Ep 28 Discovering the Power of Community with Visit St. Pete Clearwater
Our discussion centers around the innovative marketing strategies employed by Visit St. Pete/Clearwater, particularly in the context of revitalizing the area's image and attracting diverse visitors. Joining us is Oliver Kugler, the Community Relations Manager, who shares valuable insights into the evolving landscape of tourism and marketing within Pinellas County. We delve into the challenges and triumphs encountered in promoting not only the renowned beaches but also the myriad of cultural and recreational offerings that define the region. Our conversation further explores the significance of community engagement and collaboration with local businesses in fostering a vibrant tourism ecosystem. As we navigate through the intricacies of these strategies, we illuminate how effective communication can reshape perceptions and enhance the visitor experience in the St. Petersburg/Clearwater region.
IN THIS EPISODE:
- 00:07 - Introduction to Aqua Talks
- 10:23 - Exploring Community Relations in Tourism
- 29:25 - The Importance of Tourism in St. Pete
- 37:30 - History of Tourism in St. Pete Clearwater
- 55:03 - Revitalizing Clearwater: A New Era
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- Aqua Talks speaks to the transformative potential of marketing in fostering connections with audiences.
- The podcast emphasizes the importance of community engagement within marketing strategies for tourism.
- Visit St. Pete Clearwater represents a diverse tourism sector, including both local residents and visitors.
- The significance of innovative campaigns, such as 'Still Shining', demonstrates resilience in destination marketing efforts.
ABOUT OUR GUEST:
Oliver Kugler - LinkedIn
Oliver serves as the Community Relations Manager for Visit St. Pete-Clearwater, bringing over 37 years of hospitality experience to his role promoting Pinellas County. A certified Professional in Destination Management, his impressive career journey has taken him through some of the Tampa Bay area's most notable properties—from the historic Belleview Biltmore Resort & Spa to beachfront gems like Dolphin Beach Resort and Sunset Vistas. Originally from Chicago's north shore, Oliver's hospitality roots run deep: he grew up on Indian Rocks Beach in the 1970s, where his father managed a small beachfront motel. At just nine years old, Oliver learned that earning pool privileges meant mowing lawns and helping guests with luggage! He later followed his mother and brother into the restaurant business before spending a decade as a banquet chef and assistant food & beverage manager.
Beyond his professional achievements, Oliver is deeply woven into the fabric of the local tourism community. He's been on the Foundation Board for the Clearwater Jazz Holiday since 1996 and has served on numerous chamber boards throughout the region. A 32-year member of Skal International—the world's largest travel and hospitality association—he's a past president of the Tampa Bay chapter and a recipient of their prestigious Tourism Person of the Year award. These days, Oliver lives in Largo with his four adult children and is eagerly awaiting his sixth grandchild in March! When he's not at work, you'll find him snowboarding with the kids and grandkids in winter or enjoying quality family time on the area's award-winning beaches and boating Florida's crystal-clear waters.
Transcript
Welcome to Aqua Talks, where marketing meets bold game changing ideas.
Speaker A:Join your hosts, Larry Aldrich and Maddie Dudley as they explore the art and science of cutting through the noise, capturing attention and fostering meaningful connections with your audience.
Speaker A:Whether you're a destination marketer, government contractor, or simply passionate about the transformative power of marketing, Aqua Talks offers engaging discussions, fresh insights and actionable strategies designed to inspire and inform.
Speaker B:Hello and welcome back to Aqua Talks, the podcast for marketers.
Speaker B:Whether you're just getting started or you are already a pro within the industry, my name is Maddie Dudley.
Speaker B:I am the public Relations director for Aqua Marketing and Communications.
Speaker B:This broadcast, this podcast is brought to you by Brensys Technology llc.
Speaker B:And I'm joined by my co host, Larry Aldrich.
Speaker C:Hello, my name is Larry Aldridge, President CEO of Brensis and Aquamarketing Communications.
Speaker C:Today we're visiting here and having a conversation with Oliver Kugler with Visit St. Pete.
Speaker C:Hello, Oliver.
Speaker D:Hey, Larry.
Speaker D:Hey, Maddie.
Speaker D:How are you?
Speaker B:Great.
Speaker B:Thank you so much for being here today.
Speaker D:Oh, it's my pleasure to be here.
Speaker D:Thank you very much for the invitation.
Speaker B:So tell us a little bit about your background and your title with Visit St. Pete Clearwater.
Speaker D:So my background, I've been with Visit St. Pete Clearwater now for over two and a half years.
Speaker D:Very excited to be joining the organization.
Speaker D:Prior to that, I spent well over 37 years here in Pinellas county, mainly as a resort hotel sales and marketing director.
Speaker D:So Even for those 37 years, I was always working with Visit St. Pete Clearwater.
Speaker D:They were an extension of my sales and marketing department.
Speaker D:And then going back, even before the sales and market, I was in food and beverage operations.
Speaker D:I actually wanted to be a chef when I first got started when I was very young and love cooking, still love to cook to this day.
Speaker D:But I realized very early on when I, when I had my first child at the age of 21, that when you're a chef, you can say pretty much goodbye to your nights, your holidays and your weekends.
Speaker D:So.
Speaker D:And that was, you know, really rough when you're, when you're starting with a young family.
Speaker D:So my title@Visit St. Pete Clearwater is Community Relations Manager.
Speaker D:And so I get the opportunity, I get the joy of truly, it's so much fun.
Speaker D:Don't tell my boss how much fun this is, but it's so much fun to go out and talk to the community.
Speaker D:And that word community really does mean so many things.
Speaker D:You know, it's our tourism and hospitality community, it's our restaurateurs, our bars, our accommodation partners.
Speaker D:But it's also our non tourism people as well, mainly our residents.
Speaker D:Community to me also means more.
Speaker D:My team at Visit St. Pete Clearwater, that's a community that I have to take back to the office.
Speaker D:What I've learned, what's happening in the community of Pinellas county.
Speaker D:And that's what we really, really focus in on.
Speaker D:We're a department under Pinellas county government.
Speaker D:So we're a government.
Speaker D:I'm a government employee.
Speaker D:And so our responsibility is strictly about Pinellas County.
Speaker D:We're known as Visit St. Pete Clearwater.
Speaker D:But it's truly we represent and market the entire Pinellas county from Tarpon Springs and Oldsmar at the north end, all the way to Passa Grill and Gulfport and Tierra Verde and of course St. Petersburg at the south end and everything in between.
Speaker B:Well, you're doing a good job because when I was in Greece, I had a local talk to me about Tarpon Springs.
Speaker B:They were like, have you heard of Tarpon Springs before?
Speaker B:I was like, yeah, that's my home.
Speaker B:But I guess I don't know their sister cities or something, or they just heard about it being very Mediterranean esque and Greek, like so.
Speaker D:Absolutely.
Speaker D:I mean, you think about the different, the different experiences, unique experiences that we have.
Speaker D:And Tarpon Springs is one of those that started back, I think, right around the turn of the century.
Speaker D:So you had, for whatever reason, and I believe it's because if I know my history a little bit, okay, the sponges that we have off of the beaches north of Clearwater into the Tarpon Springs area.
Speaker D:You go out into the Gulf, about 3 to 7 to 15 miles.
Speaker D:The sponges there are beautiful and they're very unique to this area.
Speaker D: about this back in the early: Speaker D:It's directly on the Gulf.
Speaker D:The waters are beautiful and they're calm and filled with sponges.
Speaker D:And so that's some of the history, the basic history of Tarpon Springs.
Speaker B:I love that.
Speaker C:I'm from northeast, I'm from Pittsburgh, lived in the D.C. virginia area for 15 years, migrating here to Florida still, kind of like when I start to put some roots down still in between St. Pete and Fort Lauderdale, because we have offices over there.
Speaker C:But I love it here a lot.
Speaker C:And we go into the segment where we talk about trends, recent news, marketing trends or something.
Speaker C:So me being someone coming down from the Northeast, looking to spend some time here, possibly move here.
Speaker C:What sticks out to you if you were a marketing trend or some news that you would want to just bring up to talk about, especially for newer people like myself about the area?
Speaker D:Larry, that's really great question there.
Speaker D:Great information.
Speaker D:You're touching on a variety of different things that we are doing from the marketing standpoint and the marketing team and our external marketing partners.
Speaker D:First and foremost, we just started a brand new fiscal year as of October 1st.
Speaker D:And so we brought on a brand new advertising agency out of Chicago, Illinois called Envision It.
Speaker D:They do have a satellite office here in the Tampa Bay area, which is great.
Speaker D:But we had our previous agency with us for I think about 15 plus years and they were fantastic.
Speaker D:But I think it's great to have a fresh set of eyes on the destination, especially people who are based in one of our key feeder markets, the Chicago area, the greater Chicago area.
Speaker D:And we're up there huge with our marketing.
