Recommend January 2013 - (Page 121)

Dr. Beach. “This designation generated some great awareness of our beaches and community offerings as a whole. Since then, tourism numbers have soared and we’ve been doing very well,” she adds. Vice president of marketing for the Panama City Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau, Susan Estler, says the area deﬁnitely saw a decrease in tourists after the spill, but once the well was capped people began to return. “We have experienced 16 months of continuous growth and our bed tax numbers continue to grow. We were lucky to be down only 1.8 percent after the spill.” For the beach community of South Walton, the dollars were used for a multi-layered approach from TV ads to social media and gorilla marketing strategies. “We have experienced 17 solid months of double digit increases to our bed tax collections,” says Dawn Moliterno, executive director of the South Walton Tourist Development Council and chairperson of the Northwest Florida Tourism Council. “We are back to our great pristine beaches that everyone has come to love.” Florida is known for its pristine beaches and soft sugar-white sand. The Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa in South Walton is located right on the beach offering 598 guestrooms. Ideal for families in Panama City Beach is Seahaven Beach Resorts, located steps from the Gulf. The Hyatt Siesta Key Beach Club in Sarasota offers residential-style luxury with beach access and comfortable accommodations. Archived related articles (available on recommend.com): The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel (September 2010) contact information Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism CVB: (800) 745-SAND; gulfshores.com Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa: (800) 559-1805; sandestinbeachhilton.com Hyatt French Quarter: (504) 586-0800; frenchquarter.hyatt.com Hyatt Siesta Key Beach Club: (941) 346-5900; siestakeybeach.hyatt.com The Mississippi Gulf Coast Convention & Visitors Bureau: (888) 467-4853; gulfcoast.org/travel-professionals New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau: (800) 672-6124; neworleanscvb.com/travel-professionals Panama City Beach Visitors & Convention Bureau: (800) PCBEACH; visitpanamacitybeach.com Seahaven Beach Resorts: seahavenbeach.com Southwest Airlines: southwest.com Visit Sarasota County: (941) 955-0991; visitsarasota.org/travel-professionals Visit South Walton: visitsouthwalton.com W French Quarter: (888) 627-8260; wfrenchquarter.com Windsor Court Hotel: (888) 596-0955; windsorcourthotel.com Look No Further. Down here in The Florida Keys & Key West, the water’s still warm, the sun’s still shining and the average daily temperature is in the mid 70’s. So if you’ve got clients looking for anything from an active family vacation to a romantic weekend getaway, there’s something for everyone, all year round, A AD OR in The Florida Keys. ﬂa-keys.com 1.800.ﬂa.keys AM ISL KEY W EST BIG PINE KEY & THE LOWER KEYS MARA THO N MCTG-7488 Recommend Magazine LO1 • March 2012 january 2013 121 KE Y LA RG O http://www.recommend.com http://www.gulfshores.com http://www.sandestinbeachhilton.com http://frenchquarter.hyatt.com http://siestakeybeach.hyatt.com http://www.gulfcoast.org/travel-professionals http://www.neworleanscvb.com/travel-professionals http://www.visitpanamacitybeach.com http://www.seahavenbeach.com http://www.southwest.com http://www.visitsarasota.org/travel-professionals http://www.visitsouthwalton.com http://www.wfrenchquarter.com http://www.windsorcourthotel.com http://www.fla-keys.com http://www.fla-keys.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recommend January 2013

Editor's Note
Hotel Desk: The Westlake Village Inn
Tour Talk: Brendan Vacations' Boutique Journeys
Four Cheers for River Crusing
A-ROSA Silva
Delta Air Lines' 2013 Caribbean, Mexico and Latin America Travel Guide
China Remains a Time-Tested Destination
What's Hot in Vegas for 2013
Back to the Gulf
Authentic Morocco in An (Argan) Nutshell
Festive Europe

Recommend January 2013