Bud Nocera
President/Chief Executive Officer
VISIT FLORIDA

Leadership, Vision and Focus Under Pressure

1) Most recently, in May this year, Florida faced an active wildfire season. With more than 200 fires burning in approximately 50 counties, VISIT FLORIDA was faced with the task of keeping visitors to the Sunshine State informed. In anticipation of the national news coverage that would surround the Florida fires, Bud encouraged VISIT FLORIDA to communicate messaging to Partners, Board members and other key stakeholders. VISIT FLORIDA also remained involved with the state emergency management center. As a result, media coverage that mentioned the fires and Florida tourism reflected the state was open and welcoming visitors and/or positively positioned the Welcome Centers and staff as helpful resources for travelers. In addition, traffic at the Official Florida Welcome Centers increased 8 percent compared to the same period last year.

2) Bud's leadership and persuasive efforts with the Florida Legislature following the tragedies of September 11, 2001 led to a state-infused $20 million to help restore Florida's tourism industry. In return, Bud guided a program that committed accountability to the state. The result was more than 80 co-sponsored advertising efforts and a proven $3.13:$1.00 return on investment. As a result, the state was credited with leading the nation with the quickest tourism recovery. In addition, the Travel Industry Association of America presented the VISIT FLORIDA business model to the U.S. Congress in 2002 as their recommendation of the type of tourism promotion entity that the Federal Government should replicate.

3) Florida experienced two busy hurricanes seasons in 2004 and 2005. After the hurricane season of 2004, Bud led a successful global tourism perception recovery program for Florida. The strategic, integrated marketing plan visually demonstrated to potential visitors around the world, that Florida was open and welcoming visitors. Innovative strategies were used such as PR-generated live television coverage, live web cams from around the state posted on www.VISITFLORIDA.com, sweepstake trip giveaways and media familiarization trips. These programs were implemented immediately following the hurricanes to show that most of Florida remained untouched by the hurricanes and that the state was indeed open for business. Even after these two active hurricane seasons, Florida had record-breaking visitation in BOTH 2004 and 2005. In fact, in 2005 Florida hosted 85.8 million visitors, the first time the state hosted more than 80 million visitors.

4) Crises often result in invention and during this time Bud directed community assistance initiatives and new ground-breaking programs for meeting planners such as Cover Your Event Insurance, a free event insurance service program for meeting planners. After Hurricane Katrina impacted the Gulf Coast, Bud directed VISIT FLORIDA's team to provide any and all assistance to the state tourism offices in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. The team provided its Hurricane Recovery Plan, as well as counsel and expertise. But most importantly, VISIT FLORIDA staff provided their experience and knowledge gained after Florida's recent hurricanes on post hurricane marketing and public relations. VISIT FLORIDA shared research tactics and information with the affected states as well. In addition, when Pensacola's city information center was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in 2004, Bud directed a volunteer team of VISIT FLORIDA staff that rented (at VISIT FLORIDA's expense), installed and landscaped a portable classroom structure to be used as Pensacola's visitor information center until reconstruction of a new center was completed. Later, as Santa Rosa County, to the east of Pensacola, suffered a similar loss, this portable was relocated to help sustain that local tourism industry.

With Bud's direction and encouragement, the Official Florida Welcome Center on I-10 near Pensacola, like the welcome centers of the Katrina-affected states, was turned into a hurricane evacuee center. Staff in this center made thousands of sandwiches and drinks, which for some evacuees was the first meal they had in two days. Bud solicited the Florida tourism industry to send the center toiletries and clothing for victims fleeing Hurricane Katrina. Tallahassee staff was redirected to the Pensacola welcome center to assist as needed. As many as 800 visitors a day were fed and many of these used the Welcome Center facilities to bathe and find accommodations.

5) Bud worked with his PR and Promotions staff to develop the concept of Getaways for Gulf Aid, an on-line auction on eBay to sell Florida vacation packages with the payments for the packages going directly to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. Bud went directly to the leaders of Florida's tourism industry and to VISIT FLORIDA's members (Partners) to request donations of hotel accommodations, attractions tickets, air tickets and rental car vouchers to be combined into Florida vacation packages. Thus 100 percent of the sales price of each vacation package went to the hurricane relief effort. This online auction was the first of its kind to benefit the Gulf Coast and raised more that $69,000 for the Red Cross. Bud encouraged other state tourism offices to participate, offering to share VISIT FLORIDA's experience in the process of setting up the on-line auctions and arranging the payments directly to the Red Cross.

Program & Tourism Development

Bud's leadership for VISIT FLORIDA and Florida's dynamic tourism industry has led to groundbreaking, innovative tourism programs being created such as the www.VISITFLORIDA.com 3.0 initiative, Dialogue Program, Cover Your Event Insurance and more.  

