Driving Visitor Spend Locally: Inside Visit Central Florida's Sunshine Savings Pass

Justin Laferriere is the Senior Visitor Experience Manager for Visit Central Florida. While some team members at the DMO are focused on getting visitors to the destination, he explained his team’s role in the visitor experience by saying, “We really make our living in the second half of our mission in the DMO, which is to make cash registers ring. It's incumbent upon us to really highlight our local businesses, and we feel like the Bandwango platform gives us the opportunity to really showcase those local businesses in a unique way. It also provides an added value to our visitors and gives them the opportunity to stretch their dollar a little further while they're in destination.”

It’s More Important Now Than Ever

Visit Central Florida’s first pass was the Sunshine Savings Pass, which includes more than 60 discounts for places to stay, play, shop, and eat. Laferriere feels that the savings pass is more important than ever for his destination, and Visit Central Florida is putting an even stronger focus on increasing the spending of the visitors that are visiting their area. “Yes, collections are down, and yes, the industry is being compressed a little bit. So how do we make a difference now when it is compressed? We lean into yield,” he said.

Visit Central Florida has done the research and understands the reality, but they’ve found a way to still provide value for their local businesses. “We know visitors are staying less and spending less so we really feel that Bandwango, and particularly the Sunshine Savings Pass, has positioned us well in a very hyper-competitive market, to provide an added value to our visitors, and showcase really cool, unique local businesses,” he shared. 

The Passes Show the DMO’s Impact to Stakeholders

A DMO is tasked with many duties that include getting visitors to their destination, and finding ways to encourage them to spend more money while they are there. However, they also have to clearly communicate their hard work to stakeholders. The reporting data supplied by Bandwango can serve as a valuable tool to show the impact of a DMO’s efforts. 

When Visit Central Florida presents to the board at their TDC – Tourism Development Council meetings, they show the overall bed tax collections first. If those numbers are down, the board understandably shows concern, but then, Laferriere is able to use data to showcase impressive numbers. “Later on in the presentation, I get up there and I tell them, ‘Here's what we're doing from an experiential standpoint, here's how we're driving the spend in the destination.’ They're like, ‘This is fantastic. This is exactly what we need to be doing. How do we do more?’”

Laferriere feels the data is helpful to him and explained, “Being able to connect the dots of our mission and show that cash registers are ringing really resonates with the board because this is a hard metric. You can literally see the light bulb go off in their head, like, ‘Oh, okay. I get it now.’”

Marketing

There are several tactics you can consider when marketing a mobile pass, and Visit Central Florida has figured out some of the strategies that have worked best for their organization. 

• Social Media

Visit Central Florida’s visitor experience team has taken a unique approach to social media that differs from what many DMOs traditionally do, and it’s paying off. They’ve gotten creative and have started separate Facebook and Instagram accounts specifically for their visitor services division. This has proven to be a great marketing tool for the Sunshine Savings Pass. 

Laferriere shared, “We've taken some different opportunities to promote the pass, but I really think social has been what has driven the growth over the last year to year and a half.”

• Mini Electronic Billboards

A company called Social Indoor has small electronic billboards in businesses throughout the destination, and Visit Central Florida has secured space on those. “We bought ad space on those digital boards and promoted the passes with QR codes, so as somebody's waiting in line at the acai bowl place in Lakeland, they are able to see that ad, and they can scan the code and sign up for the pass while they're waiting in line.” That type of in-location exposure also creates reminders for passholders to redeem their pass while they are at a location. 

• Rack Cards

They also create 4x9 rack cards for each of their passes and distribute those across 150 businesses in their destination. “I know it's old school,” he said. “Print media is not dead, despite what people say. We know we can't get the 5 million plus visitors that come to our destination in front of my team, so we utilize our collateral distribution network to ensure visitors have the opportunity to at least get our information while they're at our hotels, at our attractions, or in our restaurants.” 

• Travel Trade 

The passes are promoted inter-departmentally, and have proven to be a valuable tool for their sales team. “Our trade sales team on the marketing side loves to talk about these passes while they’re out at consumer shows or travel trade shows.” 

His team members have been taking the rack cards to the shows they are attending, and they’ve been well-received. Laferriere is currently working on a new version of the card that includes information on all of the passes so that his team can have one piece of collateral to provide at shows, as opposed to multiple. “I know some may say it's antiquated, but it certainly has moved the needle for us – particularly on that travel trade and consumer show side. Tour operators and travel agents are looking for that unique added value that they can give to their clients. And we've found that the passes are that for them.”  

Results

The strategic initiative put into increasing sign-ups and usage of the Sunshine Savings Pass has resulted in some impressive numbers. 

• 30% growth in pass sign-ups, year over year

• 45% growth in redemptions, year over year 
  

Laferriere proudly shared, “The proof is in the pudding. It's working.” 

While the pass sign-ups are important, he shared that another metric is particularly crucial for the DMO’s success. “More importantly, in my opinion, is that we've seen about a 45% growth in redemptions year over year, which tells us that not only are visitors signing up for it, but they're getting out and using it more in the destination. So it's good for them, it's good for our local businesses, which of course is good for us as the DMO.”

Other Great Passes

The Sunshine Savings Pass is their flagship initiative. Laferriere explained, “That pass shows hard spending in the destination. That's how we can hang our hat on the fact that visitors are actually in the destination, in our local businesses, and using these offers.”

Visit Central Florida also has an array of other check-in challenges, though. The Fire & Flavor BBQ Trail Pass, Adventure on Tap: Central Florida Beer Pass, and Mural Magic Pass all serve a specific purpose for niche audiences. He also spilled the beans on another new pass coming soon, saying, “We're getting ready to launch another gamified pass in November. It will be our Coffee and Cravings Pass that will highlight local coffee shops and bakeries.” 

Gamified passes that offer prize incentives are great ways to push visitors into local businesses, but they also serve another purpose. They get people through the doors of the Visit Central Florida Welcome Center. “They have to come physically here to the Welcome Center, show us the pass on their mobile device and show that they've hit each of the thresholds. Then we provide that gift to them here in person,” explained Laferriere. That step allows his team to have a one-on-one conversation with visitors that could lead to visitors exploring more of the destination, and in turn, help increase spending. “It provides my team a further opportunity to engage on a deeper level.” 

Conclusion

If you’re a destination marketing organization that wants to take a page from Visit Central Florida’s playbook and increase visitor spending in your area, reach out to our team to book a free demo of Bandwango’s Experience Builder.