This summer alone, Florida saw record numbers of tourists. According to VisitFlorida, 24 million visitors made their way to the Sunshine State in Q2 of 2014, an increase of 3% over last year. And really, what’s not to love? Sand. Surf. Sunshine. Winter.
That’s right, Winter. Specifically “Winter,” the famed dolphin without a tail and star of the 2011 Alcon Entertainment picture, Dolphin Tale. Together with her new pal “Hope,” a dolphin rescued in the shallow waters near Clearwater, FL, the pair have been attracting waves of visitors to the region.
Winter and Hope are huge boons for Florida Gulf Coast tourism, inspiring visitors to temporarily abandon Central Florida’s world-class theme parks and drive the hour across I-4 just to get a glimpse of the pair before dining at one of Clearwater Beach’s restaurants on the glistening water of the Gulf of Mexico.
But is the allure of rescued dolphins enough to keep tourism dollars flowing into the Tampa/St. Pete/Clearwater area for the long haul? Based on this Travel Weekly article, this wave of “movie-induced” travel has generated enough funding to potentially build a new aquarium facility, which in turn can draw more visitors. The tourism board of St. Pete/Clearwater is hitching their wagon to the success of the second film in the saga, Dolphin Tale 2 (released September, 2014) and its dolphin stars to keep tourists coming to experience the aquarium, shops, restaurants, and top-rated beaches.
Having just traveled to Orlando with my family for a week-long vacation at Walt Disney World, I can tell you first hand that the investment St. Pete/Clearwater is making to promote their corner of the Sunshine State to theme park vacationers is huge. Brochures featuring Winter and Hope are present in the lobby of every hotel and attraction, along with billboards on every highway in Central Florida.
So the question is, at the end of the day, will Winter help to carry the marketing message for an entire region? What do you think?
