by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
The tourism industry puts a lot of effort, and money, into persuading non-Floridians that the state isn’t equally divided between theme parks and . . . other stuff.
At the same time, the industry desperately wants natives to realize that the rest of the state doesn’t look like their back yard.
There’s a wide world of variety out there, and far too many residents never see it, said Barry Pitegoff, Visit Florida’s vice president of research.
“The biggest undertapped market for Florida tourism continues to be the state resident,” he said. “Residents tend to be self-imposed myopic. They think the rest of the state is exactly like where they live. So why go see it?”
Pitegoff led a “Looking Back, Looking Ahead” seminar at the Governor’s Conference on Tourism at the Adam’s Mark Hotel.
Over the next year — which is about as far out as Visit Florida is forecasting — the number of tourists visiting the state should increase by about 2 percent, he said.
“We’ll be going in a positive direction for a change,” said Pitegoff.
Those numbers aren’t being held down so much by attitudes about airline safety, which are “better than before,” he added. “That’s as long as they’re traveling domestically and into Canada.”
Nor is the economy itself persuading people to postpone their travel plans. Americans’ perceptions of the economy, however, are having an effect.
“The consumers’ perception of the American economy seems to be consistently different — and more pessimistic — than the economic indicators,” said Pitegoff. “The corporate perspective doesn’t really take into account, or ask much, where the goods are made. It takes into account what the bottom line is.
“The consumers connect to their 401(k) statement. They connect to whether or not the environment is honest and ethical . . . whether they feel comfortable going on vacation and they’ll have a job when they come back.”
Although Florida hosts a “high number” of foreign visitors each year, Pitegoff said about 92 percent of the total come from the United States.
The first-time visitor, who is traveling with children and for pleasure, “feels almost compelled to make sure they do the Central Florida aspect,” he said. “The repeat visitor may spend some of their time in Central Florida and some in a coastal community.”
Counties could help draw more first-time and repeat visitors if they tinkered with the way they market themselves, Pitegoff suggested.
“We now have 49 counties, out of 67, that have their own tourism boards,” he said. “The tendency is to market themselves as if their potential visitor doesn’t know anything about them.
“With the electronics today, particularly the Internet, it would be wise to segment them . . . give the first-time visitor the basics, and give the others a reason to come back.”
Floridians themselves need to be reminded that there’s a whole world south of the St. Marys River that would take several lifetimes to absorb, Pitegoff said. Zoos, historic sites, botanical gardens and wildlife refuges. Lakes, streams, swamps and beaches.
There are festivals that pay homage to frog legs, kumquats, catfish and swamp cabbage.
For the impish, there’s even a Worm Gruntin’ Festival at Sopchoppy, where “hundreds of earthworms show up for this annual event in the Apalachicola National Forest.”
Only 42 percent of vacationing Floridians stay in the state, said Pitegoff, who would like to see the split closer to 50-50.
“We’re the fourth-largest state; we have 16 million people,” he said. “We have the world’s best tourism product. We have the best value in the tourism product.
“They don’t even have to use their own car if they don’t want. We have the best value in rental cars. And that’s the best way to get out into the rural part of the state, the way to get to the other beaches of the state.”
Pitegoff plans to get the message across with a proven program: “Your Own Back Yard.”
“We keep using variations on that theme,” he said. “We talk about Florida as your own back yard, see your own back yard. See how diverse the state is, how special the state can be.
“We will have more of that.”