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How To Save Florida Tourism
These days, Staed's anxiety is shared throughout the state's tourism industry, and for good reason. After decades of explosive growth, Florida's tourism numbers are going nowhere in the 1990s. Though there was a modest rise in total visitors in 1995, the number of visitors driving to Florida has been plunging as much as 10% per month over the last several years. Worse, the average tourist is spending less time and less money in the state than before. The average length of stay for visitors coming by car, for example, dropped by 15% last year. As a result of these trends, the Florida tourism industry as a whole remains essentially stagnant and continues to lose market share. While the number of international visitors coming to the United States grew by 3% from 1993 to 1994, for example, the number of such visitors coming to Florida dropped by 9.3%.
The implications of these trends for the Florida economy are not pleasant. With its huge debts for entitlements and infrastructure coming due, Florida is like a highly leveraged company: it must generate ever increasing amounts of revenue to service its accrued liabilities, or it will fail. In Florida's case, spending is currently growing much faster than revenue, to the point that an annual deficit of $2 billion could easily be reached by the year 2000. So the state desperately needs continued growth from its single largest industry just to keep its fiscal position from deteriorating.
What to do? After years of bickering among themselves, the industry's heavy hitters have hit upon a plan. The problem, they believe, is insufficient and ineffective state promotion.
In 1993-94, for example, Hawaii spent approximately $30 million on tourism promotion; Illinois spent $28 million. Meanwhile, Florida spent just $14.2 million, which was less even than Massachusetts.
Worse, say Florida tourism industry leaders, what little money the state does spend on promotion it does not spend well. With a thoroughly politicized process for developing its marketing strategy, the state continually produces such murky slogans as "One Florida, Many Faces," which seems to signal at best that a Florida vacation is a crowd experience.
Unhappy with the marketing efforts of the Florida Commerce Department's Division of Tourism, industry leaders now want to take the job on themselves. Specifically, they want to transform the Florida Commission on Tourism -- a 17- member government advisory board appointed by the governor -- into a public/private partnership with complete control of the state's promotional budget.
Under a plan currently before the Legislature, the various interests represented on the Commission, which include Walt Disney World, Universal Studios Florida, Sea World and Silver Springs, as well as the leading convention and visitors bureaus, promise to raise as much as $30 million a year in private sector funds for tourism promotion. In return, they want the state to let them take over the Division of Tourism's current budget and to let them spend it on tourism promotion as they see fit. With the Chiles administration championing the idea as an example of "reinventing government," the proposal stands a fair chance of becoming law by the end of the current legislative session.
But should it? In theory, a state marketing strategy developed by industry executives rather than bureaucrats makes sense. But theory is often different from practice. The most dynamic and visionary segments of the industry have little voice on the Tourism Commission. And because of that, Florida stands in danger of adopting a tourism strategy that is both backward-looking and out-of-step with the new realities of global tourism.
What Is Florida Selling?
Why is Florida's tourism industry seeing its market share erode? In its marketing plan, the Florida Commission on Tourism blames "increased competitive pressures from other destinations."
That's true enough, but the current commission members don't seem to understand that our mounting competition isn't just from new out-of-state theme parks and beach resorts. Florida tourism is also losing market share because consumers around the globe increasingly prefer destinations that evoke a strong and unique sense of place. In the face of this trend, Florida continues to squander its natural and cultural assets, to the point that its image is now increasingly that of a non-place -- a land of generic attractions and condo canyons, surrounded by featureless sprawl that might as well be anywhere.
Consider the findings from a study commissioned by the Division of Tourism entitled "Who's Not Coming: A Look At Florida's 1994 Non-Visitors and Lapsed Visitors." The study found widespread perceptions among persons who had recently visited Florida that the state had become too urbanized and lacked diversity in historical, cultural and natural resources. In a state that has always depended on high numbers of repeat visitors, at least 10% of Florida vacationers go home unsatisfied because they couldn't find the Florida they came to see.
Of course, Disney World and the state's other established attractions continue to lure millions and will do so for the indefinite future. But the growth of the tourism industry around the world is not coming from such traditional tourist attractions, which now constitute a huge but fully mature segment of the industry. Instead, the industry's growth is coming from niche marketers who appeal to increasingly sophisticated consumer preferences in travel. Examples range from outfitters offering adventurous tours of the rain forests of Belize or the wilderness beaches of Patagonia, to the quaint bed and breakfasts (B&B) of Thomasville or Savannah, Georgia, to the many institutions of higher learning -- from Oxford University in England to Eckerd College in St. Petersburg -- that now offer classes and field trips specifically targeted at vacationers.
