Improvements to Aaron Bessant park have been in the works for a few months.  In fact, talks of improvements have been going on for years, but money has always been a challenge.  This year, BP money in excess of $1 million, will help make park improvements a reality, and last week the Panama City Beach City Council approved the improvements.

Improvements include a new, larger amphitheater.

The new improvements will be a welcome addition to a heavily used facility.  Currently they have several large events there each year that requires spending 10′s of thousands of dollars on erected staging and equipment.  The new facility will have a large covered stage, integrated electrical and a solid infrastructure to host events with a capacity of 10,000.

All the improvements include:

• 60′x40′ amphitheater with permanent roof and walls suitable for theatrical productions, orchestral performances and musical events
• Expanded amphitheater lawn area (see diagram below
• Vegetative buffers around the parameter to prevent the need for temporary fencing
• The Festival Lawn (the sandy area that’s used as overflow and vedor parking behind the park) will be improved to the quality of Frank Brown Park’s festival area
• This area will support parking, play fields, and will have sod and irrigation
• Additional bathroom facilities

Renderings, conceptual and imagery

The teal boundary area is the existing sidewalk paths around the amphitheater area.  The purple lines indicate the other sidewalk areas and paths that lead around the park.  The black lines will be the new amphitheater lawn area.

This is a conceptual of what the amphitheater could look like. The final product will have a beachy feel and should be consisten with the look and feel of neighboring Pier Park.  The stage area could be approximately 60 feet across and 40 feet deep offering 2,400 square feet of space.  There will be permanent walls and roof.

This is an example of another amphitheater.  Ours could look similar.

What are your thoughts on this?  Do you think this will bring more traffic problems to this area?  Or do you think the improvements will be better for the community as a whole?

According to Tripsmarter.com, over 2 million kids were turned loose for Spring Break during this past week, making these past 5 days the official juiced-up, mega-week of Spring Break.

In fact, it’s so big, it needs it’s own intro-music. *ques theme to Rocky*

(wakka wakka)

This last week brought hordes of college kids to town, who promptly set about shimmying and raising toasts with cold beers or those fruity, umbrella drinks.

Immediately following up all that shimmying, toasting and the mandatory high-fiving, they torpedoed onto the beach. Which is where they remained, fully focused on turning various shades of cocoa brown and repeating aforementioned actions.

I’ve been holding off on posting this article due to some irrational fear that as soon as we stated “all is well” here, it would cause some cosmic shift and break the spell of decent behavior. Maybe I’m just paranoid, or more likely I’ve seen one to many cheesy horror flicks. You know the kind, somewhere some young cheerleader states “it’s OK guys, there’s nothing bad going to happen” and whoosh, crazed leprechauns shoot out of the woods.

In an effort to get over my superstitions (and to keep the bosses happy) we’ll finally just go for it but if it starts raining frogs afterward, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

The reality is that during these last few weeks of Spring Breakers swarming in to town, the news has remained relatively positive. The revenue influx is encouraging and the positive turn-out for the first big run of the tourist season, is offering a ray of hope for business owners affected from last year’s oil-spill sucker punch.

Granted, there’s been a few nitwits who’ve managed to make the nightly news but thankfully, it was more from stupidity then anything else. In all, considering the increase in traffic and our beaches being held hostage by a ton of college kids, it’s been relatively smooth sailing. The Panama City Beach Police Department has reported an increase in citations, mostly issued for under-age drinking or public intoxication. Which should come as no surprise to anyone when you realize some of these folks were already planning on breaking the law before they left campus.

As this mega-week dies down, and we start to gear up for another round of visitors,  let’s take a moment to check out the live cams perched above Schooners.

Ahhh, look at that sand! The emerald water! Jealous yet?

Numbers Break Down from tripsmarter.com

This is the third article in a series that explores 2011 Tourism Predictions for Panama City Beach.

“If you market it, you must be prepared to staff it”

This is a *statement liberated from Socrates’s, um- well, his lesser known cousin, ahem, **Heraclitus.

However, let’s not quarrel over the origins of the statement, and opt to simply take into consideration it’s message.

We’ve been marketing, promoting, negotiating and canoodling with every possible venue, avenue, social site and persons, to spread the good word.

