Florida Governor’s Conference on Tourism Showcases Growth of Adventure Travel in the State

At the beginning of the Florida Governor’s Conference on Tourism (GC), the Adventure Travel Trade Association, in partnership with VISIT FLORIDA, hosted an AdventureConnect event focused on bringing together new and old local adventure travel friends in the region to mix and mingle. 

There was a strong turnout including tour operators, DMOs, tourism boards, media and industry partners, both large and small from all over the state. The energy was amazing, as was the demand and interest in collaborating for Florida to become known as a global adventure travel destination. 

Following the successful AdventureConnect, ATTA’s North America Regional Director Russell Walters led a breakout session titled, “This is Adventure: Unveiling the Florida Adventure Travel Network.”

Long known as a destination for outdoor experiences, Florida is gaining even further recognition for its unique adventure travel opportunities in recent years. Over the past four years, the ATTA in partnership with VISIT FLORIDA, has been engaged in an initiative to build a community of adventure and experience providers, DMO’s, Chambers and interested industry partners into a statewide network with a goal to increase adventure tourism in Florida.

During the 90-minute breakout session at the Florida Governor’s Conference, which was attended by more than 65 participants, Walters outlined current trends in Adventure Travel and presented a brief outline of the origins of the Florida Adventure Travel Network (FATN) and its future goals.

Jacob Pewitt Yancey, Director of Consumer Insights and Analytics  for VISIT FLORIDA then presented specific details relating to Florida’s, Outdoor & Nature Seekers audience noting that in 2022, fully 14% of all visitors to Florida listed “Outdoor & Nature Seeking” as either the most or second most important part of their trip to Florida. He also shared that 29% of all 2022 visitors to Florida participated in a recognized outdoor activity.

Further, Pewitt Yancey noted, many of the “Outdoors & Nature Seeking” audience are likely to participate in activities with small scale operators in rural destinations outside of Florida’s major tourist hubs, thereby distributing revenues widely through different segments of the tourism sector across the state.

The trends and research segment was followed by a panel discussion with three contributors: Mike Engiles, Executive Manager, Crystal River Watersports; Tammy Heon, Manager, Tourism Development, Florida’s Adventure Coast Visitors Bureau; and Katrina Richardson, Executive Director, Jefferson County TDC, who offered their perspectives of the work of the FATN to date, as well as the strengths and challenges of the initiative. The panelists encouraged interested audience members to join the FATN and more importantly to identify local guides and providers who might be good network collaborators. 

As part of the strategy, representatives from the FATN attended and exhibited at the GC for the first time this year. They will continue their work to become an autonomous, informal network with the goal of developing a clear path for success to help increase Florida’s positioning and recognition in the global Active and Adventure travel sector through monthly zoom meetings and a series of webinars to share knowledge and bring focus to the activities of the group. 

For more information please check out the background work on the objectives of the Florida Adventure Network from our friends at FutureiQ

Any Florida-based business is invited to please consider joining the industry led Florida Adventure Travel Network Facebook group to become engaged.