Observers have come up with many different terms to describe the components of this world-wide phenomenon: ecotourism, adventure tourism, learning vacations, cultural tourism, heritage tourism, to name a few. All are instances of a widespread yearning, particularly pronounced among baby boomers, for vacations that promise something beyond canned, or pre-packaged experience, and that offer some prospect for self-improvement or self-discovery. Call it the mental voyage market.
For now, these emerging consumer preferences may still be concentrated among an upscale, somewhat refined elite, but they are already a major force in driving the growth of the world tourist market. Researchers report that 40% to 60% of international tourists "travel to enjoy and appreciate nature," and that 20% to 40% of these are primarily seeking to experience wildlife. Such tourists take longer trips and spend more money -- up to $1,000 more in two weeks, according to a study by the World Wildlife Fund -- than the kind of vacationers who typically show up at Busch Gardens or Daytona Beach.
Other studies show that consumers increasingly choose vacation destinations based on the availability of cultural attractions. For example, a 1992 Louis Harris & Associates poll for Travel & Leisure magazine reveals that the number of frequent travelers for whom cultural, historical or archaeological treasures are important has roughly doubled, from 27% in 1982 to 50% in 1992.
Indeed, historical attractions now rival beaches as a tourist draw. The top two favorite family vacations, as reported by Better Homes and Gardens at the 1995 Travel Industry National Conference, are visits to ocean/beach (41%), followed by historical sites (40%).
It's not just the vigorous young and middle-aged who look for destinations offering natural or cultural attractions. Gerald DiPietro, immediate past president of the National Tour Association in Lexington, Kentucky, observes the same preferences on the part of generally older tour travelers, who represent the fastest growing segment of the market. According to DiPietro: "Tour travelers are interested in taking tours where they learn about nature, history and culture. Tour travelers don't necessarily want to view nature as they drive by in a motorcoach. A walk on gentle trails with a naturalist is a tour that is of interest to tour travelers. This suggests that tour travelers want to be more active rather than passive on the tours they take."
Still more telling is the Lou Harris poll that tracked changes in what consumers say is "very important" to them when planning a trip. Down in demand since the 1980s are "luxury resorts," "good nightlife" and "ordering expensive food." Up are "visiting a place I've never been before," "location with natural beauty" -- and way up: "understanding culture and gaining a new perspective on life."
Increasingly, people no longer view travel as a means to get away, but rather a means to gain something substantial. As The New York Times observed in a 1995 year-end report:
"Increasing recognition of the power of the arts to pull in tourist dollars has led to a host of new initiatives, partnerships and pilot development projects across the United States. Most of them are aimed at tapping into the cultural appetites of foreign visitors and the fat wallets of a new kind of American tourist, one who is more likely to seek out an art museum or a music festival than a shopping district or a theme park."
Florida -- Not Just A Theme Park
What are the implications of this trend for Florida? They are not necessarily as dark as you might think. For though the state has lost many of its natural and historical assets over the last generation, the "real Florida" that so many tourists yearn for these days still exists and if properly developed and marketed, can serve as a powerful lure.
The rebirth of South Miami Beach, which has grown to be the state's largest tourist attraction after Disney, is the most dramatic example of how saving Florida's cultural heritage can save Florida tourism as well. South Beach was dead until art historian Barbara Capitman in the late seventies realized the potential value of the district's tropical art deco architecture. Though the pastel colors had faded, the distinctive "ziggarettos," "bosses," intricate floral carvings and other attractive features of this architecture were waiting to be rediscovered and appreciated by a new generation. When local government ignored her, Capitman went over its head. She made common cause with preservationists around America, used limited dollars to get them vacationing in South Beach and revitalized the district.
The commercial benefits have been extraordinary. In 1987, when the turnaround of South Beach was just beginning, the hotels, clubs and restaurants on Ocean Drive took in some $4 million annually in room, food and beverage sales. In 1995 they took in $72 million, as South Beach became a "scene" known from Europe to the Orient.
What explains this boom? South Beach is a restoration of a real time and place, not a re-creation or virtual experience such as a theme park offers. In short, it's part of the "real" Florida. The colors, sounds and scenes one can experience on an evening in the heart of the art deco district can be found nowhere else on the globe, and they are not make-believe.