Speaker D:Think the i75, i95 corridor.
Speaker D:I mean, that's our big domestic bread and butter right there.
Speaker D:So we've got two elements that we talk about.
Speaker D:We talk about that particular visitor that lives outside the state of Florida in those two corridors of I75 and I95.
Speaker D:I mean, listen, it's starting to get cold up north.
Speaker D:I was just in New York a couple of weeks ago visiting the kids and the grandkids.
Speaker D:Why they moved to New York, I'm not quite sure they were born here.
Speaker D:But anyhow, and it was so fun, I took my grandkids who were off on a Thursday morning.
Speaker D:I took them to Coney Island.
Speaker D:I'd never been before.
Speaker D:All the trips I've done to New York.
Speaker D:I've never been to Coney Island.
Speaker D:So we get on the subway out of Brooklyn and of course I'm wearing my VSPC swag.
Speaker D:I've got my white hat on that says visit St. Pete Clearwater and stuff.
Speaker D:And I'm sitting down in the subway and my grandson Oren says to me, hey, Papa Dukes, that picture up there has got the same logo that you've got.
Speaker D:And I'm looking up and it's one of our ads that says visit St. Pete Clearwater for the beaches and so much more.
Speaker D:And so we talk about Visit St. Pete Clearwater and the Greater Visit.
Speaker D:St. Pete Clearwater has been known as a home to America's best beaches for years and years and years.
Speaker D:We didn't necessarily create that.
Speaker D:It was organizations like TripAdvisor Hotels.com, travel and Leisure Magazine, USA Today.
Speaker D:They would send out these things to their consumer, their readers, and say, hey, name your best family beach.
Speaker D:Name your best romantic beach.
Speaker D:And consistently, the beaches from Honeymoon island at the very north end all the way down to Pasa Grill at the south end and all little communities in between would consistently rank in the top five domestically in the United States.
Speaker D:And St. Pete Beach, I think got number seven in the world by the readers of one of these publications.
Speaker D:So we're hammering home about we do have the best beaches, but the new campaign is this ampersand.
Speaker D:It's so much beaches and more.
Speaker D:So, yes, we've got some great beaches, wonderful thing.
Speaker D:But not everybody wants to go to the beach every single day.
Speaker D:Or sometimes you've been on the beach too long, gotta get a little break from the beach.
Speaker D:What else is there to do?
Speaker D:We talked about Tarpon Springs and the Sponge docks and the Greek village of Tarpon Springs.
Speaker D:You go through Dunedin, the Scottish heritage of Dunedin and this cute little walkable town.
Speaker D:Then you talk about Gulfport and its eclect little community that it has.
Speaker D:Most of the artists that have studios here in St. Petersburg live in the Gulfport area.
Speaker D:We've got some great restaurants over there, downtown St. Pete.
Speaker D:I just heard a story recently that the young people that are coming to downtown St. Pete, it's the new Brooklyn, New York, you know, so that's one of the areas that we're targeting.
Speaker D: ch for me started in March of: Speaker D:If you haven't been to Pasco county in a while, Zephyr Hills, Wesley Chapel, the subdivisions that have opened up in those areas, it's massive.
Speaker D:I mean, dozens of subdivisions, each one with at least 50 to 100 brand new homes.
Speaker D:And these are all brand new residents to Florida and our area.
Speaker D:And do they know that America's best beaches and so much more are less than an hour away?
Speaker D:So you'll see a lot of our advertising right now.
Speaker D:You'll see our advertising in billboards on US 19, on 275, on I4 and in those areas, because we do have some brand new people, residents to this area, that need to know about all the great things that are to do in the St. Pete Clearwater area.
Speaker B:So you have been in the hospitality industry for over four decades, which is crazy.
Speaker B:You don't look at it.
Speaker D:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker D:You wouldn't say it like that.
Speaker B:You don't look it.
Speaker D:Thank you.
Speaker B:How has your experience working for iconic hotels impacted what you bring to the table as visit St. Pete Clearwater's community relations manager?
Speaker D:You know, I have worked for independent properties almost my entire career.
Speaker D:I mean, you go back in the kind.
Speaker D:I'm going to say this in the.
Speaker D:In the mid-70s, I cut my teeth in the hotel industry down at the Sheridan, Sand Key down on Clearwater Beach.
Speaker D:Sand Key Beach.
Speaker D:And there was that property that I worked for at.
Speaker D:For six years, mainly food and beverage operations and one other property that was a Marriott Flag.
Speaker D:Other than that, everything else has been independent, non branded, non flag.
Speaker D:And there's something to be said about working for properties like that.
Speaker D:First and foremost.
Speaker D:There's no rule book, there's no bible.
Speaker D:You get to do what pretty much whatever you want to.
Speaker D:And it was great because those properties like the Bellevue Biltmore over in Bel Air, Clearwater, which is still around, people don't realize that the Bellevue is still around.
Speaker D: ,: Speaker D:That to me, started tourism in Pinellas County.
Speaker D: in Safety harbor, that's the: Speaker D: in the think it was the early: Speaker D:And so these properties are iconic local travel and tourism properties.
Speaker D:And what I learned from working at those properties was, you know, again, going back to that word community, you know, with the branded properties, the flagged properties, you have regional offices, you have regional offices, national offices, sales offices that help drive some business.
Speaker D:But with an independent property, you don't.
Speaker D:So the importance of reaching out to our local chamber of commerces, staying in communication with Visit St. Pete Clearwater.
Speaker D:I worked with Visit St. Pete Clearwater when I was on the hotel side virtually weekly.
Speaker D:I was always telling them what was happening at the hotel, what promotions we were doing.
Speaker D:They were working with me, asking me if I could host a travel writer, if I could host a travel agent, or a tour operator or a meeting planner.
Speaker D:I would sponsor breakfast, lunches, dinners, tours, so on and so forth.
Speaker D:So that word community and working with those partners are Chambers, the Florida Restaurant and Lodging association and Bay Area Concierge Association, Skull International, Tampa Bay Chapter.
Speaker D:Working with all those organizations was so enjoyable.
Speaker D:What it does is it brings people into the properties, experience the property firsthand.
Speaker D:And now they are acting as part of my sales and marketing department because now they're going out and talking about an experience they just had at one of my properties.
Speaker D:But I do have to say one thing.
Speaker D:It was great working at those properties.
Speaker D:I love those properties.
Speaker D: year anniversary here in: Speaker D: ired at that property back in: Speaker D:He was hired as the assistant general manager.
Speaker D:And watching that man every single day and what he did as first the assistant general manager and then promoted very quickly to the general manager.
Speaker D:Just an amazing man.
Speaker D:In tourism and as a community leader.
Speaker B:Your roots run deep and so deep.
Speaker C:Speaking of the hospitality, how do you believe the hospitality industry has changed since you started at how old?
Speaker D:So, okay, let's see.
Speaker D: , we came down on vacation in: Speaker D:And mom and dad fell in love with Indian Rocks beach immediately.
Speaker D:Dad met the owner of the Little Rinella Motel down on Indian rocks Beach.
Speaker D:About 45, 50 units right on the Gulf of Mexico.
Speaker D:And so the guy offered my dad a job to be manager of the, of the motel.
Speaker D:And so as quickly as we could get back up to Wilmette and sell all our stuff, sell all the house and everything like that, the whole family moved down.
Speaker D:Myself and my three older siblings, mom and dad.
Speaker D:And so dad was managing the hotel.
Speaker D:And I'm thinking, this is great.
Speaker D:I'm coming from Chicago where it's eight months out of the year, it's brutally cold and gray and stuff like that.
Speaker D:And I've got the beach right there.
Speaker D:Oh my gosh.
Speaker D:I'm going to be swimming in the pool every single day.
Speaker D:And just as I'm getting ready to jump in the pool, my dad's grabbed me by the T shirt and pulling me back.
Speaker D:Oh, no, no, no, no.
Speaker D:I need you to pick the weeds over here.
Speaker D:And Mr. And Mrs. Smith, they need their help with the luggage and stuff like that.
Speaker D:So at nine years old, I was, you know, helping guests with their luggage, picking weeds.
Speaker D:I probably was vacuuming the pool and maybe even making beds at that time and stuff.
Speaker D:So if I wanted to enjoy the pool and the stuff like that, I had to do a little work around the hotel.
Speaker D:But it was interesting because I really loved it.
Speaker D:People coming from all over the world, literally to come enjoy our beaches.
Speaker D:And some of these people, especially our international visitors, they save up sometimes for an entire year to come and spend a week on a place that we get to take advantage of every single day.
Speaker D:So they were happy to be here.
Speaker D:They were ecstatic to be here.
Speaker D:And their enthusiasm and their joy of being here, it was infectious.
Speaker D:And I'm like, God, this is so much fun.
Speaker D:This is great.
Speaker C:I spent a month on St. Pete beach every year since I started with aqua.
