From “Enhancing Amazing” at the Convention Center to your last chance to enjoy Visit Orlando’s Magical Dining, here's your weekly look at what's happening across America's most visited destination.
‘Enhancing Amazing’ at the Convention Center
To promote the Orange County Convention Center’s upcoming expansion, Visit Orlando has rolled out our largest-ever marketing campaign aimed at the meetings and conventions industry. “Enhancing Amazing” is a high-impact, creative campaign with blanket coverage in all major trade publications, including the cover story of this month’s Meetings & Conventions
magazine. In addition, our team continues to educate key meeting professionals on the new improvements, and we're excited to see momentum building across the industry for a project that will greatly enhance our amazing, world-class convention center.
Live from Orlando with Kelly & Ryan
Our marketing team recently partnered with ABC on a weeklong, family-oriented feature on “Live with Kelly & Ryan” that aired this week. As part of the coverage, Tuesday’s “clip of the day”
on KellyandRyan.com showed families vying for the chance to win a “Uniquely Orlando” vacation including airfare, a seven-day, six-night hotel stay, transportation and theme park tickets.
U.S. Travelers Not Prepared for REAL ID Requirements
You might have read where, starting Oct. 1, 2020, U.S. travelers must present a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license or other identification at TSA checkpoints in U.S. airports. The good news is that Florida is in compliance with the new law (as evidenced by the star in the upper right corner of driver’s licenses issued after Jan. 1, 2010). Unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans are not prepared for this approaching deadline,
which has the potential to create a significant challenge for our air travel system and tourism in general. The U.S. Travel Association has launched a public education campaign and a set of policy recommendations for leaders in Washington, D.C., and Visit Orlando is monitoring the situation to help mitigate any future air travel disruptions. To learn more, please visit U.S. Travel’s resource page or read this
FAQ from the Department of Homeland Security.
Last Weekend to Enjoy Visit Orlando’s Magical Dining
‘A Fairytale Two-Week Family Holiday of a Lifetime’
The United Kingdom is our destination’s largest overseas market, and Visit Orlando has been hard at work generating publicity across the pond. After viewers of the hit program “ITV This Morning” voted Orlando among their most popular dream holiday destinations, we gave the show an online getaway guide to Orlando, complete with top picks for things to do. In addition, our publicity team developed a trip itinerary for a family whose
first-person story ran in The Scottish Sun, sister publication to the U.K.’s No.1 newspaper. The coverage described Orlando as “a fairytale two-week family holiday of a lifetime.”
OTHER NEWS FROM VISIT ORLANDO
» Visit Orlando CMO Danielle Hollander and Elaine Blazys, associate vice president of travel industry sales, attended an industry event last week celebrating Frontier Airlines’ 20 years of service to Orlando International Airport. The low-fare carrier, which offers a leading 57 nonstop flights to MCO, has flown 18 million passengers to our destination.
» Orange County’s collections of Tourist Development Tax, charged to overnight visitors, reached nearly $19.8 million in August, up 4.9% over the same time last year. With one month remaining in fiscal 2019, TDT collections stand just shy of $266 million (a 3.3% increase) and are headed for another annual record.
» Visit Orlando’s travel industry sales team recently hosted LATAM Travel, a leading Latin America travel agency, for a destination orientation in partnership with Universal Orlando Resort. More than 50 travel agents from Colombia, Chile, Argentina and Peru gained the tools and knowledge to help sell Orlando to clients.
» Our publicity team generated a five-minute segment on “CHCH Morning Live,” a top Canadian morning show, emphasizing why visitors should travel to Orlando this fall. Canada is Orlando’s No. 1 international market.
