The Official Pensacola Bay Area Tourism Partner Enewsletter

Pensacola Bay Area CVB Launches Celebrity Chefs Program

The Pensacola Bay Area Convention & Visitors Bureau launched the Pensacola Celebrity Chefs program to market the extraordinary culinary offerings in our area and attract visitors to experience our local cuisine and dining scene. The program's inaugural chefs, Irv Miller, Gus Silivos and Jim Shirley will serve on an advisory committee to recruit other local chefs to be inducted into the elite Celebrity Chefs program. According to the TIA, more than 27 million travelers or 17 percent of American tourists engage in culinary or wine experiences while on vacation. Those travelers are affluent, motivated by unique experiences and willing to spend more. Visit PensacolaCelebrityChefs.com

 

New Tourism Partners

Perdido Cove RV Resort and Marina, slated to open in June, will feature 56 RV sites with 30/50-amp electrical service, sewer hookups and water, cable TV, WIFI, swimming pool, shuffle board and basketball courts and a community facility with a kitchen and store. The resort also features a 23-slip, deep-water marina with decks.

Toll-Free: (877) 402-7873 Email: eli@innisfree.com

Gulf Coast Audio Visual Producers provide a full-range of services including audio visual editing, large screen projection, hotel/resort or tradeshow needs, multimedia/image production and rentals.

Phone: (850) 433-3016 Email: gcavp@aol.com

 

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Room Rates Needed
Group Sales
(contact Lori Coppels)

Lori Coppels plans to send out sample itinerary and hotel packages to try and fill available rooms during our slower season. She is asking hoteliers to send available dates and rates for September through February. Rates should be on a block of 20 sleeping rooms, two people per room with breakfast included. Sample packages will be emailed to travel agencies and tour operators beginning next week.

Convention and Corporate Sales
(contact Patti Mohan)

Top 10 Meeting Trends of 2008 according to Rejuvinate magazine

1. Green meetings
2. Wireless Internet
3. Laptops
4. Digital RFPs
5. Healthy snacks
6. Teambuilding
7. Fewer meetings and cost effeciencies
8. Information
9. Group activities
10. Blogs

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Hot off the Press
(contact Laura Lee)

Last month, Laura and Ed traveled to New York City to promote the Pensacola Bay Area to the national media as part of SouthCoast USA. SouthCoast includes 12 convention and visitors bureaus from Lake Charles, La., to Beaches of South Walton, Fla. Similar to the East Coast or West Coast of the United States, our region is bound together by common amenities and common marketing goals. SouthCoast USA destinations share a Gulf Coast, extraordinary cuisine, rich heritage, Southern hospitality and unique cultural activities such as Mardi Gras.On the trip, Laura and Ed met with three dozen editors and writers from such media outlets as CBS, Golf Digest and the BBC.

Good Morning America featured the Oriskany and Gulf Islands National Seashore on their Weekend Edition in April. For more news and current releases, go to VisitPensacola.com/media.

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• June: Summer in Pensacola
• July: Pensacola for Kids
• August: Luxury Vacations in Pensacola

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Google Remains #1 Top Referring Site for VisitPensacola.com

(contact Mike Bersabal)

VisitPensacola.com updates
Web stats for the month of April 2008:

Page Views	652,418
Site Visits	173,579
Avg. Page View Per Visit	3.76

Web site updates:

• Modification to home page with new RSS feed subscribable feature
• Visit our new Web site www.PensacolaCelebrityChefs.com
• Created search engine friendly, easy-to-remember URLs:
  • www.VisitPensacola.com/join-the-cvb
  • www.VisitPensacola.com/visitors
  • www.VisitPensacola.com/meeting-planners
  • www.VisitPensacola.com/travel-professional

Reporting
View our Web reports online at www.VisitPensacola.com/reports

Reminders:
Don't forget to renew your Web banner ads on VisitPensacola.com. Take advantage of our growing monthly unique visitors and be seen on our Web site.

Download our Web ad rate sheet here (file size 1.45MB)

Submit your coupons, hot deals, packages and/or holiday specials in our member area

Login here to post specials

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HRT Notice
(contact Barbara Williams)

The next Hospitality Roundtable luncheon will be Tuesday, May 20 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Tiger Point Country Club on 1255 Country Club Road in Gulf Breeze. The cost of the luncheon is $12 for HRT members, $20 for non-members. Payment should be made at the door with checks made payable to Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce. No invoicing will be permitted.

Our guest speaker will be Will Seccombe, the new chief of marketing officer for Visit Florida.

Since we must guarantee reservations, if you RSVP and do not attend, you will be billed for the cost of your lunch. RSVP by e-mailing Barbara at bwilliams@visitpensacola.com or by calling 434-1234 by 3 p.m., Friday, May 16.

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