The Palm Beaches are positioned in southeast Florida and comprise 30-9 cities and towns, like Boca Raton, Palm Seaside and Jupiter. It is been called “America’s Initial Resort Vacation spot,” due to the fact of its historical past as a common holiday vacation location.
Jorge Pesquera, President and CEO of Learn The Palm Seashores and Erick Garnica, Senior Director, Leisure Trade Marketplace Income at Uncover The Palm Shorelines points out why the area is these types of a excellent trip place and how it is tailored to continue to keep visitors secure all through the pandemic.
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TravelPulse (TP): What are the largest items that attract vacationers to this spot?
Jorge Pesquera (JP): As America’s Initial Resort Vacation spot, The Palm Shorelines has been welcoming attendees for 125 several years. We are a gentler side of Florida wherever gulf-stream waters allow for for significantly less humid days and cleaner sands. It is a area wherever much less crowds and a slower, genteel pace welcome site visitors from all walks of life.
The Palm Seashores offer you a diversity of ordeals, from broad open areas, emphasis on the outdoor, to the historical luxury of the place — the entire world-renowned sports functions, spas, alfresco eating and buying. In one day, you can paddle alongside the Loxahatchee River, see a polo match, experience section of the Everglades, catch a Broadway exhibit and dine at celebrity-accredited dining establishments without having venturing additional than 45 minutes.
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TP: How have The Palm Shorelines been afflicted by the pandemic?
JP: The pandemic has had a significant effects on tourism in Palm Seaside county, as it has during the state of Florida and frankly, the entire planet. We had to make some difficult conclusions and depart from our founded marketing and income programs, but are at last starting to see appreciable light-weight at the stop of the tunnel.
Pre-COVID-19, The Palm Shorelines welcomed a history-breaking 8.22 million visitors in 2019. That yr marked 11 a long time in a row of consecutive visitation progress, and international vacationers represented 703,000 of total visitation that 12 months. When COVID-19 strike in March 2020, we right away had to pause and re-strategize, prioritizing our people today and our local community very first. We begun with a regional advertising tactic, centered on health and fitness and security. Then, as we moved into the tumble of 2020, we commenced focusing on our conventional critical marketplaces in the Northeast, having advantage of CARES funding, paying a report amount of pounds on internet marketing initiatives to hold The Palm Beaches top of intellect with eager opportunity vacationers.
Fast ahead to currently, we have adapted, featuring most, if not all, of the similar treasured experiences with augmented protection actions in put. Even though a lot of places expert spectacular business downturns due to the pandemic, we normally thought that our less congested, outside-oriented space has been greater poised for a robust recovery. We are immensely gratified by new tendencies and just this March, we reached 80 % occupancy, which was just 4 p.c shy of 2019 figures.
TP: What measures ended up place in area to assistance the tourism marketplace recover?
JP: In the course of the pandemic, we wanted to assist the vacation field by way of very carefully balanced messaging. A person that remained delicate to traveler considerations, but also educated that we ended up open for business enterprise for those who were all set, with wellness and safety as our leading precedence. With this in mind, we grew to become a dependable resource of details on overall health and protection, like speaking the availability of lodging for first responders.
We structured informational sessions, staging town hall conferences with distinct point out associations to showcase our latest efforts and technological know-how to combat considerations, together with the implementation of GBAC 2 STAR Accreditation. We have been the to start with in Florida and a single of the first within the U.S. to assistance our hospitality local community by pursuing the GBAC STAR Accreditation in a spot-large method. Supplementing this initiative was The Palm Seashores Pledge. This Pledge is a motivation from local corporations and desired destination partners to adhere to social distancing, sanitation and masks. It reveals our promise as a destination to prioritize the wellbeing and safety of visitors, staff members and residents and is nonetheless distinguished during place firms.
TP: What actions were set in spot to enable the tourism industry recuperate?
Erick Garnica (EG): From a travel trade standpoint, we felt it was incredibly important to preserve continuity of internet marketing, and right after a brief pause, we stepped up our efforts to maintain The Palm Beaches best of head with this crucial purchaser sector. We re-assessed our strategic partnership alliances, like these with international distribution businesses Travelport and TravelClick and ongoing our financial commitment to arrive at this viewers.
Precisely, in partnership with Travelport, we launched a special journey agent incentive program that made available an more 3% fee for vacation agencies and brokers that booked The Palm Shorelines from Oct 1-Nov. 30, 2020. The software was accessible to brokers who make use of Travelport Worldwide Distribution Devices (GDS) reservation systems and are dependent in Florida and neighboring states these as Ga and the Carolinas, then expanded to brokers in NE markets and other US markets. We are extremely proud of the marketing campaign and the influence it yielded in earnings and room evenings for The Palm Shorelines and our lodge partners. It really served as a “thank you” to the journey trade community who supported the destination for the duration of a complicated time.
TP: What is something that most tourists will be surprised to uncover all through a excursion to The Palm Seashores?
EG: Most vacationers may well not comprehend the variety and prosperity of offerings The Palm Shorelines present. We are entire world-renowned for some of our affluent locations this kind of as Palm Seaside and Boca Raton, but many never know that we represent a destination that includes 39 metropolitan areas and towns, all with their personal unique character and touristic attractiveness, presenting some thing for each and every flavor and funds.
H2o fans can rejoice along our 125 miles of peaceful waterways for on- or in-the-water functions all within just near proximity to our metropolis facilities and neighboring towns. There are 160 golfing programs in the county, award-successful parks, plentiful cultural venues and we’re dwelling to additional than 100 relatives-helpful attractions, as perfectly as an abundance of entire world-course, award-winning restaurants. That is why we’ve trademarked phrases like Florida’s Golfing Capital and Florida’s Cultural Cash.
For extra information about the vacation spot, please visit The Palm Seashores.