Don Meginley, who is director of the South Beach Marketing Council, concludes that the lesson of the area's success is simple: "The public is looking for a sense of place, and the better the quality the more likely they are to visit."
Downtown St. Petersburg may be the next success story inspired by culture. Despite years of decline and numerous failed efforts at urban renewal since the 1970s, it looks as if history and art are what will finally save the area. The Museum of Fine Arts and Salvador Dali Museum are thriving. Today they are joined by the Florida International Museum, which is housed in a converted Maas Brothers department store. Its first exhibition in 1995, "The Treasures of the Czars," hit the jackpot. In nine months the show drew more than 600,000 visitors, with out-of-towners accounting for 37.2% of attendance. A total economic impact of over $28 million has helped spur a renaissance of new restaurants, shops, antique dealers and art galleries, which this year are geared up to take advantage of the museum's big Egyptian exhibit.
"It's just incredible what has happened in the last year and a half," says Carole Ketterhagen, executive director of the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. "A great beach isn't enough anymore. It's the wealth and diversity of lifestyle and amenities that draw people."
Recreational trails converted from abandoned railroad right-of-ways can also be a major tourist draw, and fortunately, Florida has an abundance of these. From a single trail 15 years ago, Florida has become a national leader with more than 50 trails on the ground or in planning. These include one of the most popular rail trails in America. The 32-mile Pinellas Trail draws nearly 1.1 million local and out-of-area users a year. Businesses profiting from the Pinellas Trail include a concentration of restaurants, cafes and antique shops along the trail in downtown Dunedin, which is now flourishing. With virtually no publicity or marketing effort, the state now receives over 600 requests a week for informational literature about Florida nature trails.
Florida also has an abundance of ethnic history that can be used as a tourist lure if it is preserved and properly packaged. For example, the Florida Department of State's Division of Historical Resources is promoting a Cuban Heritage Trail and a Black Heritage Trail, each with its own published guide. A new, more distinctive look has been introduced for roadside historical markers, while a new road map for historic sites is being developed.
Proof that the market responds to heritage- and nature-based attractions comes from the success of projects like The Florida Wildlife Viewing Guide, which is sponsored by the Florida Game and Freshwater Fish Commission. After two years on the market, 23,000 copies have been sold. A second printing comes up later this year.
Across Florida, there are exciting examples of national and local interests which are learning to cash in on the ecotourism trend. High Springs, which as recently as five years ago was a dying railroad town, is now thriving with B&Bs, a steam train museum, antique shops and outfitters catering to cave divers and rafters on the Santa Fe River. Nearby Micanopy has cashed in on both its ante-bellum architecture and its bucolic setting to draw in a huge number of tourists off nearby I-75 who in years past would have headed straight for South and Central Florida attractions. The Suwannee Bicycle Association in White Springs is guiding an effort that has already established Florida as the leading state during winter for off-road cycling.
Ray Ashton of Water & Air Research in Gainesville, a worldwide tourism consultancy, tells of work underway with private ranches in Florida and with the Florida Seminole Nation in developing ecotourism facilities. Much of the market is overseas, he says, citing "tremendous interest on the part of foreign tourists to see our nature and the real Florida."
The Clueless Establishment
Florida's theme park owners and other large attractions are not completely obtuse to the significance of these trends. In an attempt to cash in on the growing popularity of learning vacations, Disney, for example, has inaugurated the new "Disney Institute," which teaches "lifestyle" skills such as topiary design, animation and cooking. Its Fort Wilderness and Discovery Island attractions exhibit a tame and tended approach to ecotourism, while attractions like Silver Springs at least respect surrounding scenery.
But for the most part, it's fair to say that the big boys of Florida tourism, and those who do their bidding in government, have been slow to catch on to the growing demand for a higher quality, less "themed," more individualized tourism product. This hardly makes Florida unique. "Florida isn't unusual in its mistaken over-reliance on mass tourism," notes Ashton. He cites Costa Rica as a Florida-like example where, as he points out, "the entire structure for ecotourism developed outside the Institute of Tourism which chose to ignore it." Ecotourism nonetheless became the most important element of the Costa Rican economy. The reason why it was long ignored, says Ashton, is simple: "Because the people typically in charge of tourism have little interest in anything but how many people they can get into hotel rooms and through the gates of whatever attractions they're concerned with."
