable. Maybe we sit in a little bubble of our own making? Only exposed to our own interests and views.

How does this relate to the traveler versus tourist issue? The article pointed out that some folks consider themselves to be more sophisticated than the average and therefore their wanderings were in some way superior to your run of the mill tourist. The ‘travelers’ (actually it was a British article, so they were ‘travellers’ with two Ls!) considered that their experience was somewhat superior to a tourist. Along with the author, I initially thought this attitude was pretentious in the extreme.

As an aside, a number of areas around Florida have names like The Forgotten Coast, The Space Coast, The Emerald Coast etc. There’s one area I’ve always called The Pretentious Coast. Any ideas where that may be?

While it’s true that someone who travels, is a traveler, and a tourist is by definition “A person who is visiting a place for pleasure and interest, especially when they are on vacation”, there do appear to be a whole bunch of different types of tourists.

There are those who visit an area to gain extra knowledge, cultural tourists, eco-tourists, adventure tourists, even health tourists traveling to seek medical attention they can’t get at home. One assumes these all gain something from their experience and hope that they also contribute to the local economy or culture. Certainly the hope is that they do not purposefully detract from the place they are visiting.

There is a type of tourist that actually does little or nothing for either the area that they visit or for themselves it would appear. I’d suggest that these are folks that travel to a destination but then behave just as they would at home or possibly even behave in a way that wouldn’t be accepted at home. These would be the ones that bring everything with them. They experience nothing of the local culture, and contribute little to the local economy. They may be the ones that just come to party uncontrollably, ending up in jail, hospital or worse.

Now, each to his own and I wouldn’t dare to suggest that what one person finds fun is the only way, but it does strike me that there are various levels of tourism. Some are more desirable to a destination than others. I’m sure The Machu Pichu Tourist Board wouldn’t target bachelor or bachelorette parties, but on the other hand would Panama City Beach expect to receive too many groups studying the works of da Vinci?

Without a doubt some travelers get more out of their experience than others but would we term them Travelers as opposed to Tourists? What’s wrong with being a tourist?

Is there a doctor in the house?

We just spent a long weekend in New Orleans. We can’t get enough of the place. This time we went to see a show, Jimmy Buffett’s musical ‘Return to Margaritaville’ at the amazingly restored Saenger Theatre. The theatre is a tourist destination in its own right having benefitted from a multi million dollar restoration following the devastation of flooding after Katrina. The Saenger has been returned to better than original, as it incorporates updates to the stage and its public amenities. Well worth a visit.

New Orleans’ tourism is surging. The city has done a lot to encourage visitors with not only great marketing, but ensuring the various tourism and hospitality stakeholders work together to attract both new and old visitors alike. This has paid off with not only increased domestic tourists but attracted new overseas visitors via the new air services that have started over the past year.

While we were in the city we got to experience a service that you don’t immediately think of as being tourist oriented, but is probably essential. Beth my Lady Wife, Chief Researcher and personal travel agent, hurt her foot. Nothing too serious but very painful. We needed to get medical treatment and started to look for a walk-in clinic or something similar. Surprisingly, she found something called NOLA Doc.

This service is run by Dr Mark Berenson, a board certified Family Physician and a native of New Orleans.  He earned a medical degree from Tulane University in 2003 and completed residency in 2006 at the UCSF Family Medicine Residency in Santa Rosa, California.  Immediately after residency, he took on the role as hospitalist and an emergency physician at several hospitals around the bay area and has also become a member of the UCSF Clinical Faculty as an instructor of Inpatient Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital.  In 2010, he joined Care Practice of San Francisco, providing acute and primary care in both the office and in-home setting.  Having worked for years in both the hospital and in-home setting, Dr. Berenson has learned to clearly distinguish the role for a hospital visit and the importance of staying in one’s home for medical care.

The majority of his time during the week is spent visiting home bound patients, but he is available to make visits to hotels and tourists who find themselves in need of help. This can range from the unexpected illness to cases of, shall we say, over indulgence! The latter is obviously not uncommon in The Crescent City being as it is, the center for all sorts of parties.

Cycling round the French Quarter on his bike, Dr Mark makes calls equipped with everything he needs to cope with the anticipated illness. He doesn’t deal with insurance companies but does take credit cards and supplies an emailed receipt that can obviously submitted to your insurance provider.

