Angling for Visitors

With heightened competition and a significant dip in the number of group meetings, resorts and county tourism agencies have been working on different ways to entice business visitors.

Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau's new slogan, "the beaches of Fort Myers and Sanibel," has proven a valuable marketing tool, says its executive director, D.T. Minich. "Nobody understood what Lee Island Coast was. Now it's so easy to market the destination," he says. "They immediately know what we are and where we are, so it's made a huge difference."

Promoting the Southwest Florida International Airport expansion is the focus now, he adds. "There's still some misunderstanding with meeting planners," Minich says. "They think there's no air service into Fort Myers."

Minich also hopes that a hotel will take shape in downtown Fort Myers to accommodate conventions. "There's been a lot of business that's been turned away because there's no hotels," he says.

And, he adds, "Beginning in the fall, we'll produce a four-color newspaper to meeting planners, which will give [convention planners] updates, information on all meeting properties, the airport, special promotional things."

Unlike international chains, such as the Ritz-Carlton, the Hyatt and the Marriott, private resorts such as Sanibel Harbour Resort & Spa and the Registry Resort & Club don't have sales offices in major cities, but they are getting more coverage through national representation firms, says Sanibel Harbour's Brian Holly.

"There are about eight of them that are big companies located in major feeder cities, mostly in the Northeast, that most independent resorts use," he says. "We come together under an independent banner, which gives us more marketing clout."

The Marco Island Marr-iott's people have been hitting major cities throughout the East, talking to meeting planners, people in the travel industry, associations, and companies, says Mark Vaughan, and inviting them to come experience the resort.

Hotels and resorts have been focusing on their Web sites and other Internet resources, because more meeting planners and travelers are doing their own booking.

"Electronic marketing has become more sophisticated and more widely used," says the Registry's Kerry Mitruska. "That's certainly been a change in our marketing strategy and how some of our dollars are spent on tech."

The downside, he adds, is that hotels sometimes offer unfilled rooms last-minute at reduced rates online, sometimes undercutting prices quoted to groups. "That has created some problems for meeting attendees in the past, where attendees can often get a lower rate than the previously negotiated group rate," Mitruska says.