Speaker C:So for two years now, I spent a whole month on St. Pete Beach.
Speaker C:And I'll bring my whole family.
Speaker C:My immediate family consists of me, a dog and my kid.
Speaker C:But I bring my mom, my dad, my brother, his family, my sister from Houston, Texas, her family, her husband loves to fish.
Speaker C:And I see these piers that people are fishing on and I'm trying to send in all these different places.
Speaker C:And so we come down, we spend a lot of time on the beaches there in St. Pete.
Speaker D:Larry, what's your favorite place in St. Pete beach to stay?
Speaker D:Are you staying in accommodation or short term rental?
Speaker C:We've been, we've.
Speaker C:It was, we.
Speaker C:I look at Airbnb, but there's this hotel over near St. John's Pass.
Speaker D:John's Pass.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker C:And I stay right.
Speaker C:Literally can walk right there.
Speaker D:Okay, so that.
Speaker D:Then if you're staying on the south side of John's Pass, the bridge.
Speaker D:Yes.
Speaker D:If you're staying on the south side, you're in Treasure Island.
Speaker D:Okay.
Speaker D:You're in Treasure Island.
Speaker D:There's some great properties.
Speaker D:Matter of fact, I spent 13 years at three properties.
Speaker D:I had three condo resort hotels.
Speaker D:The big one was Sunset Vistas, Beachfront Suites, right on the Gulf of Mexico.
Speaker D:We had 159 units.
Speaker D:Two bedroom, two bath and six.
Speaker D:Three bedroom, three bath.
Speaker D:And then my sister hotels were a Crystal Palms just directly across the street and a little further south was Provident Oceana.
Speaker D:Yes, but you've seen that one.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:But you've also got the Bill Maher Beach Resort that has been there, beautiful since the 60s.
Speaker C:And you go around, around.
Speaker C:I know there's the, the Treasure island.
Speaker C:And then a little further over is the St. Pete beach.
Speaker D:Yes.
Speaker C:Area.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:And it's always booked.
Speaker D:Yeah, no matter.
Speaker C:I've tried to find places almost a year out.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker B:Well, now you have an inn.
Speaker B:Always, always the reason we invited you here today.
Speaker D:That's it.
Speaker D:That's it.
Speaker D:Just the connection.
Speaker D:I know a lot of people are all over the place and I, I just.
Speaker D:But I love.
Speaker D:I love learning more about where people love to go, because all of these communities that we have, our beach communities specifically, there's huge difference between St. Pete Beach.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker D:And then Clearwater Beach.
Speaker D:I mean, Clearwater beach has a lot of these newer properties.
Speaker D:The JW Marriott, the Opal Sands, the Opal Sol, the Sand Pearl.
Speaker D:Then you've got these cute little properties, some of the really boutique mom and Pops, if you will.
Speaker D:Then you've got the Wyndham Grand.
Speaker D:The Wyndham Grand.
Speaker D:The Hyatt.
Speaker D:Hyatt Regency.
Speaker D:Just got the number one best hotel in all of Florida by the readers of.
Speaker D:I think it was either Travel and Leisure or Conde Nast.
Speaker B:Oh, wow.
Speaker C:I stayed at the Hyatt here in St. Pete a few times, and I went and joined.
Speaker C:For some reason, I was thinking it was a Hilton, and I was like, all right, I'm just going to go and do the honor points.
Speaker C:So I ended up doing Hilton when I was staying at a Hyatt.
Speaker C:So now I got hundreds of thousands of Hilton points.
Speaker D:There you go.
Speaker C:And I'm like, well, why can't I stay?
Speaker C:So I stay at Hilton's all over the place while I come down.
Speaker C:Then I rent Airbnbs and VRBOs and stay on the beach.
Speaker C:And remind me the name of this park.
Speaker C:It's a national.
Speaker C:I believe it's a national or state park.
Speaker C:And there's a dog beach there.
Speaker C:There's lots of sports going on.
Speaker D:What area?
Speaker D:Of course.
Speaker C:Well, okay, it's.
Speaker C:If you're going towards the.
Speaker D:Are we talking south county off of St. Pete Beach?
Speaker D:Are we talking Fort DeSoto?
Speaker C:Fort DeSoto.
Speaker D:There you go.
Speaker D:Is that not the coolest place you're in?
Speaker B:Almanac?
Speaker D:Yes, it is.
Speaker C:I mean, because I'm.
Speaker C:I'm trying.
Speaker C:Like, when I'm down here, I'm here quite a few times a month.
Speaker C:Eventually, I'll have a place here.
Speaker C:And I'm trying to visit all of these different areas and stay in so many different places so I can get the flavor of everything.
Speaker C:And every time I go to another little corner, I find something else.
Speaker D:I know.
Speaker C:And I found that park.
Speaker C:And I'm like, I'm trying to find as much as I can.
Speaker C:It's huge.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:Yeah, it's huge.
Speaker D:First off, you have the fort, the actual Fort DeSoto fort, which is so cool to go through.
Speaker D:And then from there, I believe it's the Hubbard that runs the ferry service from Fort DeSoto that takes you over to Egmont Key.
Speaker D:That's another area that you've got to go explore.
Speaker D:And then you've got another fort over at Egmont Cay.
Speaker D:So the history that we have here in the greater St. Pete Clearwater area is amazing.
Speaker D:Did you know that Fort DeSoto has camping and campsites?
Speaker C:No, I didn't know.
Speaker D:Rustic camping for tents there.
Speaker D:Yeah, isn't it great?
Speaker B:Yeah, it was our stellar.
Speaker B:It was beautiful.
Speaker D:And then you've got the dog park of Fort desoto.
Speaker D:And then it's also a major, major destination for the kite borders.
Speaker D:Have seeing these guys and girls with these.
Speaker D:I mean, I can barely walk and talk at the same time.
Speaker D:And these guys have got boards under them.
Speaker D:They've got kites doing this.
Speaker D:But it's a great place.
Speaker D:And you're all this overlooking Tampa Bay and the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.
Speaker D:And then of course the water and.
Speaker C:The beach, you can launch your boats there.
Speaker C:There's kayaking there, there's fishing there.
Speaker C:You can get off your kayak and start fishing.
Speaker C:You can fish on your kayak.
Speaker C:I've seen that.
Speaker C:I'm like, how are they doing that?
Speaker D:And then the access from, from the boat ramps from the beaches over to Shell Key, which is an island on the north side of Fort DeSoto.
Speaker D:The only way to get there is by boat to she.
Speaker D:And the water is just beautiful.
Speaker D:And I think it's one of the few places in Pinellas county where you can actually tent on the beach.
Speaker D:I believe Shellke allows primitive tenting.
Speaker B:So I actually camped there too for my dad's birthday.
Speaker D:Yeah, isn't it great?
Speaker B:His 50th birthday.
Speaker B:Yeah, it was, it was fun.
Speaker B:It's beautiful over there.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker D:Gorgeous stuff.
Speaker C:I'm a Yankees and a Pirates fan, but I also went to Furay's games when I brought, you know, my son that went down.
Speaker C:It was the first time I was ever in an indoor baseball facility.
Speaker D:Interesting, isn't it?
Speaker D:I mean, I hope and I cross my fingers that we can keep the Rays in St. Petersburg.
Speaker D:I think we've got a beautiful facility here.
Speaker D:I think we can make it a beautiful destination.
Speaker D:And I can tell you from my time at being on Treasure island in St. Pete beach for 16 plus years that the fans of the visiting teams, they will check the schedule, when are we playing the Rays and they'll make their travel schedule to come and visit the Rays games because it's typically a three night game, right?
Speaker D:So they're hitting our beaches during the day, they're hitting our museums, our attractions, the restaurants and the bars.
Speaker D:And then they're going to the games in the evening.
Speaker C:I've not been from here.
Speaker C:Seeing it from an outside perspective.
Speaker C:I thought it was an amazing location.
Speaker C:You can stay at any hotel you want.
Speaker C:You can walk up and down Central and just walk right over to the stadium.
Speaker C:You can walk out of the stadium.
Speaker C:You can hang out at any of the bars, restaurants, anything up and down Central.
Speaker C:And me and my son loved it.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker B:Right up to Fergs.
Speaker C:We've gone to Fergs.
Speaker C:If you go to PNC park in Pittsburgh, beautiful park, but it's kind of off the beaten path a little bit.
Speaker D:Where?
Speaker C:Hines Field.
Speaker C:Well, Acrisure Stadium now, but Hines Field.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:So it's still going to these locations.
Speaker C:We like sporting events.
Speaker C:That is.
Speaker C:Is an amazing location where you can just walk.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:And there's so much to do and see and be a part of.
Speaker C:And the stadium's right there.
Speaker D:Well, and a shout out to Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority and the Sun Runner, I think it is.
