Group: Florida Attractions Association
Event: Florida Attractions Association Annual Meeting
Date: June 10-13, 2018
The Naples, Marco Island, Everglades CVB in Florida’s Paradise Coast hosted the Florida Attractions Association annual meeting in Naples at the Naples Grande Beach Resort June 10-13, 2018.
The opportunity to stay at a top Naples-area beach resort, experience the city’s happening culinary scene through a downtown Naples Fifth Avenue South dine-around and explore Naples Zoo including special animal encounters during the final night dinner event were lures that resulted in this being the largest-attended annual conference ever for Florida Attractions Association.
With an affluent residential population, Naples supports a high ratio of excellent chef-driven, locally owned restaurants. For the dine-around event, conference participants were provided with transportation from the host hotel to Fifth Avenue South and then back to the host hotel.
They explored pedestrian-friendly Fifth Avenue South in the heart of downtown Naples and sampled cuisine from participating restaurants that included Yabba Island Grill, Chops City Grill, Bha Bha Persian Bistro, Thai Udon and Molto Trattoria Caffe & Pizzeria. They also took time to explore the many other bars and restaurants along the avenue.
For the closing night event, Naples Zoo hosted the group and provided attendees with full zoo access. Guests were greeted with zoo staff and animal ambassadors providing special wild encounters with an Eastern screech owl, six-banded armadillo, skunk and a special Meet the Keeper program with the alligators at Alligator Bay. (Naples Zoo is a conservation-minded, AZA-accredited zoo).
As attendees made their way to the Rain Forest Grove private event area, they stopped along the way to visit many of the animal exhibits, including the rare Florida panther named Uno who resides at the zoo after being injured and blinded by a shotgun blast. Live music by local band El Gato Solea and the Flamenco Fusion spiced up the evening as dinner was served under the banyan trees.
The CVB assisted this 69th annual conference event by offering tourism promotion enhancement funding to incentivize this group to book the destination. The CVB paid portions of the group’s off-site transportation to the Naples Zoo closing evening event, assisted with the dine-around at multiple restaurants on Fifth Avenue South in downtown Naples, and provided hosting funds for the opening reception at Naples Grande Beach Resort.
The CVB provided welcome post cards for attendee bags at this event and visitor guides as well as pre-booking and post-booking site assistance. The four-day event had excellent general sessions, several breakout educational sessions for their members, awards and two off-site events plus a three-day tradeshow followed by appointments for attractions and tour operators to meet and sell one-on-one on the fourth day.
CVB CONTACT INFORMATION
Naples, Marco Island, Everglades CVB
239.252.2379
