Visit Orlando increases advertising
Partly to help buffer Central Florida from a potential downturn in international travelers, Visit Orlando is doing more domestic advertising.
That means a lot more TV and radio commercials, billboards, bus wraps and commutertrain advertising.
Buses in cities including New York, Philadelphia and New Orleans have Visit Orlando advertising on the front. One bus wrap has a girl holding a Minnie Mouse doll. Another features the Orlando Eye.
Domestic travelers drive more than 90 percent of Orlando’s visitation. That segment has a positive outlook, travel experts say.
“Additionally, given the growing uncertainties in international travel, augmenting our U.S. presence also safeguards our destination against potential headwinds that may further develop from our core international markets,” Visit Orlando spokeswoman Becca Bides said in an email.
Visit Orlando didn’t provide spending figures.
But in the New York City area, the No. 1 out-ofstate market for Orlando visitors, “we doubled the level of overall advertising investment in that region this spring,” compared with last year, Bides said. “As just one part of this increase, we quadrupled the number of outdoor ad placements from 339 to 1,405, which includes displays such as billboards in high-traffic locations, bus wraps, and visibility on commuter trains. Compelling outdoor advertising that drives awareness and intent to visit Orlando is particularly effective in these cold-weather markets during the chilly winter months.”
An investment group called Hill Path Capital LP has acquired 7.7 percent of Orlando-based SeaWorld Entertainment’s shares.
Hill Path said in corporate filings that it has had and expects “to continue to have meetings, written communications and discussions with the members of management and the Board of Directors” about issues including SeaWorld’s business, operating performance, capital structure, capital allocation, corporate governance and board composition.It may pursue other plans or proposals.
“The message I see from both this investment and the prior Chinese investment is increasing confidence that SeaWorld has largely put the postBlackfish brand issues behind them and the initiatives put in place by the current management team should begin bearing fruit this year,” said Bob Boyd, a leisure analyst with Pacific Asset Management.
“We believe the combination of a decent economy, low gas prices, smarter capital spending and a better mix of seasonal events should combine for improved SeaWorld results in 2017.”
Orlando Sanford International Airport’s K-9, Poeki, is retiring.
Poeki has been deployed more than 1,700 times, doing daily sweeps of the airport and cargo to check for explosive devices. He’s done numerous searches for presidential visits and has been deployed 184 times to outside agencies including the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office, FBI, Secret Service, Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. military.
Poeki is being adopted by his handler, Sanford Police Department Officer Michael Robbins.
Replacing him will be Guiness, a 2-year-old military working dog assigned to the Transportation Security Administration. Guiness was originally trained as an explosive detection canine searching passengers at checkpoints.
Guiness will work as a multi-modal explosive detection canine.
Accesso Technology Group plc, which has its North American headquarters in Lake Mary, has teamed up with the Florida Attractions Association to streamline the organization’s attractionShare program with an improved online ticketing platform.
The new attractionShare platform uses the customizable accesso ShoWare solution for ticket sales and distribution. The program, offered exclusively to primarylevel attractions members, allows participating member attractions to share ticket privileges with employees of other member attractions. With the new accesso ShoWare solution in place, employees of member attractions simply visit the accesso-powered attractionShare website to view available tickets from more than 80 attractions, including water parks, zoos, museums, aquariums, tours and more. Human resource personnel of those attraction members can then select and print complimentary or discounted tickets for employees and some of their guests.
Both The Walt Disney Co. and SeaWorld Entertainment will report earnings Tuesday — SeaWorld in the morning and Disney after the markets close.