Speaker D:So the Sun Runner will take you from the beaches, St. Pete beach, right up to Tropicana Field and then into downtown St. Pete on that great loop.
Speaker D:And then if you come.
Speaker D:No, it's not free, but it's ridiculously inexpensive.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker D:And they've expanded the route and the service so that now you can literally be.
Speaker D:Literally.
Speaker D:If you were in Tarpon Springs, you could catch a trolley or a PSTA bus.
Speaker D:Pinal Suncoast transitory bus.
Speaker D:Come down from Tarpon Springs, through Palm harbor, through Dunedin, into Clearwater Beach.
Speaker D:You're getting this killer view, and then you end up St. Pete Beach.
Speaker D:You jump on the Sun Runner, and then you're at the Tropicana field or downtown St. Pete.
Speaker D:What a great way to see our area.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So, funny enough, we were in Chicago, your hometown, when we met you, when our paths crossed.
Speaker B:So we were getting on a bus going to the Hard Rock or.
Speaker B:No, the House of Blues.
Speaker C:We went to House of Blues, House.
Speaker B:Of Blues after party.
Speaker B:And I saw that you were wearing a Chad Mizer special.
Speaker B:What?
Speaker B:Tokyo, London, New York, St. Pete shirt.
Speaker B:I don't know if that's the right order, but that's how we met you.
Speaker B:I'm curious what your biggest takeaways were from the conference Destinations International that we were at.
Speaker D:So that was a great conference.
Speaker D:And I think DI Destinations International did a fabulous job here out of Florida and out of greater Tampa Bay area.
Speaker D:We had great participation in that.
Speaker D:And I know that my CEO and president, Brian Lowak for business NP Clearwater, wanted to get there as well as my chief operating chief marketing officer Steve Grimes and the rest of the team wanted to be up there.
Speaker D:There was a conflict of shows so I was able to represent visit St. Pete Clearwater.
Speaker D:Chicago did a great job of hosting us.
Speaker D:They called in the special weather, which was fantastic, and all the other locations.
Speaker D:But truly I think the big takeaway there again, how important it is as an industry, no matter where you're from, that we have.
Speaker D:We're all going through certain different types of issues, obstacles if you will.
Speaker D:But right now the big obstacle I think that we're going through as United States of America and tourism and travel is we're seeing, let's not sugarcoat this, we're seeing a decline of our visitors from Canada.
Speaker D:Our number one international market here in St. Pete Clearwater.
Speaker D:The Canadian visitor accounts for well over 550,000 visitors a year.
Speaker D:I'm not sure exactly what the number is in Florida, but I know it's our number one international market in the United States.
Speaker D:I read a lot of information that comes from the USTA United States Travel association and they're showing some significant, significant double digit decreases coming out of Canada, both flight as well as driving across the border.
Speaker D:So we're getting a lot of information, look at states like Maine and Vermont that are right there on the border that you have a lot of Canadians that will come over and hang out in Maine at Old Orchard beach and stuff like that.
Speaker D:And a lot of the folks from Canada are just saying, you know what, we're not going to come this year.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker D:And it's sad to hear that.
Speaker D:Now I love, I live in a condo down by Indian Rocks Beach.
Speaker D:I have a lot of Canadian part time residents that live in this condo.
Speaker D:They're still coming.
Speaker D:They know that Florida and St. Pete Clearwater is still an amazing value.
Speaker D:And so they don't have any plans not to not come here.
Speaker D:They've got property here and so on and so forth.
Speaker D:So communicating that message to our Canadian travelers and friends up north that hey, we still love you, but it's happening all over.
Speaker D:It's happening in Arizona, it's happening in California, Las Vegas.
Speaker D:So being able to go into some of those seminars that we went into and talking to the folks from Las Vegas, their numbers have decreased significantly with their international travel as well.
Speaker C:Wow.
Speaker D:And what you have right now is you have a lot of other international destinations that are doing some amazing, amazing packages.
Speaker D:I mean, look at Mexico, they're all inclusives.
Speaker D:They're doing some beautiful packages right now.
Speaker D:And it's like amazing.
Speaker D:Caribbean is doing some great stuff, stuff.
Speaker D:And then the cruise lines, I mean it's, it's almost more expensive to stay at home.
Speaker D:And this is not a shout out to the cruise lines.
Speaker D:I don't want to lose any business.
Speaker D:But I mean we got Margaritaville cruising right out of Port of Tampa and they've got some great packages right now.
Speaker D:So we've got a lot of, of competition.
Speaker D:Not Only a visit St. Pete Clearwater and not only is Visit Florida, but you know, Brand usa.
Speaker D:And we've got to, we've got to really partner together and we've got to really lift each other up because we've got to maintain this market share because there's a whole bunch of international travels out there, travelers out there, and right now they're thinking about where they're going to go next summer.
Speaker D:This is the planning stages for our international travelers.
Speaker D:Our key international offshore market is the uk, Ireland, Scotland and then Germany in that order.
Speaker D:And then you have, well, actually UK first, then Germany and then you've got the Latin American market which is really, really coming along immensely as a major origination of international travelers into the greater St. Pete Clearwater area.
Speaker D:But they're planning those trips now for summer right here in October and November.
Speaker D:And so we really got to get out there, let them know that we're open, let them know that we're here, that we've got the best value and so many great things to do.
Speaker D:Not just the beaches, but so much more.
Speaker D:So the DI conference we did, it was great.
Speaker D:Connecting with so many other destination marketing organizations, other CVB's like Visit St. Pete Clearwater and sharing some information, which is great.
Speaker B:That's great.
Speaker C:As a community relations manager with Visit St. Pete, what does a day look like?
Speaker C:I mean, you sound like you're really busy.
Speaker C:We know you're really busy.
Speaker C:You got a lot going on.
Speaker C:But take us, you know, a little journey through one of your days.
Speaker D:So what could one of my days look like?
Speaker D:I mean, it's not uncommon for me to have a couple of 12 hour days a week.
Speaker D:For instance, last week, Friday I did a presentation to the Seminole Lake or Lake Seminole Rotary Club.
Speaker D:I know there's so many different ways to say it.
Speaker D:It's either the Rotary Club of Lake Seminole or Seminole Lake.
Speaker D:Anyhow, it was a 7am Breakfast.
Speaker D:Breakfast.
Speaker D:I'm not a morning guy, okay?
Speaker D:I mean when I had kids, yes, it was getting up a quarter after six in the morning.
Speaker D:Now I get to get up a little earlier.
Speaker D:Anyhow I had to be there by about 6:45 to make sure that my presentation was ready to go was over at the St. Pete College Seminole campus.
Speaker D:And so I did my presentation there.
Speaker D:We had about 60 people in the audience.
Speaker D:It was great interaction, great Q and A.
Speaker D:And then from there I would go to, I think we had lunchtime was the Clearwater Innkeepers association over at Island Way Grill, one of Frank Chavez's amazing restaurants.
Speaker D:And of course we're in stone crab season, so we had some amazing stone crabs and we out of this field.
Speaker D:The food was fantastic.
Speaker D:Shout out to Frank Chaves and Sherry Aguilar and her team.
Speaker D:So at the Rotary Club, the presentation was mainly to none.
Speaker D:Tourism industry individuals, our residents talking about the value of tourism.
Speaker D:Why is tourism so important to us?
Speaker D:The Clearwater Innkeepers association luncheon, which was about 45, it was the industry, it was the hotel GMs and the director of sales and marketing and the restaurateurs and the attractions out of the greater Clearwater Clearwater beach area and the Starlight Cruises and Starlight Majesty and so forth.
Speaker D:So with those individuals, I'm talking to the industry so I don't have to tell them about the value of tourism.
Speaker D:Heck, they know it already.
Speaker D:But I got to communicate what are we doing at Visit St. Pete Clearwater?
Speaker D:What is the stuff that we have been doing, our successes and then what's the stuff coming up in the next 30, 60, 90, 120 days that they can take advantage of?
Speaker D:And so it's really important to communicate the things that we're doing at Visit St. Pete Clearwater.
Speaker D:So our partners, and not just our accommodation partners, our hotels and motels and airbnbs short term rentals, but also our restaurants and our attractions and our museums and our retail shops and our water sports activities and stuff like that, how can they become involved and stay engaged and benefit from what we're doing at Visit St. Pete Clearwater?
Speaker D:So there's that.
Speaker D:So I had breakfast at 7, lunch at 12 and then I believe the Bay Area Concierge Association, BACA as it's known and that's a Tampa Bay based organization, Bay Area Concierge association is an organization made up of hotel concierge bell captains, front desk clerks, front desk managers, people that are forward facing restaurateurs and so on that are forward facing of the customers and guests in our area.
Speaker D:And so they get together about once a month to talk about what's new and exciting in this area.
Speaker D:Because again, when a guest comes up in your hotel or Whatever.
Speaker D:And says, gosh, you know, we've done the beach for a couple days.
