In a sit-down with Recommend during the recent Florida Huddle, which took place at Hilton Orlando, Visit Florida’s new President and CEO Bryan Griffin outlines his vision for highlighting the state’s wide range of experiences—from small-town Main Streets and outdoor adventures to luxury and sports tourism—while encouraging advisors to help clients explore beyond the usual gateways.
Recommend magazine: What traveler trends are shaping demand for Florida right now, specifically when it comes to domestic travelers?
Bryan Griffin: World Cup, obviously, and we’re leaning into America250. We want to make the case that Florida’s the place to celebrate in the country. Wherever you are, come to Florida. We’re working with the Florida Department of State and the Florida State Parks to put together opportunities for visitors….
We’ve got the America250FL Golf Trail, activation sites at sporting events like the America 250 Florida Duel at DAYTONA and a historic trail and docuseries that [Visit Florida] is producing that is going to introduce people to seven different cities around historical sites.
America250fl.com is already live. I told the state travel presidents of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania that [Florida is going to] give you guys a run for your money on 250 this year. Some people refer to Florida as the 14th colony. We weren’t, but it’s just kind of a nickname that we’ve leaned into because we’ve been part of it and have some fun opportunities.
Recommend magazine: What is your vision for how Visit Florida will support the domestic travel advisor community during your tenure?
Griffin: I want to make sure that we continue to have a strong education campaign for tour operators, travel agents…. Continue with our missions and participation in trade shows so we can help [advisors] become Florida specialists, take new opportunities back to their markets and put together new packages for clients.
Recommend magazine: How do you see the role of travel advisors evolving in Florida’s tourism ecosystem over the next few years?
Griffin: What we want to help do is provide platforms like [Florida Encounter] for our local partners to keep the industry experts up to date on what’s new so they can be the specialists who create packages and new travel products for clients.
A vacation can have more variety than it’s ever had before. [For example], you can have a trip that has dining options, a sporting event, a concert, as well as a theme park and all get it all done in a week. People want to make the most of their trip.
Recommend magazine: Which Florida destinations or experiences do you believe are currently undersold by advisors but have strong potential?
Griffin: Obviously, our gateways get a ton of traffic and we’re glad for that. Orlando and Miami are important and those are often like the foundations of a trip to Florida, but we at Visit Florida, part of our mission, is to move people [beyond those destinations]. So, one thing that I’m asking travel advisors, is to encourage your clients to have a couple days on the end of their trip where they can get out of the city, that they have their plans in to explore.
“It’s very easy to get around [the state],” he adds. “You can rent a car, you can jump on the Brightline, you can take a regional flight to the Panhandle and see some of the amazing stuff we have up there. Come over to the west coast of Florida where the seafood is amazing. We’ve got over 15,000 miles in hiking trails in Florida. Do you know there are caves in Florida; that you can go ziplining? One of my favorite parts of Florida are the small city Main Streets. I love them. You have to jump in a car and you have to be open and just kind of go from one spot to the next. They’ve got really neat stores, great restaurants, local breweries, museums and historical sites.
Recommend magazine: Are there particular niches like luxury, wellness, sports, family etc., where advisors should focus their Florida sales efforts?
Griffin: Definitely. We have family-focused campaigns that we run—those make sense in parts of the Midwest. Families come down, they hit the theme parks, and they go to the beaches and they do some of the nature and trail that we have.
Luxury, of course. Like I said, Florida’s just getting so many world-class options for shopping, cuisine, accommodations.
Unusual experiences…. If you go down to the Keys or you’re driving through the Panhandle, you’re going to find stuff that you really can’t experience [anywhere else].
Recommend magazine: How has Brightline changed how tourism is packaged in Florida?
Griffin: It’s definitely made it easier to get from one major airport gateway destination to the next, but it’s also eased up some of our traffic on the roads, it’s made it easier to get up and down the southeast corridor.
Maybe you’re flying in and out of Miami, but you can get to Orlando on the same trip. And you know, we live in a world now where a Brightline makes sense. Before Uber, you couldn’t take a train to Orlando and then walk around Orlando.
Recommend magazine: How is Visit Florida addressing sustainability and responsible tourism, and how can advisors communicate that to clients?
Griffin: The answer is dispersion. So, the more we can spread people out around the state, the easier it is on our infrastructure and in certain parts that tend to get a lot of big crowds. [Advisors] can recommend opportunities outside of the gateways and into smaller and rural parts of the state. It’s also good for the local economies.
Part of Visit Florida’s mission is to help support small businesses, rural areas, and it’s important that they have tourism. In fact, because it’s become easy to get around and people are taking more of these exploratory vacations, a lot of these small Main Street towns have exploded in growth…with a resurgence in their downtowns.