The word being that Spring Break & the Summer Season of 2011, is bigger and now-with-more-sparkles, then this past year of troubled times. The campaign has been proving it’s success through various ways of tracking, and along with the success of inviting the masses into our community, we’ve properly followed through by reaching out to the employable community to help handle the welcomed influx.

Article Below

I’m sure you’ve seen the signs peppering our streets, through out the county.  I know for me, just a quick jaunt to run errands produced no less the 5 signs stating that the respective business was now hiring for the season.

As usual, this is a common occurrence during the start of our tourist season, but the volume of help that local shops are looking to bring aboard, appears to be running slightly higher then normal.

These higher numbers are due in part, to the anticipation of a stronger season then we’ve seen in the past.

In fact, you don’t even have to leave the house to find Help Wanted campaigns. Just today, there was a post on our own Facebook Page, asking for people to apply for Promotion work on the weekends.

A recent job fair offered a chance to talk with recruiters from over 50 businesses, some were seasonal jobs with Resorts or attractions like Shipwreck Island. Yet others, for example, the online travel company Bookit.com, were on hand seeking locals looking for steady work.

Other businesses, like Applebee’s on Middle Beach Rd, simply spelled out there need on the storefront sign, which read “Now Hiring For Season.”

Numerous locations seem to be following the signage route, while others have doubled their efforts by adding listings on their own websites, facebook pages or even tweeting news of openings.

For example, Coyotes, according their website, is currently holding bar-tending auditions every Weds night, for those who can “pour a drink, keep a beat and look good doing it”

This is just a small example of  hopeful indictations regarding growth and success for the coming year. With the Airport, the positive PR campaigns (sans the Seventeen Article, and a few others) as well as pictorial proof of our beaches, the possibility of this season being one for the record books, is continuing to shine bright.

* The  statement is not even close to being an ancient philosophers.

**I realize that Heraclitus holds no family ties to Socrates. I simply picked him out of the Greek Philosopher’s hat. Due only to the fact that he was known as “The Weeping Philosopher” with a reputation for harboring a pessimistic view of human nature. The irony made me smile. Upbeat Article, Debbie-Downer Philosopher= Sweet Irony.

Pier Park and Panama City Beach, are in for a sandwich influx this season.

Along with the news of Subway opening up in Pier Park, sandwich enthusiast can look forward to Schlotzsky’s moving in and joining the Pier Park family.

Schlotzsky’s started it’s nation wide take-over, with humble origins that date back to 1971.  Originally launched in Austin, Texas with a basic menu comprised of sourdough bread and a selection of premium meats, cheeses and olives.

The humble beginning eventually morphed into 35 locations nationwide and four foreign locations. I have to say, I wish I would have known that during my travels through out Spain.

I loved trying out the local cuisine, but every now and then, even an American Girl traveling abroad, craves the simple taste of home. Be it toasted sub, or a New York bagel.

Schlotzsky’s Pier Park store is opening it’s doors on February 21, 2011 and boast an eclectic selection of subs, wraps, salads and gourmet pizzas, along with desserts and soups.

Details Below

PANAMA CITY Beach, FL – Schlotzsky’s,home of The Original® round toasted sandwich and famous Fresh-from-Scratch® buns, will open its first ”Lotz Better” location in Panama City Beach at Pier Park.

“With our addictive recipes, upbeat surroundings and funny sayings, we’re adding tremendous flavor to the Panama City Beach quick-casual dining scene,” said Umesh Patel, owner of the new Schlotzsky’s in Panama City Beach. “It’s hard not to smile when you walk into our bright new restaurants, smell the dough baking and see how much fun we have with ‘bun humor.’ Panama City Beach is in for a real treat.”

The new restaurant was built with Schlotzsky’s rebranding efforts in mind, which include a newly designed restaurant, a co-branding deal with Cinnabon® and a new service model where crew members hand-deliver food to the tables. Everything from tables and chairs to circular-themed local photography featuring tongue-in-cheek phrases is designed to entertain and cater to the guest.

Schlotzsky’s of Panama City Beach offers more than 15 different sandwiches on their famous unique round freshly baked buns, as well as wraps, gourmet pizzas made with Fresh-from-Scratch crusts, freshly tossed salads and a variety of soups. Schlotzsky’s also offers a number of delectable desserts, including Cinnabon’s warm, homemade Cinnabon® Classic Roll and CinnaPacks™.