Speaker D:What else is there to do?
Speaker D:And they.
Speaker D:And they typically, the first thing that they ask is they always want to know, as a local, what's your favorite restaurant?
Speaker D:Or what's your favorite beach to go to?
Speaker D:Or what is your favorite dog beach?
Speaker D:Or what's your favorite hangout?
Speaker D:They want to go where the locals hang out.
Speaker D:And that's what Baca learned.
Speaker D:So that might have been an event that ended at 8, 8:30 at night.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker D:So there's days like that.
Speaker D:But, you know, again, I just.
Speaker D:I just love that.
Speaker D:I love being able to communicate and talk about the great things.
Speaker D:We're a large area.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:I travel all over the country and.
Speaker C:And I talk about Florida a lot now because I'm here a lot.
Speaker C:You know, office in St. Pete, office in Fort Lauderdale.
Speaker C:So when I'm in Pittsburgh, I'm talking about the area, and everyone says, well, I hear Tampa's really nice.
Speaker C:Tampa's really nice.
Speaker C:I'm like, have you been to St. Pete yet?
Speaker C:I mean, because the first time I came over to St. Pete, I was like, wow.
Speaker C:Oh, wow.
Speaker C:And that's how it was.
Speaker C:And then talking to, like, Maddie, she's, you gotta go to Mutton Martinis.
Speaker C:I take my dog to Mutton Martinis.
Speaker C:And he loves it.
Speaker C:Like, I couldn't get him out of there.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:I mean, there's a lot of, like, great places to visit and just continuing to communicate and talk about the St. Pete area.
Speaker C:It's.
Speaker C:It's a really nice city.
Speaker C:It's.
Speaker C:I, again, I love how you can just walk up and down Central.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:And I do miss a couple of the other word roads that are very similar, but central is.
Speaker C:Central is.
Speaker C:I think it's iconic road.
Speaker C:There's so much going on up and down Central.
Speaker B:We're really on the map now.
Speaker B:Like.
Speaker B:Like, no one knew about St. Pete 15 years ago, easily.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Nobody knew who we were whatsoever.
Speaker B:And now, like, we were in an episode of Curb youb Enthusiasm mentioned.
Speaker C:And sometimes it's getting people out of their habits, their norms.
Speaker C:Example, Pittsburgh area.
Speaker C:Everyone in the Pittsburgh area four years, they go to Ocean City.
Speaker C:Every now and then, Myrtle beach.
Speaker C:Sometimes you got to try something different.
Speaker C:And like, my kids, mom and her family, they always rent a house at Ocean City.
Speaker C:And everyone in the area, just Ocean City.
Speaker C:Well, jump on a plane, go to Tampa.
Speaker C:I did get on a plane one time, which we were talking not too long ago.
Speaker C:I was on a plane with about 80 guys that came down here to golf during the super bowl.
Speaker C:And that's the guys getaway.
Speaker C:Yeah, they three or four golf courses around the Bay Area.
Speaker C:And then they all get together, watch the super bowl somewhere.
Speaker D:So you talk about golf again.
Speaker D:One of the many, many things that you can do in the St. Pete Clearwater area, as well as the Tampa Bay region.
Speaker D:I believe Pinellas county holds the record for the most number of golf courses of any county in the state of Florida.
Speaker D:And I think we've got like 71 counties.
Speaker D:So we've got more public, private and semi private courses in all of Pinellas County.
Speaker D:And of course, the iconic one we've got Innisbruck or the Valspar Championship is every single march, which is a great opportunity to showcase our destination internationally.
Speaker D:I mean, that's shown internationally.
Speaker D:And then of course you got the Vannoy and the Vanoy Club.
Speaker D:And then you've got, right around the corner here is a public course, I think it's called Mangrove Bay, which is rated one of the top public courses in the state of Florida.
Speaker D:So from a golfing standpoint, there's just so much golfing in this area.
Speaker D:And then you were talking earlier about when people say, you know, the Tampa area.
Speaker D:Oh, Tampa, Tampa.
Speaker D:I think a lot of times people tend to lump St. Pete Clearwater Inn when they say Tampa.
Speaker D:I don't think they, they.
Speaker D:I don't think they mean strictly Tampa proper.
Speaker D:I think they really do mean our greater area.
Speaker D:So I love to hear when people talk about Tampa Bay, you know, it's not the Tampa Buccaneers, it's the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Speaker D:It's not the Tampa Rays, it's the Tampa Bay Rays.
Speaker D:It's the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Speaker D:Go Lightning.
Speaker D:So I love the fact that we call it the Tampa Bay area because that really encompasses all of Pinellas and Hillsborough and Manatee.
Speaker D:Yes, Manatee county and Sarasota county and Pasco and Hernando.
Speaker D:We've got really an amazing destination, an amazing region here.
Speaker D:So.
Speaker D:So I just love it when people do discover our area.
Speaker D:It's sad to think really that sometimes people are just now discovering places like St. Pete.
Speaker D: is railway system back in the: Speaker D:Henry Plant was developing the West Coast.
Speaker D:And the idea back then was if you owned a Railroad, you would build hotels along the way that would build traffic for your railway and then, you know, fill up your hotels.
Speaker D:And that's how Flagler was so successful.
Speaker D:That's why, you know, Daytona and St. Augustine and Fort Lauderdale, Miami, all the way down to the Keys were so successful.
Speaker D:So Henry Plant came through Tampa and then he did an offshoot of his railway system and came into Clearwater, actually the Bell area.
Speaker D: And back in: Speaker D: ,: Speaker C:Wow.
Speaker D:And to think that that's when I think tourism really started.
Speaker D: that opened up around the mid-: Speaker D: e, the Vanoy opened up in the: Speaker D:I mean, so you do have some of these amazing properties that are still around today that opened up in the 20s.
Speaker D:The other thing to think about this is a little tidbit that I like to share.
Speaker D:The very, very first commercial flight where somebody paid money to fly from point A to point B in the world happened right here in Saint Petersburg, Florida.
Speaker D: ,: Speaker D:And he flew and it took him 45 minutes.
Speaker D:Commercial aviation started right here.
Speaker D:It was the plane called the Benoit, which you can see a sample of it in the history museum here in St. Pete at the Pier as well as at St. Pete International.
Speaker D:St. Pete Clearwater National Airport.
Speaker D:And the pilot was Tony Janis.
Speaker D:And every year actually coming up here on November 13, I believe it is, in Tampa, we have the Tony Janis Awards and it recognizes an aviation pioneer, if you will.
Speaker D:So we have that coming up.
Speaker D:So St. Pete does have some really, really amazing history as it relates to travel, tourism and hospitality.
Speaker B:You're more of a local than I am, and I was born here.
Speaker B:Absolutely no way.
Speaker D:Where'd you go to high school?
Speaker B:Saint Be High.
Speaker D:Saint Beehive Green Devils?
Speaker D:Yes, I'm a Largo Packer.
Speaker B:Yes, exactly.
Speaker B:You are far more of a local than I am.
Speaker B:I'm just learning so much.
Speaker B:But in the world of marketing, how do you go from us being a hidden gem however many years ago and now, I mean, we're absolutely shifting that language.
Speaker B:Like what are you communicating to partners of the high points or just like the talking points of St. Pete?
Speaker B:Not, we're not really the underdog anymore.
Speaker B:We're essentially like Brooklyn or.
Speaker B:Yeah, I mean, we're not.
Speaker B:We're not Brooklyn or Miami, but we're early states.
Speaker D:Happily so, I think.
Speaker B:Yeah, happily so.
Speaker D:We're not Brooklyn and Miami.
Speaker D:They have their own unique things.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker D:We don't want to be another Brooklyn or Miami.
Speaker D:We want to be Saint Pete.
Speaker D:Saint Pete Clearwater.
Speaker D:We want to be the.
Speaker D:So we want to carve out our own identity, like any place wants to carve out our own identity.
Speaker D:Listen, I have kids in Brooklyn.
Speaker D:I love going up and visiting, and I love the fact that I can come out of my son's apartment, think of any type of food that I want, and it's within walking distance.
Speaker D:Yeah, okay.
Speaker D:But it does take me 25 minutes to get down to Rockaway if I want to go to a beach.
Speaker D:And Rockaway is not the beaches of St. Pete Clearwater, you know, so.
Speaker D:And I love the Miami area, and I love the extra excitement of the Miami, Fort Lauderdale area.
Speaker D:But you know what if I want to go sit on a beach where I've got the beach to myself?
Speaker D:I can't do that in Miami, Fort Lauderdale.
Speaker D:But I can do that on Fort DeSoto.
Speaker D:I can find a section of Fort DeSoto or Indian Rocks Beach, Indian Shores, the Reddingtons, Madera, Treasure Island.
Speaker D:Pass a Grill.
Speaker B:I mean, that's my favorite.
