People always say that us folks in the hospitality industry here in Orlando have WAY too much fun with our jobs. Sometimes I’m inclined to agree with them! This time we, the folks promoting tourism in Orlando, were at the receiving end of the customer service provided by the staff at Worlds of Discovery. They treat us to a fantastic event so that we can inspire our people to promote the event in question to our own customers and visitors to the area. These guys really know how to take good care of their customers – us!
Michelle & Jackie
On Friday, September 25th, our friends at Worlds of Discovery (SeaWorld, Aquatica, Discovery Cove, Busch Gardens, Islands of Adventure) hosted a fantastic VIP Event for opening night at Howl-o-scream in Busch Gardens. Very happy to report that I was included in this VIP list and RSVP’d that I would most certainly attend. Despite the constant warnings of blood and gore involved, I opted in!
Three busloads of Orlando hospitality industry folk headed off to Tampa in the Friday afternoon I4 traffic. Drinks and snacks provided while we networked, chatted or watched the movie Scream – I had quite forgotten how long it takes the kids in these movies to actually die!
Upon arrival at Busch Gardens, we were welcomed by red carpet and excellent hosts into the Welcome Reception.
And what a reception it was! Fantastic food, lots of InBev beverages, fabulous desserts (no less than three chocolate fountains..) – with a backdrop of Vampires strutting their stuff on the catwalk. Many folks took advantage of the opportunity to have their very own vampire fangs created and installed. Lady Vayne held court for her visitors and posed for photos with the peasants! There were a couple of coffins laying around that some of us peasants made use of and had some scary photos taken. Mine is at the bottom of this post. And, yes, that really is me in there…. at least those are my hands and my face!
At 7pm we were herded out into the park to start our Howl-o-scream experience in the haunted houses or scare zones. Kudos to our guides for trying valiantly to keep us unruly groups together going into the haunted houses and finding us again afterward! We had a lot of fun throughout the evening. Everything was really well done – the attention to detail is fantastic and the “players” really put themselves into character to scare the living daylights out of us!
There is a particular section where the pathway is covered with a swirling mist; you can hear werewolves howling in the dark and feel scary creatures come out of the dark and attach themselves to your group. You don’t really notice them until they say something and spook you! The make-up on these guys was fantastic and the whole atmosphere was electrically charged.
All in all, the event was a screaming success – as witnessed by the absolute ton of teenagers screaming their way through the event! We will most certainly be promoting this excellent event for the Halloween season and highly recommend that you get your tickets now before it’s too late.
Click here for details on dates and tickets for Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens, Tampa, Florida.
After finishing Sam Walton’s book Made in America, I pulled from it this list that I found very useful in my own businesses. Some of them I have implemented (thankfully!) but others I have thought about doing but haven’t actually gotten around to doing them. Sound familiar to you?
Made in America, by Sam Walton
My goal for myself is to implement one more of these a week – in some form or fashion – to one of my businesses. In the current economic climate, any business can use something like this to differentiate itself and keep current customers happy and wanting more.
Some of these will be as controversial to you now as they have been to other business owners over the years. My take on it is that Wal-Mart is one of the most successful discount retailers in the world and there are very good reasons why that is. So what if I don’t like to shop there; so what if I don’t like the “associates” or how the store is laid out – their business is NOT about me, it’s about THEIR typical customer.
1. Commit to your business.
2. Share your profits with your associates and treat them as partners.
3. Motivate your partners.
4. Communicate everything you possibly can to your partners.
5. Appreciate everything your associates do for the business.
6. Celebrate your successes! Find some humor in your failures.
7. Listen to everyone in your company.
8. Exceed your customers expectations.
9. Control your expenses better than your competition.
10. Swim upstream. Go the other way.
These last 2 were not included in Sam’s actual list, but he does mention that no business can expect to be successful with them so I am adding them here!
I just spent a couple of days in Miami Beach at the Florida Governor’s conference on Tourism. On my way there I was somewhat optimistic that perhaps we were looking at a slight rebound in travelers to the Sunshine State. Now, I’m not so optimistic!
With a 30% budget cut to the funds Visit Florida have to promote tourism to Florida, their efforts will be severely hampered. With a new concentration on social media and reconnecting with previous visitors, they are targeting the customers that they KNOW have already visited and will be an easier sell to get them to come back. Same idea should apply to all businesses in the hospitality industry – know your customers and keep in touch with them. When they are ready to buy, you should already be on their mind.
Entertaining speech
The opening night speaker was humorist and author, Dave Barry. He was very entertaining with his take on life in Miami-Dade County and in Florida in general! Other than take my mind off the issues at hand, I couldn’t really relate his speech too much to the current state of tourism – but he was still my favorite speaker of the conference!
The dinner that night was fantastic. The culinary staff at the Fontainebleau Hotel outdid themselves and earned a standing ovation from the entire conference for their fabulousness!
Governor Charlie Crist surprised the masses by showing up and saying a few words at the conference. According to those that have attended the conference in recent years, the Governor has NOT had time to show up for his own conference on tourism. Given that tourism provides so many jobs and so much tax revenue, perhaps Charlie has become more informed and realized that he might need to show a little support to the industry royalty…….”and the times, they are a changing!”
Overall, the message appeared to be – we are in for a continued bumpy ride in tourism. Hold on and do whatever you can to promote your niche to your existing customers. Social Media was touted as being a great source to communicate with your customers – Visit Florida has begun several initiatives to incorporate social media into it’s dwindling marketing budget.
A recent report from the Orlando Sentinel (apologies, the link is no longer working – they have removed the article) more or less confirms that Florida Tourism is suffering. Orlando as a top tourist destination is perhaps suffering more than most.
NEW – short video clip from the Governor’s Conference.
Take a Virtual Walk Through Hong Kong With Google Street View. http://is.gd/aelg6 - this is very cool. Still want to go there IRL!about 2 hours agofrom API