His ministrations to Beth allowed her to carry on with the vacation virtually uninterrupted. So, not a ‘normal’ tourist service, but one that works well and if you’re planning a trip to New Orleans his number is worth keeping handy. Check out http://www.noladoc.com.

As for Jimmy Buffett’s musical (which opens in New York in early 2018) it’s a nice feel-good show particularly if you’re a fan of Trop Rock music. We were lucky being there for the last night of the run which featured a surprise appearance by Jimmy Buffett himself

How the iPhone transformed the tourism biz.

Sitting in tourism planning meetings you hear people say “let’s do what we did 10 years ago. It worked then.” Yes, it would be nice to do the same things. There’s something comforting in that, but a recent anniversary made me think that we just can’t roll back time.

The iPhone is 10 years old. It’s not the only smartphone, and wasn’t the first. But it has, like it or not, become the standard bearer for that kind of device. Not everyone has a smartphone, but enough tourists do that it has brought massive changes.

Just looking at the travel, tourism and hospitality businesses, what has the smartphone changed?

People still use printed airline boarding passes but a huge number use electronic passes. Flying into the US you can use a free app called ‘Mobile Passport’ authorized by Customs and Boarder Protection that allows you to pre-file your information and breeze through immigration and customs. I use it. It’s superb.

Where to stay, eat or what to do? TripAdvisor and similar sites offer peer reviews that people tend to trust over ads by hotels, restaurants or attractions. All in your hand, on your smartphone, now.

Book your accommodation? No problem. On your phone at the last minute to get the best deal. I’ve seen people sit outside hotels using their phone to negotiate and book. Same applies to tours and activities. These are usually booked within 48 hours of arrival and online sites like TripShock make booking easy, and the tickets are on your phone – no paper. All you have to do is guess that the weather will be OK. No guessing, DarkSky or a dozen other apps will give you accurate, hour by hour forecasts.

 

How do you get to where you’re going? Built in GPS with turn-by-turn directions, no matter if you’re driving, walking or on public transport. Traffic reports too – yeh, 98 is still blocked.

Don’t bother to carry a camera. Your phone has a camera that makes yesterday’s versions obsolete. Postcards too. You now share your travels to social media friends the world over and you can post your review of the restaurant you just experienced. In places like Jackaccuda’s you can scan a little flag in your meal and see where and when your fish was caught, and who by!

Don’t want to drive? Book an Uber, from your phone of course.

No transistor radios on the beach anymore. You carry your music library with you, and stream what you don’t own. Oh, movies and TV too.

That’s only scratching the surface. Virtual tours of museums and historic sites; payment from your phone; on line shopping; news, books. Oh, and it’s a phone too!

If those are the changes for tourists, think of the changes for hotels, rentals, airlines, car rentals, attractions, restaurants even, in our area, Charter Boat Captains.

Our tourism experience has changed massively in 10 years. But wait, coming soon, virtual and enhanced reality. I’m excited. How about you?

Talking Tourism: Generations have vastly different travel habits

The following article was published in the Northwest Florida Daily News on Sunday, May 28, 2017.

A few people have told me that they read the Talking Tourism column each week, but are a little puzzled by my references to Millennials, Boomers and Zoomers. Fair comment, so I’ll try to explain.

Much as we like to think we’re all the same in our outlooks and approach to traveling, we’re not. There are all sorts of influences on our opinions, but for those of us in tourism and hospitality marketing, we have to make a few generalizations. One of the easiest ways is by dividing the travelers into generations as it’s been found that’s a pretty accurate way to predict how people will behave, what their likes and dislikes are, and how we can best appeal to them. Obviously, the lines between the generations are blurred and, of course, it’s dangerous to overgeneralize how people behave. If you Google the subject you’ll be overwhelmed by academic and not-so-learned opinions.

To read the rest of the article, please Click Here 

TALKING TOURISM: Promoting area’s hospitality jobs worth exploring

This article was published in the Northwest Florida Daily News on Sunday May 20. 2017.

A few weeks ago I wrote about the need to train our tourism and hospitality employees, and mentioned the new courses being set up by Northwest Florida State College in addition to those being offered by the University of West Florida. At a recent meeting I sat with folks from our accommodation providers, restaurants and attractions who were discussing the challenges they face. All agreed that the advanced training being provided is absolutely vital to our future as not only a growing tourist destination, but one that was constantly increasing its professionalism, and as a consequence the quality of its tourists. Higher quality equals higher spending.