Speaker D:Caladisi Island.
Speaker D:You can now walk to Caladisi from the northern tip of Clearwater beach used to be completely an island, but one of the hurricanes that we had a while ago closed off that.
Speaker D:That channel.
Speaker D:So now you can walk all the way to Caladisi Island, Honeymoon Island.
Speaker D:So I think it starts really with how do we.
Speaker D:How do we take a destination that's been, as you say, your question was kind of like the hidden gem, the quiet, you know, and so on and so forth, and take it to the next level.
Speaker D:Yeah, and it really starts with the visitors.
Speaker D:You have to give them such an experience.
Speaker D:Again, I'm talking about that.
Speaker D:That visitor, that guest.
Speaker D:First off, I got to tell you right now, I don't like that word tourist.
Speaker D:I'm sorry.
Speaker D:I'm old school, okay?
Speaker D:I'm old school.
Speaker D:When I go out of town, I don't want to be a tourist.
Speaker D:I don't want to be.
Speaker D:I get this bad connotation of what a tourist is.
Speaker D:You know, somebody who's wearing dress shoes and dress socks and Bermuda shorts.
Speaker D:That's.
Speaker D:That.
Speaker D:With a camera on their neck.
Speaker D:That's.
Speaker D:That's.
Speaker C:I was thinking Birkenstocks and the fanny pads.
Speaker D:So I like to call all of the people that come to our area, they're travelers.
Speaker D:They're visitors.
Speaker D:They're guests.
Speaker D:They're adventurers.
Speaker D:I mean, when you come to my home, you're a guest of my home.
Speaker D:Okay.
Speaker D:When you come to my hotels, when I was at the hotel industry, or my restaurants or my golf course, you were a guest of my hotel.
Speaker D:You were a guest.
Speaker D:Because I am going to treat you with such care.
Speaker D:And I learned that from a couple of people I talked earlier about.
Speaker D:Russ Kimball at the Sheridan Sand Key, and then, of course, my mother, who was my first mentor.
Speaker D:Because when you do that, when you treat them with such and show them such an area, that you really have passion for this, it's infectious.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:And they turn around and they go home and they tell their friends and their family and their work colleagues and so on and so forth, and then it multiplies.
Speaker D:It's a domino effect.
Speaker D: s and now into the: Speaker D:This destination is such an amazing destination.
Speaker D:All of these travel tourism, hospitality, employees, associates, people that work in this amazing industry, I truly believe they all have a passion for what we do, for taking care of people, whether they're locals and residents or whether they're from all over the world.
Speaker D:World.
Speaker D:So I think it starts with that.
Speaker D:And I think once you get to that point where you get that visitor and that guest that's coming back year after year after year, they could go anywhere they want to, but they're coming back here year after year after year.
Speaker D:20, 25, 30 years.
Speaker D:And then they tell their friends, and they're like, you know, the friends are like, why do you go back to the same place?
Speaker D:Oh, listen, it's the water, it's the beaches, it's the people.
Speaker D:It's the warmth that we get.
Speaker D:It's the fact that we can go to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium one afternoon, and then the next afternoon we're at the Dali, and the next afternoon we're over at John's Pass, or we're at Sponge Docks.
Speaker D:So then from there, then we engage with the partners, and then with the partners, we're talking about what is it that the partners can contribute to our marketing campaign to show the very different things that we have in the destination.
Speaker D:I mean, it's one thing to be the perfect thing just in one area, that's great.
Speaker D:But to be able to Be great at something and then have all these other things to offer, man.
Speaker D:I mean, the only thing that we're currently not offering is snowboarding and skiing.
Speaker C:No.
Speaker B:1 water skis, if you really want to ski.
Speaker C:How does community relations fit in to visit St. Pete's bigger strategic plan?
Speaker D:You know, that's a great question, Larry, and I'm glad you brought that up, because I report to the Vice president of Community engagement, and that's Kylie Diaz.
Speaker D:Kylie came to us two years ago from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium and as a vice president, one of four vice presidents, as you can see.
Speaker D:I mean, that's a very.
Speaker D:It's 25%.
Speaker D:I mean, it's a vital role that we have in this community.
Speaker D:Our big message right now is what we've coined the value of tourism.
Speaker D:And from visitorswithlove.com so from visitors with love, and we talk about why is tourism so important to our area?
Speaker D: get on average finishing out: Speaker D:Wow.
Speaker D:I know you think they're all on Gulf Boulevard on a Friday afternoon in March, but they're not.
Speaker D:You know, majority of those visitors are the day trippers.
Speaker D:About, let's say about 9.5 million of those visitors are day trippers.
Speaker D:They're coming out of Hillsborough community, they're coming out of Pasco, Hernando, Orlando, stuff like that.
Speaker D:We'll get a lot of day trippers coming over from Lakeland and stuff like that.
Speaker D:They'll hit our beaches, they'll hit our restaurants and attractions and museums and food and beverage, and then they'll leave.
Speaker D:And then there's about another 2 or 3 million of those visitors that are what we call visiting friends and relatives.
Speaker D:That's your second cousin twice removed who shows up on your doorstep and wants a couch surf for two weeks, you know, doesn't have enough money to stay in a real accommodation, but you know, they're gonna come hang out for a while.
Speaker D:They're okay too, because they got lot of good money to spend and leave behind.
Speaker D:And then you've got the actual overnight visitor, which is about 6.4 million overnight guests.
Speaker D:Hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, inns, short term rentals.
Speaker D:Think Airbnb, vrbo, and even campgrounds and RV parks, you know, and that's, that's the really, really important group there.
Speaker D:They leave behind a whole bunch of money.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker D:And so all of these accommodations that charge for the visitors to stay in their accommodation, they are required by law to charge a 6% county bed tax.
Speaker D:It's called the tourist development tax, aka the bed tax.
Speaker D:6%.
Speaker D:No matter what it is, you're paying that 6% bed tax as long as it's less than a six month stay.
Speaker D:So that bed tax goes over to the county, Pinellas county, and that's how Visit St. Pete Clearwater is funded.
Speaker D: In fiscal year: Speaker D:That's a pretty significant amount.
Speaker D:It's huge.
Speaker D:And so we take visit St. Pete Clearwater gets 60% of that money and we use that for marketing, for advertising, promotions, sales, trade shows and so on and so forth forth.
Speaker D:We also set aside a significant amount, about $3 million a year from those marketing funds for things like elite events.
Speaker D:We know that people come to our destination not just for the beaches and the wonderful attractions and so on, but they come here, they plan their vacations around things like, well, two weeks ago we just had the Clearwater Jazz Holiday, 46th annual Clearwater Jazz Holiday.
Speaker D:Some great, great artists, four days and four nights of music right at Coachman park, overlooking St. Joseph Sound and Clearwater Beach.
Speaker D:So we set aside a lot of money, $3 million to help these elite events.
Speaker D:Think the Valspar Golf Championship.
Speaker D:Oh, we've got coming up in a couple of weeks, the Annika Golf Tournament over at the Pelican Golf Club in Bel Air.
Speaker D:We get international exposure from events like this.
Speaker D:This think what do we got coming up this next couple of months is.
Speaker B:Savor your guys event.
Speaker D:It's not ours.
Speaker D:Keep in mind we don't host these, I mean we don't put these events on because we're not experts at that.
Speaker D:They are the experts.
Speaker D:We just want to help them with the marketing, with the advertising and the promotion.
Speaker D:And that's our specialty.
Speaker D:Behind that you talk about marketing.
Speaker D:That's our specialty.
Speaker D:We know how to market the destination.
Speaker D:So we're going to help market these particular events.
Speaker D:We're going to help with marketing funds and sponsorship funds.
Speaker D:Think Reggae Rise up, which is what in here in St. Pete in I think February or March time frame.
Speaker D:Think the Firestone Grand Prix in March.
Speaker D:That's a great one.
Speaker B:Lovely event.
Speaker D:Boat races here, that happened just last September off of St. Pete in the pier.
Speaker D:We don't know how to necessarily run those events.
Speaker D:Events and put them on, but we do know how to market those events.
Speaker D:So that's, that's some of the stuff that we do, but the community side of it is vitally important because we need to be able to communicate to the residents of Pinellas county.
Speaker D:Why is it so important to have tourism not only in the state of Florida, but in the greater St. Pete Clearwater area?
Speaker D:And the main reason is.
Speaker D:It's the main reason why we don't have a state income tax.
Speaker D:It saves every household about $1,250 a year in not having to pay.
Speaker D:Pay a state income tax.
Speaker D:That's number one.
Speaker D:That in itself is beautiful.
Speaker D:And then you think about all the great things that we have.
Speaker D:For instance, right now, starting on Indian Rocks beach, heading south, is the beach renourishment program.
Speaker D:So we lost a lot of sand due to the storms.
Speaker D:We don't use the H word, by the way, at Visit St. Pete Claire, you know, we don't use the H word.