“With all of the new elements that enhance the Schlotzsky’s experience, we stay true to our roots by offering only the highest quality fresh ingredients and baking our sourdough bread from scratch every day,” said Schlotzsky’s President Kelly Roddy. “We are truly excited to give Panama City Beach a taste of the ‘Lotz Better’ Schlotzsky’s.”

TDC/CVB Feb 8 meeting offered an in-depth look into the 2011 marketing strategies as well as an opportunity to check out the newest TV Commercials.

The Real. Fun. Beach commercials were created to hit specific markets and have two versions in rotation, aimed at targeting Couples and Families.

More Info Below

The 2011 Summer marketing strategy is slated to begin televised promotions in mid-April, and running through July.

The interrupted headline campaign, Real. Fun. Beach. will be resurrected through out this duration with a conscious effort being made to maintain continuity between print, television and online media outlets.

The Real. Fun. Beach. tag line will feature family fun at the beach and a second that features couples and other adults having year-round fun

The Real. Fun. Beach TV commercials will target Atlanta, Baltimore and Birmingham, with some overlap occurring in cities where Southwest Airlines ad campaigns are being televised as well.  Cooperative marketing with Southwest through out April, June and August will focus efforts to promote Panama City Beach in new markets now being serviced by the airline.

Overall goal is to reclaim our title as the “World’s Most Beautiful Beaches” and leave the mayhem from the past year behind us, once and for all.  The focus is on interactive media with an emphasis on driving people to their website, but general marketing strategies include specific media placements aimed to hit a variety of markets, during corresponding peak times.

50% of the media budget has been allocated for Broadcast, TV, Radio, VOD, Check-out  and more, with 20% going towards online (website, online display etc.)

Word on the street (and for “street” read inter-webs) is that Vision Airlines will begin offering non-stop flights through Northwest Florida Regional Airport, starting March 25.

The first question I had upon hearing this news was “Vision ….. Who?”

A brief background search on Vision Airlines quickly brought me up to date.

Vision Airlines, formerly Vision Air, is an airline headquartered in Suwanee, GA.

Originally started in 1994, the airline operated flights for their tour business, out of Las Vegas. Showing travelers the Grand Canyon, Marble Canyon, Hoover Dam, and Monument Valley, by utilizing the Dornier 228 and Dornier 328 aircraft.

In addition, during the summer months, Vision Airlines transports white water rafters to various destinations along the Colorado River. The expansion from a sight-seeing company, into commercial airlines opened up a world (pun-intended) of opportunity for travelers seeking lower fares, yet preferring a non-stop flight. Typically,  in my experience, it’s hard to find both. It seems that the lower my ticket price, the more stops I’ll end up with.

Vision Airlines Points Of Interest:

Pilots and flight attendants from Vision Airlines volunteered to fly in supplies and emergency crews to Haiti after the 2010 Haiti Earthquake. The airline loaded planes in Miami and Atlanta with rescue workers, search dogs, water and medicine.

On July 9, 2010, the United States government chartered a Vision Airlines jet to transport ten convicted Russian “illegals” (spies) to Vienna and collect four alleged Western spies in the largest known prisoner swap since the Cold War.

Currently, they are planning to add flights, both in-bound and out-bound, from Northwest Florida Regional.

The Cities-  currently list an impressive (and convenient) 11.

Current Cities:

Greenville-Spartanburg, SC

Knoxville, TN

Atlanta, GA

Louisville, KY

Little Rock, AR

Baton Rouge, LA

Savannah, GA

Fort Myers, FL

Birmingham & Huntsville, AL

Tampa/ St. Pete, FL

Macon, GA

In the coming months, there’s talk of Vision expanding travel to four additional cities.

The world is catching on to what we’ve always known.

Panama City Beach was just named as one of the “Top Ten Budget Destinations” for 2011 by AOL Travel.

Read Full Press Release After The Break

AOL TRAVEL NAMES PANAMA CITY BEACH ONE OF THE “TOP TEN BUDGET DESTINATIONS FOR 2011” Panama City Beach, FL., January 14, 2010 –

Recently heralded as one of five top value destinations for winter travel by CNN.com, Panama City Beach has now made the list of AOL Travel’s “Top Ten Budget Destinations for 2011.”