Slowly, however, governments in other states and countries are catching on, and Florida will be at a particular disadvantage if it doesn't follow suit. In order for Florida to catch up with its competition, it must develop a two-fold strategy that improves both the quality of the product we're selling and the messages we're using to advertise that product.
In today's tourism market, the product increasingly is nature itself. When Texas learned that 63 million Americans feed wild birds, that a million travel to observe birds and that members of the American Birding Association spend an average $3,700 in travel a year, the state launched an intense program of protecting bird habitat and promoting avi-tourism. A 500-mile Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail is now underway. One small island attracted 6,000 birders during a six-week period with a total two-month economic impact along the upper Texas coast of between $4 and $6 million. Towns celebrate hummingbird festivals and promote whooping crane tours. By the year 2000, 18 million Texans are expected to participate in nature tourism.
When Wyoming recognized wildlife as a valuable economic commodity, it proceeded to organize broad-based public support for conservation. This included a "Worth the Watching" program whose success "is largely dependent upon aggressive and innovative marketing and advertising," according to a report by the Wyoming Game & Fish Department. Wyoming's Transportation Department promotes the Worth the Watching logo on its road maps. Coors Brewing Company developed and distributed a three-poster series. In quick order Wyoming opened visitor wildlife centers, highway rest areas with viewing sites and interpretive signs, and cooperative kiosks in national forests. Guides were published and checklists distributed. Early response to the program was "immediate, positive, and irreversible," according to the Wyoming report. Today the program stands at the heart of Wyoming tourism promotion.
Indiana is well aware of the need to enhance the tourist products it sells. Without any world-class theme parks or much scenic grandeur, Indiana has to make the best of its distinctive heritage, and does so quite nicely. New products? A Quilters Hall of Fame in rural Marion; an eight-county Wabash River Heritage Corridor with Purdue University as its coordinator; a growth enhancement program for Centerville (population 5,000) to keep its historic character from being overwhelmed by sprawl. The state tourism office provided technical assistance for the Centerville program in response to a citizen-led debate on what they wanted their town to be like in the year 2000.
The Vision Thing
Is the Florida Commission on Tourism capable of appreciating the new realities of global tourism? In its 23-page marketing plan, only a single sentence even mentions Florida's natural attractions, and then only in passing. There is no mention whatsoever of the state's historical or cultural assets.
Commission Chairman William Sims, chairman and CEO of Florida Leisure Acquisition Corporation (owner of Silver Springs, Wild Waters, Weeki Wachee and Buccaneer Bay,) says he has no quarrel with small ecotourism or cultural tourism interests. But it is also clear from their marketing plan that he and other commission members are primarily interested just in getting more dollars spent on generic tourism promotion. The Commission, which is dominated by theme park executives and lacks even a single member representing historical or cultural interests, appears to have given little thought to the quality of the product Florida has to offer to the world's tourists, or even to what that product really is.
What is Florida? Is it theme parks, beach resorts and malls, with a few nature trails, the Everglades and South Beach available as diversions? Or is it a state increasingly alert to preserving world-known natural and cultural wonders -- from the Florida reef in the Keys to Gulf Island's National Seashore in the Panhandle -- that also happens to boast a world-class collection of theme parks?
The task of defining Florida is too important to be left solely up to Disney, Universal and hotel interests. Their views are too narrowly focused. More important are the views of Florida residents and small, local interests, which, as it turns out, are more in tune with emerging trends of the global tourist market.
Happily, those trends suggest that the only way to save Florida tourism is to save Florida itself. The Tourism Commission therefore needs to take strong stands on issues like urban sprawl and environmental degradation, which are far greater threats to the Florida tourism industry as a whole than a shortage of advertising dollars. Just putting heads in beds is not a satisfactory answer. At the same time, the Commission must make sure that its promotions let the world know that "the real Florida" still does exist and is well worth the trip to experience. If the current Commission members are unable to see the big picture surrounding Florida tourism, we need new commissioners who are not so lacking in vision.
Herbert L. Hiller is a former VP-Public Affairs of Norwegian Caribbean Lines and executive director of the Caribbean Travel Association. His articles have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, National Geographic Traveler and the Washington Post. He is currently completing an on-line road atlas to Florida for the Microsoft Corp. and is at work on the Florida Handbook, a comprehensive guide for Moon Publications, due out in 1997.