Speaker D:We say storms.
Speaker D:But anyhow, so we lost a lot of that sand.
Speaker D:And so we couldn't wait any longer for the Army Corps to help us replenish the beach.
Speaker D:So Pinellas county is doing it all on their own.
Speaker D:It's about $124 million to bring back the beach and the dunes.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:And not one penny is coming from our property taxes.
Speaker D:It's all coming from that bed tax collection.
Speaker D:You know that 60, 40 split I was talking about about?
Speaker D:It's that 40%.
Speaker D:We've set aside about $5 million a year from that bed tax collection to go to Bean.
Speaker D:Excuse me, Dune restoration and beach renourishment.
Speaker D:So we, as residents, we get to enjoy the beach.
Speaker D:It's paid for by the visitors.
Speaker D:Going back to that from visitorswithlove.com usually.
Speaker C:We finish up by talking about one of your favorite campaigns.
Speaker C:But before we go to that there.
Speaker C:I've heard a lot about downtown Clearwater.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:So you want to just comment a little bit on that?
Speaker C:I haven't been there yet.
Speaker C:I'm working on getting Larry.
Speaker C:But I've heard a lot about downtown Clearwater.
Speaker D:Larry, I gotta get you in the car.
Speaker D:We gotta go do some cruise.
Speaker C:And maybe you can blend downtown Clearwater into maybe one of your successful campaigns.
Speaker D:So I love downtown Clearwater, again, because of its history.
Speaker D:The Clearwater, the city of Clearwater and Clearwater beach, you know, they do a wonderful job down there.
Speaker D:There.
Speaker D:I mentioned a couple minutes ago about the Clearwater Jazz Holiday.
Speaker D:And just to reiterate, it's not just jazz music, although that's how it started out, but it's really a beautiful genre of music.
Speaker D:We had some great artists this year, but it's at Coachman Park.
Speaker D:Coachman park is in downtown Clearwater.
Speaker D:It's right on the intercoastal water where you're overlooking Memorial Causeway.
Speaker D:You can see Sand Key and Clearwater Beach.
Speaker D:The sunsets from Coachman park during Jazz Holiday are amazing.
Speaker D:The city of Clearwater, about three years ago, finished an $83 million renovation of Coachmen park, which includes the new outdoor entertainment venue called the Sound.
Speaker D:The baycare Sound.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker D:Okay.
Speaker D:So they've been open now for about.
Speaker D:Has it been about two and a half, three years, I think now.
Speaker D:And they've hosted some amazing, amazing artists.
Speaker D:There's about 9,000 seats total.
Speaker D:There's about 4,000 permanent seats.
Speaker D:Seats.
Speaker D:And then there's a beautiful lawn berm area that you can put another 5,000 people on blankets and stuff like that.
Speaker D:So I love what Clearwater and the city has done with.
Speaker D:City of Clearwater has done with Coachman park in that area.
Speaker D:You come over the Memorial Causeway from Clearwater, you go into Clearwater Beach.
Speaker D:It's a beautiful drive.
Speaker D:It's beautiful.
Speaker D:You can see, you know, Clearwater beach and stuff like that.
Speaker D:Clearwater.
Speaker D:I think the downtown Clearwater area right now is experiencing a revitalization much like St. Pete had some 15 years ago.
Speaker D:Okay.
Speaker D:You would come to St. Pete usually on the weekends.
Speaker D:Maybe a Friday night.
Speaker D:I would go to the State Theater, you know, to go listen to things like back in the.
Speaker D:Back in the late 70s, early 80s, I'd go to the State Theater and I saw Adam Ant or I saw the Class.
Speaker D:Oh, yeah.
Speaker B:At the State Theater.
Speaker D:At the State Theater.
Speaker D:We had some amazing, amazing concerts.
Speaker D:Wow.
Speaker D:I remember going to.
Speaker D:Did I see YouTube?
Speaker D:Not YouTube.
Speaker D:U2.
Speaker D:The band U2.
Speaker D:And I think they got booed off a stage.
Speaker D:The opening band was the J.
Speaker D:No, not.
Speaker D:The headliner was Jay Geil's band.
Speaker D:And the opening band was U2.
Speaker D:And they got booed off the stage.
Speaker D:And this was 79, 80.
Speaker D:But anyhow, so that's the only reason you would come to downtown St. Pete was because of that.
Speaker D:And now look at it.
Speaker D:You can come to downtown St. Pete seven nights a week.
Speaker D:And the food and the experience and stuff like that.
Speaker C:And the first Friday.
Speaker D:First Friday.
Speaker D:So Clearwater is going through that same type of revitalization right now.
Speaker D:You're getting some brand new restaurants that are opening up in downtown Clearwater within walking distance of Coachman Park.
Speaker D:There's a dueling pianos down there right now.
Speaker D:There's a brand new.
Speaker D:I think there's a hotel that's getting ready to break ground right next to the.
Speaker D:To the Coachman park and the sound.
Speaker D:So you'll have this beautiful hotel overlooking Coachman Park.
Speaker B:Amazing.
Speaker D:We're seeing a lot of people that are wanting to get into that Clearwater area area because it's.
Speaker D:It's the next St. Pete.
Speaker D:It's the next area.
Speaker D:And then between Clearwater, then you're just a hop, skip and a jump to.
Speaker D:Down to Dunedin, and then from there, Palm harbor, and then from there, Tarpon Springs, and then a quick shot up Sunset Point Road, you're into Safety harbor and that cute little community.
Speaker D:And then of course, from Clearwater to Clearwater Beach.
Speaker D:I mean, it's just right there.
Speaker D:A lot going on there is a lot.
Speaker C:I haven't even touched any of that yet.
Speaker C:Like, I'm still scratching the surface.
Speaker D:Oh, man.
Speaker D:We gotta get on the bicycles and I gotta take you all around.
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker B:Do you have a tandem bike?
Speaker D:No, I don't.
Speaker D:But I do have this monster beach cruiser that I built from the ground up.
Speaker D:It's called a Fat sand, where the tires are about 4 inches wide.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker D:And so back when I was a kid, I used to have this.
Speaker D:Remember the old Schwinn Stingrays with the big handlebars and the banana seats and the sissy bar?
Speaker D:I rebuilt it.
Speaker D:So this thing is massive.
Speaker D:And so I like to go ride in the beach.
Speaker D:Beach with this thing.
Speaker D:And I get a lot of great comments.
Speaker C:I have two mountain bikes.
Speaker C:The tires are pretty thick, but not as thick as those big ones.
Speaker D:Yeah, a lot of fun.
Speaker D:Cool.
Speaker B:Okay, so campaign I know we talked about from visitors, with love from visitorswithlove.com.
Speaker D:That'S one campaign that's very successful.
Speaker D:That's a lot of fun.
Speaker D:We're having a lot of great fun with that.
Speaker D:Our new campaign right now, which we're really, really excited about, I'm excited about.
Speaker D:I didn't have much to do with it, but I am very excited about.
Speaker D:It's home to America's best beaches.
Speaker D:And it's that Ampersand, you know, and the playfulness that we're having with this.
Speaker D:When you talk about a room and board, you know, it's like room and board.
Speaker D:So you say room and you show a beautiful room of a hotel or an Airbnb.
Speaker D:And the board, you know, would be people on paddle boards, you know, so you talk about room and board or something like that.
Speaker D:There's another one, Fish and Chips.
Speaker D:I love this one where you show fresh seafood coming out of the Gulf of Mexico, brought right to your table.
Speaker D:From water to table.
Speaker D:So you talk about the fish and chips.
Speaker D:You see a guy chipping out of the sand, you know, so fun, little cute, things like that.
Speaker D:We're running that campaign literally all over right now.
Speaker D:You'll see it in our billboard, you'll see it in our print ad, you'll see it in our magazines, and so on and so forth.
Speaker D:I love that campaign.
Speaker D:One of the campaigns I'm really, really happy about, I had a little bit to do with it.
Speaker D:And again, that was last year after the storms, immediately following the storms, where so many of our partners were affected.
Speaker D:And what I like to say is, the media can be your best friend and your worst enemy in one sentence.
Speaker D:And so it's our responsibility to set the narrative right.
Speaker D:It's our responsibility to get out there and communicate to the media and let them know truly what is happening in our destination.
Speaker D:So last year, after the storms came through, and it was such a shame because Steve Grimes, our chief marketing officer, and his team had an amazing campaign ready to rock and roll right before the first two storms hit.
Speaker D:And it was about fall colors and our fall colors of the aqua green waters and the white sand of the beaches and the amazing orange sunsets that we have here in the Gulf and stuff like that.
Speaker D:This fall campaign, the fall colors of the Greater St. Pete Clearwater is so cool, and I hope they bring it back for this year.
Speaker B:Me too.
