by Caroline Gabsewics
Staff Writer
With only two years under his belt as the President and CEO of the Jacksonville & the Beaches Convention and Visitors Bureau, John Reyes has become one of Jacksonville’s community leaders helping make the First Coast a destination.
When Reyes arrived in Jacksonville in 2005, he had a positive impression of the city and said it reminded him of San Diego in the mid-1980s. Reyes came to Jacksonville after 18 years at the San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau.
“I had the opportunity to be a part of a team that was going to make Jacksonville even better,” said Reyes. “I came here for the opportunity to be a part of a group with a vision of where Jacksonville can be.”
Two years ago Reyes set two major goals for himself, and so far, he said they are going really well. His first goal was to evaluate the city’s destination strengths and work on how the CVB can improve in that capacity. He also wanted to take an already successful CVB from good to great.
“The TDC (the Duval County Tourist Development Council) measures our success. And we have showed them some really measurable results,” said Reyes.
He also said it is important to him to have employees at the CVB that have a passion for what they do. Reyes said the CVB is one of the finalists of The Jacksonville Business Journal’s “Best Places to Work” contest.
“That is a measure of our success also,” he said. “There is strong motivation by this team. Your job should be your passion and I’d like to think I’ve created a successful work environment.”
Since Reyes has been here, he has seen many changes in Jacksonville, most of them for the better.
“There is an influx of people because of Jacksonville’s quality of life. Downtown has started to develop, improvements have been made to the airport and the zoo,” he said. “There is a lot of excitement and pride in our future with the vision for Downtown that the mayor as set, Blueprint for Prosperity, and the Chamber of Commerce’s work.
“There is an increase in excitement in Jacksonville and it has a new chapter to write for itself.”
Reyes believes Northeast Florida is the last place in Florida to really grow because it is the most logical place to establish new and future businesses.
“There is an excellent quality of life here and my feeling is that Jacksonville will be presented with opportunities because it is the last great location that companies will be looking for,” he said.
Looking into Jacksonville’s future as a destination, Reyes said the main area that needs to be worked on is branding Jacksonville.
“I believe the product has already been built,” he said. “Ninety local leaders were surveyed and the result of that survey showed that the nature and outdoors is unique (to Jacksonville).
“The future is, I believe, we need to brand Jacksonville on nature-based tourism.”
Reyes also sees Jacksonville as an important life science and medical tourism hub with Shands Jacksonville and its Proton Beam Therapy Institute and the Mayo Clinic, all in Duval County.
“People are coming here from all over for patient care, and the Proton Institute has two major meetings coming up that are bringing in thousands of people from all over the world,” said Reyes.
To help get the word out about the First Coast, Reyes plans to use a lot of advertising products within driving distance of Jacksonville.
“We want to create a product that will ‘drive’ people here,” he said.
Some examples that Reyes used were to create packages for people to come to Jacksonville to enjoy “The Lion King” or exhibits at any of the museums. Reyes said with The Players Championship being moved to May, the City and Mayor John Peyton have helped create a Players Championship-related event Downtown called “The Players Experience.”
“We want to create events within an event,” he said. “But the number one thing we need to do is brand Jacksonville.
“And we don’t want to be an Orlando or Miami or Tampa. We have the opportunity to capture more than that.”
Research done by the CVB shows about 80 percent of people who visit Jacksonville are here for leisure. The feedback the CVB receives from visitors is mostly about the friendliness of the city.
“There are very friendly people here and that shouldn’t be taken for granted, because people notice the friendliness,” he said.
Duval County has 139 hotels, six in the Downtown area, and adding more in the Downtown area is not a priority right now, said Reyes.
“Hotels are dependent on product and demand,” he said. “Currently, right now, we have the correct number of rooms.
“Right now we are fine with the number of vacations, meetings and conventions that we have.”
Reyes said when he arrived here, the city already had positive attributes with the river, the weather and the people, but Jacksonville isn’t there yet.
“I believe Jacksonville is one of the destinations that has lot of potential,” he said.