The article emphasized affordable accommodations and oil-free beaches, as well as mentioned two major events which occurred in 2010: the opening of Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport and a news-worthy visit from the Obama family.

“We are thrilled to add this recognition to Panama City Beach’s list of accolades,” states Dan Rowe, President/CEO of Panama City Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau. “With the wide spectrum of accommodations, dining and entertainment options offered here, we are proud that our REAL.FUN.BEACH. destination is considered an affordable hot spot for 2011.”

Panama City Beach was in good company, with domestic and international destinations like Montreal, Cancun and Washington, D.C. also making the cut for AOL Travel’s list, which can be viewed in its entirety  here

Photo Credit: Diane Sharp

This is the second article in a series that explores 2011 Tourism Predictions for Panama City Beach.

We’ve checked in with the airport, and now it’s time to turn our questioning minds to the resorts.

In an effort to snag an idea of early predictions for the 2011 season, we touched base for a little Q & A session, with Paul Wohlford, Vice President of Sales & Marketing for the Resort Collection of Panama City Beach.

The Resort Collection manages six Resorts and a 27-hole Championship Golf Course with over 1000 rental units, consisting of 1, 2 , 3 & 4 bedrooms, all directly located on Panama City Beach. The resorts bring in mostly families and couples, with the addition of group-friendly accommodations, by means of large meeting spaces offered in two of the resorts.

Paul’s insight was both informative and insightful,  so we’ve taken a few excerpts to share with you.

On the early 2010 season:

“We were on a roll in 2010 when the oil spill happened. Had to go into crisis management for the summer and fall and ended up with a good year where before the oil spill we were tracking to have a very good year.”

Thoughts on the ways they handled Crisis Mode during 2010:

“We decided when the spill happened to work hard to protect our customers’ hard-earned rite of passage, their summer vacation, so we did with our oil free beaches guarantees, waived cancellation fees, etc.”

Thoughts on current 2011 phase:

“Cautiously optimistic about 2011. Never saw an oil spill coming, so we need to be ready for anything. Need to get back some of the many customers that went to the east coast vs. coming to the gulf coast for their summer vacations.”

How the Resorts are enticing travelers this year:

“To entice travelers we are offering discounted rates for early bookings and great values with upgrades, discounts, add on’s, etc. We want families to reconnect and enjoy each other. Life moves so fast we want to be able to provide a relaxing, fun environment where memories are made. Our goal is to build lifelong customers by creating lifelong memories.”

As of now, the Championship Golf Course, known for hosting a PGA Qualifying School, is set for its regularly scheduled time in November.

The two Resorts offering large meeting facilities have solidified “a very good group business base for 2011″  and in another positive response from Paul, he confirmed the “phone call volume into our reservation call center is ahead of last year, as are online bookings so that is good news.”

For those of us living life outside the industry that Paul, and numerous others call home – this information can be taken as great news.

As a whole, we have focused an enormous amount of current attention on Spring Breakers, and understandably so, yet Paul’s insight should be taken as reassurance to us all.  Spring Break kids are wonderful, but kids will always be kids, and if there’s a good party & proper PR – the kids will come.  Families are trickier, with higher costs, expectations and less vacation time available to them.

Signs of families traveling for their holidays, is positive proof that our town hasn’t lost its appeal, or its following.

What are you predictions for the 2011 tourism season?  Break out that crystal ball and tell us what you see.

Jan 11th’s TDC meeting offered an eclectic mix of information.

Starting with the Vice-President of the Canadian Snowbirds, Nancy Hopcraft,  who caught my attention with the mention of the ‘Birds working on a potential “Retiree Visa” allowing those who qualify an opportunity to spend more time in Panama City Beach (or anywhere in the Nation).  It’s a wonderful idea, and one that’s sure to bring about an economic boost but we’re looking at least 2 years, before hearing any final words.

Great News from the Bay Point Invitational! Last year, Bay Point Invitational, had been called on to help prove to the nation that our waters were open, and our seafood, edible. So they did. Opening up the event to include Swordfish, they had an industry celebrity chef cook up the fish right there during weigh-in.  You can’t beat that kind of freshness, creativity or ingenious marketing.