Speaker D:But we had to put a stop on that real quick, and we had to communicate to the world that we were still open, that we were ready to go, that we were ready to welcome you.
Speaker D:So how do we do that?
Speaker D:Well, the campaign that we had before the fall colors was our let's shine campaign.
Speaker D:Let's shine.
Speaker D:Not only about the sunshine here in the greater St. Pete Clearwater area, but everything that we have to go.
Speaker D:So somebody came up with this great idea and say, well, what if we took out that word let's, and we put in the word still, and we're saying, hey, yeah, we got hit, but we're still shining.
Speaker D:And so we ran with that.
Speaker D:And so somebody at the office had the idea.
Speaker D:And it was election year last year, if you remember.
Speaker D:So somebody at the office had the idea of doing these buttons still shining.
Speaker D:And I remember to this day, and Brian, our CEO and president, Brian Lowak, he'll say, guys, come on, that's even older than Oliver.
Speaker D:That's really old school.
Speaker D:Do you want to go button?
Speaker D:And they're like, no, it's great.
Speaker D:It's great because it's election year and stuff like that.
Speaker D:So we printed up about, I don't know, maybe 4,000 buttons.
Speaker D:And all it said was it was yellow with blue letters and it said still shining.
Speaker D:And all of these industry events that I go to the chambers and to the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, Pinellas County Chapter and Clearwater Innkeepers and so on.
Speaker D:So I was going there with these bags, about 500 to 1,000 buttons each.
Speaker D:And I'd say, guys, we've got these buttons.
Speaker D:We really, really want your staff, your front of the house staff, your forward facing, guest facing staff to wear these buttons.
Speaker D:And so I remember we were at a luncheon, it was Clearwater Innkeepers and Frank Chaves with Bay Star Restaurant Group.
Speaker D:He's got all these great restaurants.
Speaker D:And he goes, ollie, Brian, this is awesome.
Speaker D:Some, I'd love to have some buttons.
Speaker D:And I'm like, okay, Frank, how many would you like?
Speaker D:Thinking he wants like 10 or 15.
Speaker D:He goes, Ollie, I need about 400.
Speaker D:Nice.
Speaker D:And so he asked all of his associates at all of his restaurants to put on a button.
Speaker D:And it made a difference.
Speaker D:I was in a local Publix supermarket a couple of weeks later going through Publix and a staff member was still wearing her let's Shine still shining buttons.
Speaker D:And if you go down to Clearwater beach and St. Pete beach and other places, you'll still see the staff wearing these buttons, the still shining buttons, which is great.
Speaker D:So that was a campaign that I was really excited to be involved with.
Speaker D:And I thought that it brought out the creativity we took, I guess you would call it a negative, an obstacle.
Speaker D:Let's call it an obstacle.
Speaker D:And we turned it around and we made it something so incredibly impactful.
Speaker D:And it really showed the world that we're still here, we're open, we're still shining, and we're ready to greet you and welcome you.
Speaker C:Wow.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:Now and then some, I mean, and more.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's been a year and everything has, I would say, flourished since.
Speaker B:So congratulations on a successful campaign then.
Speaker B:But now also that we are really welcoming everybody with open arms and St. Petersburg and Clearwater.
Speaker D:And I like how you say we're welcoming everybody.
Speaker D:It's very important to us because we want to make sure that the Greater St. Pete Clearwater area is a destination for everybody.
Speaker D:And that's important.
Speaker D:That's very important to us.
Speaker D:We've got some great partners.
Speaker D:Our partners are part of our success.
Speaker D:It's truly part of our success.
Speaker D:They love the campaigns they love what it is that we're doing.
Speaker D:And again, it's funny because they then become an extension of us.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker B:Well, this has been such a wonderful conversation.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker C:The history in St. Pete, your knowledge of it's been incredible.
Speaker D:Yeah, well, I appreciate that.
Speaker D:And if I can throw in one.
Speaker C:Plug real quick, please.
Speaker B:Of course.
Speaker D:So one of the things that we do at Visit St. Pete Clearwater, Kylie Diaz, who's our vice president of community engagement, one of the things that she wanted to start doing was a very simple training on the area.
Speaker D:And so we call it Gulf to Bay Destination Pinellas County Partner Training.
Speaker D:And it's, you know, you know about your hotel that you might work at or your restaurant or your museum and attraction.
Speaker D:But how much do you really know about the greater Pinellas county area?
Speaker D:You know, and what makes our area so unique?
Speaker D:So about three times a year we do this training.
Speaker D:We bring people in, we ask them to RSVP on our website, visitspc.com partners and on there you can click on the events calendar and things that we have going on and you can sign up for the Gulf to Bay destination training.
Speaker D:It's on November 19th from 3 to 5pm at the VSPC offices right in Largo.
Speaker D:So central location.
Speaker D:And we talk about the different things that make The Pinellas County, St. Pete Clearwater Area so unique.
Speaker D: ,: Speaker D:I talk about, did you know that the very first grapefruit tree in the United States was planted in Safety Harbor?
Speaker B:I didn't know that.
Speaker D:I didn't know that grapefruit was not native to Florida.
Speaker D:I thought they were native to Florida.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker D:So we talk about real cool history like that.
Speaker D:We talk about interesting things.
Speaker D:St. Petersburg holds, holds the Guinness Book of World Records for the most continuous days of sunshine.
Speaker D:Any idea how many days in a row that the sun came out and shone over St. Petersburg?
Speaker B:Is it 362?
Speaker D:You're close.
Speaker D:You almost have it.
Speaker D:What you have is the average number of days that St. Petersburg and Pinellas county gets in a year.
Speaker D:361.
Speaker D:But.
Speaker D:But 763 days back in the 80s is when we had continuous sun that came out.
Speaker D:So that's the Guinness Book of World Records that still holds to this day.
Speaker D:So I get to do the course along with other Visit St. Pete Clearwater staff members.
Speaker D:We talk about the destination, we talk about what makes the area so unique.
Speaker D:And what's great is as a frontline employee at a front desk or a bellman or something like that.
Speaker D:They get to be an extra expert on our destination as well.
Speaker D:And then we really just expand who we are at Visit St. Pete Clearwater.
Speaker C:It's a lot of fun.
Speaker C:Well, Oliver, this has been a fantastic conversation and here Aqua talks.
Speaker C:Aqua, we are a St. Petersburg based company.
Speaker C:We are here all the time.
Speaker C:We'd love to have you and any of your other staff from Visit St. Pete come and join us and talk about anything and everything that's going on in Saint Saint Pete, things that are coming up, things you want to talk about.
Speaker C:We have listeners all over the world and so we would love to.
Speaker D:So before we go, you had mentioned that we met in Chicago at Destinations International.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker D:You commented about my T shirt.
Speaker B:Yes, I did.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker D:I bought some goodies for you guys.
Speaker B:Oh, you didn't have to.
Speaker D:You mentioned the artist, Chad Mize.
Speaker D:So I didn't bring one of those other two.
Speaker D:But so every year and again, this is going back to our creative design company and this is going back to our.
Speaker D:Not our creative design, sorry, but our, our in house marketing.
Speaker D:Our marketing department.
Speaker D:And so we do every year our seven to seven day.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:When do we do it?
Speaker D:What day is it?
Speaker B:July27.
Speaker D:727.
Speaker D:It's our area code and so we've been doing it for a couple years.
Speaker D: And so this is this year's: Speaker D:Okay.
Speaker D:And who do you think designed it?
Speaker D:It's a Chad M shirt.
Speaker D:And so we've got all of the 24 municipalities on the back here.
Speaker D:So Larry, this is yours.
Speaker D:I got you a goodie bag.
Speaker C:Thank you.
Speaker D:So when you're cruising around Clearwater and Clearwater beach and all the other areas, you're going to have some great swag.
Speaker D:And then Maddie, I got you one as well.
Speaker D:Thank you.
Speaker D:Thanks guys for allowing us to be here and for me to be able to talk about our area and our industry and stuff like that.
Speaker D:It's a lot of fun.
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker C:We love it here.
Speaker C:Obviously we're based here, so we definitely want you to come back.
Speaker B:Would love to.
Speaker D:Thank you so much.
Speaker B:Truly a pleasure.
Speaker B:If you're interested in learning more about visit St. Pete Clearwater or Oliver, our guest or any of the upcoming events that he mentioned, please go to aquatacs.com we'll have details there.
Speaker B:And we also have all of our socials there listed in Oliver's bio, so.
Speaker B:So you can learn more there and we'll see you next time.
Speaker A:You've been listening to Aquatax, where marketing innovation takes center stage with bold ideas and actionable insights.
Speaker A:Ready to take your strategies to the next level?
Speaker A:Visit aquatacs.com to book your free consultation and explore resources that empower you to thrive in today's fastest pace marketing world.
Speaker A:Until next time, stay bold, stay inspired, stay imaginative.
