Sun Belt Conference Tournament Coming to Pensacola in 2021
The Sun Belt Conference announced that the city of Pensacola, Fla. has been selected to host the 2021-25 Sun Belt Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championship as a part of the league’s partnership with Pensacola Sports, in collaboration with the Pensacola Bay Center, Pensacola State College and Visit Pensacola. We’re excited to welcome them to the area and will keep our partners and stakeholders updated as we move closer.
Visit Pensacola Participates in NWFL Days at the Capitol
After a nearly 15-year hiatus, Visit Pensacola in partnership with the Pensacola Chamber of Commerce and other Northwest Florida businesses attended Northwest Florida Days at the Capitol. This tradition is meant to bring awareness of Northwest Florida to Florida legislation and to learn what current legislation is happening in the capitol. We’d like to send a special thank you to Kingfisher Restaurant for donating the mullet dip that we served during our setup!
Press Trips That Leave Their Mark on Pensacola
UK journalist Graham McKenzie from Travel Mole visited Pensacola and left quite the mark. From seeing American Magic sail to throwing darts at O’Rileys, he stopped in to visit Vice Board Chairman D.C. Reeves at Perfect Plain and taught he and his team a thing or two about English cocktails.
Speaking at Ecotourism Summit in Panama City
Shawn Brown, our Digital Marketing Manager, was recently invited to speak at the Ecotourism Summit in Panama City. The summit was held at Florida State Panama City and explored best practices to promote a sustainable and environmentally friendly ecotourism industry in Northwest Florida. Shawn’s presentation was on digital marketing best practices for small businesses in the tourism industry. Serving as our Digital Marketing Manager, Shawn has learned tips and tricks to assist our partners in maximizing their exposure in the digital space.
Showcase Pensacola Update
Visit Pensacola just completed the Warmup Your Winter campaign that ran Jan.- Feb. in Chicago, Denver, Philadelphia and Washington DC. This was to entice our cold-weather, direct- flight markets to defrost their toes in our snow-white sands. Tactics included Connected TV, standard digital and social media ads. The preliminary numbers show a 162% YOY website user increase from these markets.
On March 1st we launched a new campaign that positions the area as a “value” and lead potential travelers to Partner offers for Spring getaways. This will target our Drive markets, with emphasis on Birmingham and Baton Rouge and run March- April. We will be running Connected TV, standard digital, native, social media ads, and as email element.
Tall Ships
Earlier this month, the Visit Pensacola team attended the 47th Annual Conference on Sail Training and Tall Ships in St. Pete Beach. Following a successful Tall Ships Pensacola festival in 2018, the organization wants to ensure that we’re prepared to be a future host port if the opportunity arises.
The team, along with other port representatives, were joined by ships’ masters, crew members, program administrators, educators, environmentalists, and festival managers for an information-packed three-day conference. Sessions addressed vessel operations, regulatory issues, administration and management, educational programming, media relations, marketing, funding, and port event organization.
Florida Huddle 2020
The Hilton, Holiday Inn Resort, SpringHill Suites Pensacola Beach and Pensacola International Airport joined Visit Pensacola at Florida Huddle, for two days of pre-scheduled, back-to-back appointments with 35 with international tour operators.
Following Florida Huddle, five UK tour operators visited the Pensacola Bay Area on a three-day FAM tour, and they had some wonderful things to say about the destination.
America As You Like It UK “I have truly fallen in love with this beautiful part of the world and can’t wait to spread to word to all of our clients.”
AC Group Travel UK “I will check with our directors if we can include Pensacola in our programme as it is a must stop for clients who visit Florida.”
Funway Holidays UK “the Pensacola photo gallery means so much more than before when you understand the experience and location represented by the image. Thanks once again for the Pensacola experience. I’d love to come back one day to see the Lighthouse, more of the fantastic Aviation Museum, and maybe get some Sun.”
Vacations to America UK “it was a great trip and really good to see the area, wow, what a beach and I loved the downtown area. I can’t wait to tell the team all about Pensacola and why we should be recommending it more often.”