1) Driven by Bud's direction, VISIT FLORIDA is once again taking the lead in the increasingly competitive global travel industry. In May, VISIT FLORIDA announced plans to revolutionize the state's award-winning travel planning web site – www.VISITFLORIDA.com – by leveraging the latest in web technologies. Available to consumers in November 2007, this radically enhanced site will feature a vast array of rich media content, blogging, image and video sharing, consumer reviews and ratings, all in a highly intuitive, personalized, and integrated format for users. This latest evolution embraces the hottest technology to further enhance users' online travel planning experience, going way beyond simple listings of information and static imagery, to engage travelers through meaningful experiences and relationships. When completed, the web site will offer more rich media content than any other destination marketing organization site in the country. To generate this new content, VISIT FLORIDA has developed an innovative new cooperative marketing program called Open Florida. The latest initiative in the company's overall marketing program and the first of its kind in the U.S. tourism industry, Open Florida will deliver interest- and location-based rich media content in the form of informational and experiential videos.  Footage from around the state will be shot and edited using a mobile studio – a 36-foot recreational vehicle customized for Open Florida and wrapped in unmistakable Florida style. 

2) Bud recognized the importance of providing consumers more personalized products and services. The Internet is a medium that speaks to the individual consumer and thus the needs of the individual should be met. Recognizing these trends, Bud seized an opportunity to increase visitation to Florida by delivering multiple, narrowly focused messages targeted to the lifestyle interests of individual consumers. This is niche marketing that goes far beyond traditional advertising. It was accomplished though the now-successful VISIT FLORIDA Dialogue Program, which consists of content-rich special interest publications sent electronically and via surface mail to targeted consumers. The program also incorporates www.VISITFLORIDA.com, VISIT FLORIDA's consumer web site. The publications and web site provide compelling reasons for these visitors to plan a Florida vacation by showing them what else they could do in a Florida destination they regularly visit or where else in Florida they could pursue their individual special interests and passions. Through the program, VISIT FLORIDA's customer relationship management database grew from 15,000 names to 1.3 million, annual visitation to www.VISITFLORIDA.com broke the 9 million annual visitors mark, even in a year of a contracting fiscal budget. VISIT FLORIDA also increased its consumer touch points by more than 200 percent via a new direct marketing initiative.

3) To dispel lingering concerns meeting planners may have about booking meetings/events in Florida during peak hurricane season months (August, September, October), VISIT FLORIDA launched Cover Your Event Insurance, a free, hurricane insurance program for meetings held in Florida during the six month long North Atlantic Hurricane Season. The insurance provides hotels and venues a tool to reassure meeting professionals that their meetings would happen in Florida if booked during the peak months of hurricane season.

4) Bud has always supported the empowerment of all those involved in the Florida tourism industry to have a voice at the table. In the past, under-tapped tourism destinations, outdoor activities and cultural heritage didn't receive as much exposure as many other popular attractions. Bud made sure the Florida's cultural tourism product, heritage tourism product, nature-based tourism product, and Native American tourism products are included and promoted through all marketing aspects. In addition, this niche market is now represented by an advisory committee and has an affordable presence in the Welcome Centers and on the consumer web site. As part of this, Bud also led a vast expansion in VISIT FLORIDA's industry-driven advisory committees and council. For example, after recognizing the importance of the GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) market, Bud led the formation of the GLBT Task Force, which was formed to develop recommendations for marketing to this niche audience. The task force represents the industry-led direction that is the hallmark of how VISIT FLORIDA's approaches all its strategic marketing decisions.

5) Through Bud's leadership, VISIT FLORIDA employees sponsor local needy families at holiday time, and provide food and gifts. To support this project Bud encourages a "Jeans for Charity Day" every Friday, in which VISIT FLORIDA employees voluntarily give two dollars each Friday for the privilege of wearing blue jeans to the office. Enough money is raised each year to provide between two and five Tallahassee families with enough food and gifts to make their Christmases happy beyond all expectations.

6) To recognize team members who display extraordinary work-ethic and performance, Bud instituted a President's Award. To further recognize a job well done, Bud developed "Bud Bucks" – a paper currency handed out when he sees great work being done. The popular Bud Bucks are in two, four and eight hour denominations and are redeemable for time off whenever the employee desires to cash them in.

7) Under Bud's leadership, VISIT FLORIDA has received a number of prestigious awards for its ground-breaking programs. Some of the highlights include: 2006 Best Destination Branding from the Association of Travel Marketing Executives; 2005 Outstanding Web Site award from the Web Marketing Association; 2004 Most Media Friendly State Tourism Bureau awarded by the North American Travel Journalist Association; 2003 Bronze Anvil award by the Public Relations Society of America and the 2002 Odyssey award from the Travel Industry Association of America.

8) During Bud's tenure at VISIT FLORIDA the organization has expanded financially while tourism to the state has also grown. Florida's tourism industry generated more than $63 billion in economic impact and brought more than 84 million visitors in 2006. Tourism industry employment has jumped 18 percent during Bud's leadership, in a state and country that has an unemployment rate of approximately four percent.  VISIT FLORIDA has also seen tremendous growth with its participating tourism Partners. During Bud's leadership, businesses affiliated with VISIT FLORIDA through its entrepreneurial Partner program grew 743 percent, providing additional private funding.

Conclusion

With Bud's direction, VISIT FLORIDA continues to grow as a model for successful privatization and an organization that cares about its industry, its staff, and its community. Bud demonstrated this philosophy throughout his 35 year tourism industry career, including his leadership positions in Fort Myers and Jacksonville, Florida.  His leadership at VISIT FLORIDA began just after it was founded in 1996.