Bay Point stole the spotlight  by announcing their Classic Event in September, had 44 Boats involved and a quarter of a million in the purse, which enabled them to present a  $25,000 check to Beach Point Services.

Finally, we come to Spring Break.

The TDC marketing strategy for Spring Break, has been mostly focused on Social Media.

There’s a few other avenues being utilized as well and without further ado, we present The Plan.

An Online Lodging Survey is in the works to gather feedback in a timely fashion, with questions on whether the business is booking above or below last year. The reason behind this is to enable a quick response or changes to the program as needed.

Targeting Associated Press (USA Today, NY Times, National Morning Shows & CNN) to spread the word by content.

In regards to utilization of Social Media, the plan is to narrow social site efforts to maximize impact. How, you ask?

Good question:

Targeting 50 designated schools on the school’s Facebook page

Advertise on school’s Facebook page (creating a dialogue on page with actual posts, as well as advertisements)

Setting up a specific Spring Break Twitter account (only to be used for Spring Break topics, information, etc)

Creating a Re-Tweet gift card program at each targeted school. For example, if you attend school in one of the target markets, and you re-tweet a post from our Spring Break twitter, you will be granted a gift card. Note: not PCB specific gift-card.

Hosting Tweet-Ups.

What’s a Tweet-Up? To be blunt, it’s a real-life get-together, where people tweet about the event, while AT the event.

Tweet-ups are a huge marketing strategy, currently being used in Hollywood, and to great success.  Popular TV shows, new Movie releases, Political events- can all be found in the real-time world of Twitter.

Those in attendance today, raised some concerns over these efforts coming a little too late, mentioning that Maximum Campaign Mode is currently in full swing from Collegiate Marketing and that the TDC’s/CVB PR strategy of polls, surveys and social media, should have been launched in early December, before kids left for Christmas Break.

Personally, I find some validity in those statements and I’m interested in hearing you’re thoughts?

Should the TDC start the Public Relation campaign trail, before January?

Photo credit: tonyocruz.com

This is the first article in a series that explores 2011 Tourism Predictions for Panama City Beach.

Spring is right around the corner, and along with the knowledge of the coming season, we’re finding that our town is divided into three parts. The Optimists, The Pessimists and The Realists.

At times, it looks as though the Realists Team and the Optimists Team are on the same page, leaving the Pessimists to bemoan, well – everything.

For the most part, the Panama City Beach community is fanning those beginning sparks of excitement, while remaining optimistically cautious, over the vast potential of the 2011 tourism season.

Instead of sitting around speculating any longer, we decided to check in with some of PCB’s seasoned pro’s, those business savvy locals, who’ve been through this whole tourism thing a time or two.

Logically, one of the first places we would reach out to is Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport. Thankfully, our instincts paid off and we were lucky enough to catch up with the airport’s Executive Director, Randy Curtis.

He stated that trying to nail down official numbers for the 2011 season, is tricky considering the new airport is less then a year old, (which is exactly what the Media point-person from Southwest Airlines told me). However, Randy was willing to share their current estimates with us, based off the overall statistics taken from the July-August season in 2010, then compared to the old-airport’s numbers during the same monthly time frame, in 2009

As we’ve reported, in July-August 2009, the now dubbed “old airport” handled about 30,000 monthly passengers.

In 2010, however, during those same summer months, the numbers jumped to an astounding 83,000 passengers (per month) despite negative, national media coverage of BP’s oil disaster and the nations economical hardships.

Yet, even with our pristine beaches untouched by the oil, and the relentless national coverage, we maintained our appeal to vacationers, and in October 2010, we seduced 73,000 passengers into the new-airport’s, convenient location.

Impressive numbers, confirmed by the man who makes the airports success, his business. In an effort to sum up our conversation, Randy Curtis simplified the numbers-by stating that this year’s expectations are leaning towards “3x’s the number of passengers the old airport handled during the same time frame”

This is wonderful news to those Optimists, intriguing news to the Realists, and for you Pessimists roaming around out there, this news just translates into more of those “pesky kids” hanging out on your lawn.

Regardless, it’s a great start to our 2011 Tourism Predictions series.

In our next article, we’re following the sandy seashores to check in with Paul Wohlford, Vice-President of Sales & Marketing for the Resort Collection of Panama City Beach.