The delegation from St. Pete/Clearwater
Al Budhwani and Brad Miron of TravelBrands with Marriott's Sara Engelskirger
Dustin Shelton from the Alden Suites and Paul Holinaty of Travel Brands
It’s become something of a summer tradition: just as we enter the sad slide towards Labour Day, our pals from south of the border come up to cheer us up and treat a bunch of industry A-listers to an evening of baseball and friendship in a swanky box at the Rogers Centre.
And this year was no exception. The 12th annual Beaches & Baseball event was hosted by Visit St. Pete/Clearwater and a group of hoteliers and suppliers from that corner of the Sunshine State. As well as a generous spread of munchies and adult beverages, there was entertainment provided by the Jays and the Tampa Bay Rays.
As Leroy Bridges of Visit St. Pete/Clearwater put it, “It’s always good to reconnect, and spread the word about how much is new in our area.” For example, Clearwater Marina has acquired the movie Dolphin Tale 2 (which Leroy calls inspirational). In November the Dali Museum will debut a 3 month Picasso Exhibit, which will later move to Barcelona, Picasso’s home town.
Bridges is clearly pleased with the Canadian numbers, adding that Canada is always an important market for them.
Brad Miron, TravelBrands’ vice-president of marketing & business development agrees. “St. Pete is doing phenomenally well - business has increased incredibly over the past eight weeks, partly pent-up demand and partly our own poor summer weather.” Speaking of weather, look for the St. Pete/Clearwater “Sunshine is the New Caffeine” ad campaign.
No wonder those Floridians love us so much, we are just so darned polite. Such as the Jays graciously losing to their guests from Tampa Bay 8-0. How nicely Canadian is that?