One of the biggest problems they face, if not the biggest problem, is actually finding those employees. Every spring sees a rash of “Now Hiring” signs along the Emerald Coast. Companies look far and wide to fill the positions that will cater to our tourists throughout the season to come.

To read the rest of the column, please click HERE

TALKING TOURISM: Breweries could offer a new tourism niche

This article appeared in the Northwest Florida Daily News on Sunday May 13, 2017

Our third president, Thomas Jefferson said “Beer, if drunk in moderation, softens the temper, cheers the spirit and promotes health.” He could have course said the same thing about tourism, particularly if combined with beer!

I recently visited Asheville, North Carolina, on a research mission – OK, it was vacation but I’ll stick with my story. We took in tours of a couple of breweries – New Belgium and Sierra Nevada both have large establishments there. These are craft brewers, albeit big ones who needed to have presence on the East Coast. Both companies started up out west and have found the combination of location, water supply and culture in Asheville matched their needs. There are also smaller brewers located in the area along with hard cider makers. The interesting thing is that these companies have become an integral part of the local tourist industry.

To read the rest of the column, please click HERE

TALKING TOURISM: There’s financial benefit to dog-friendly accommodations

This article appeared in the Northwest Florida Daily News on Sunday May 6, 2017

A couple of years ago I got into a conversation with the general manager of a very large hotel that is known for its attention to detail and 5-star accommodations. It’s also a large conference hotel, so it’s not a small “boutique-style” location.

We got talking about niche markets; those parts of the customer base that have particular needs and wishes. It appeared that the hotel was given the chance to become the host hotel for the largest dog show in the U.S. and her conference department could not pass up the chance for the amount of business the show would bring. Naturally, she was more than concerned at the thought of literally hundreds of dogs staying at a 5-star establishment.

To read the rest of the column please click HERE.

Tourism leader supports beach access for pups

This article appeared in the Northwest Florida Daily News on Tuesday, May 2, 2017.

Like other parts of Northwest Florida, Okaloosa County could attract a lot more economy-boosting visitors by opening a portion of its beaches to dogs.

That’s according to Martin Owen, a Shalimar-based tourism industry consultant who regularly attends Tourist Development Council meetings.

“It’s niche tourism we can attract, particularly out of season,” he said Thursday. “A lot of dog owners tend to like traveling with their dogs. Our neighboring counties are addressing this, and so is Okaloosa.”

County Marine Economic and Tourist Development Resource Coordinator Erika Zambello shared information with the TDC on Thursday about dog-friendly beaches in Walton County and Pensacola Beach in Escambia County. But she said she has not had any discussions with other Okaloosa County officials about establishing a dog-friendly section of beach.

With the exception of service animals and police dogs, dogs are prohibited on the publicly owned beaches of Okaloosa County, Destin and Santa Rosa County. In Walton County, property owners and permanent residents can bring their leashed dogs on the beach during certain hours and with a permit.

People who violate Okaloosa County’s law pertaining to dogs on the beach could be cited with a fine of at least $100. But such citations are rarely given, county officials said.

Usually, sheriff’s deputies will ask violators to remove their dogs from the beach and the dog owners do so without a problem, county spokesman Rob Brown said.

To read the rest of the article CLICK HERE

Two smooth Collies enjoy the beach on St. George Island, Florida
Two smooth Collies enjoy the beach on St. George Island, Florida

NWFSC Hospitality program a boon for Emerald Coast

This column appeared in the Northwest Florida Daily News on Sunday April 30, 2017

I’m hooked on documentary TV programs that feature behind-the-scenes insights of famous hotels around the world. I’m amazed at how these huge organizations (and sometimes small ones) can distill the actions of so many hospitality professionals into one aim — that being to provide the highest level of service to each individual guest. If you’re a traveler, you know that great service doesn’t just happen. It’s a combination of talent, skills, training and endless practice to perfect.

In the Disney world, I understand you don’t interview for a job, you “audition” to become part of the “cast.” Some organizations talk about “putting on the show” before they face the public, but whatever it’s called, providing excellent hospitality service only comes naturally to a few people.

To read the rest of the column CLICK HERE