Yes, folks, it’s that time of year again. In a few short weeks, Panama City Beach will be packed with bikini-clad college students barefooting the strip from end to end, hooting, hollering and partying the week away. We (we, meaning Panama City Beach residents and business owners), know what exactly what to expect from the two-month-long spectacle. We know the students will drink. We know the students will break things. And we know the entire city will be completely polarized. What we don’t know, at least not yet, is how different this year will be from the years past. If the numbers and projections prove to be true, this spring break could be the heralding of a new kind of break. Here are 5 reasons why.

Lull in Competition

If you read that title and you think, “A lull in competition means we only get more riff-raff”, you may not be seeing the full picture. Because Panama City Beach’s biggest competition for Spring Break dollars, places like Cancun, South Padre Island and Daytona have yet to take the social media and search engine optimization, an area where Panama City Beach excels, we are beating them to the punch. The result means Panama City Beach can set rates that reflect that increased number of potential clients. Higher rates, in any season, make for a higher clientele. Now, it goes without saying that high Spring Break clientele is not particularly high, higher hotel rates should aid in reducing amount bad apples.

BP Effect

You can go to any hotel on the beach and ask how last years Spring Break numbers compared to the year before. Most were down, some way down. Much of the decrease can be attributed to the oil spill, which wasn’t officially sealed until September 19th and dominated the news with images of white shoreline covered in crud. This, along with stronger efforts from competitors, drove the market elsewhere. The tide has turned. If you look at pace numbers across the beach for 2012, they are up, and in lots of cases way up. That means more Spring Breakers, but what it also means is that Panama City Beach lost a year of the bad PR that comes along with Spring Break and stands at the edge of resetting the Spring Break trend, which the TDC and Co-op are primed to do. That year has also given Panama City Beach the time and (BP) money, to open a range of new attractions and restaurants that give these students more to do, rather than just cruising the strip and looking for trouble.

Fly Markets

You’ve heard this story before: the new airport will bring in a whole new market for Spring Break. You’ve also heard the argument that Spring Breakers do not fly, they all get in a car and drive. Well, in 2012, both may be true. Waves of marketing Panama City Beach’s new airport has put the destination of Panama City Beach in places that may have not considered it before. Students in our fly market cities can get cheap flights, but, even more important, they’ve heard about Panama City Beach, the ads have hit their mark. This can be evidenced by website analytics across the board. While last years highest state by state guests that stayed during Spring Break put Alabama, Georgia and Florida as the three highest, this year’s website traffic analytics show Tennessee, Ohio, Illinois and Texas ranking highest in inquiries. What this means is, whether they grab a flight or pack everyone up in a car a take a long road trip, the advertising seems to be working. Which could mean a saturation of a different Spring Break clientele.

TDC Efforts

Last year, the TDC was reluctant to spend any money on Spring Break due to the issues with previous years. This year what the TDC lacked in hard cash, they made up in very targeted efforts. Take for example, the Guinness Book of World Records Bikini Parade. While some have scoff at the event, the reality is it will be a clean, fun Spring Break event that will result in monumental PR for our city and potentially pay off for years. The beach-wide Scavenger Hunt is designed to get students out of their rooms, off the strip and expose them to all that Panama City Beach has to offer in a fun and exciting way. The TDC has also done a bang-up job of coordinating with local business and the Spring Break co-op to really get the ball rolling. The TDC has worked hard to increase the police force, security and help local hoteliers manage events and not cause the pileups we’ve seen in the past.

Solid Co-op

The Spring Break Co-op is now in its fourth year and it is proving to be a strong force for Spring Break in Panama City Beach. Seeing massive numbers in site traffic and boasting a facebook fan page of over 60,000 fans, is only a part of the job. Beyond the numbers, the Co-op site and it’s social presence has and continues to be an invaluable tool for information for Spring Breakers, essentially guiding them on entire vacation planning all in one place. An informed vacationer, is a good vacationer. The Co-op is setting the tone for the city before the students even get here, letting them know the rules of the beach, the policies of hotels and giving local businesess a better gauge on what to expect from the crowds.

While these may be optimistic, we’d love to hear your thoughts on your expectations for Spring Break 2012.

On Saturday, March 26 the Geography and Environmental Science Student Association will be hosting a UBB cleanup at Panama City Beach.

Come out for a UBB cleanup with an active group of Florida State University students. The event starts at 10am and runs till 1pm.

More Information

Our beaches are more then just miles of breath-taking sand, and emerald waters. It’s also home to numerous types of marine life.

As the tourist season begins to heat up, our beaches will play host to families, couples and numerous types of vacationers.

With a little loving prevention, we can keep our beaches clean and free from any trash that may be left behind, while avoiding any potential damage to our gulf marine life.

FSU’s GESSA is an organization of dedicated members that want to make sure our oceans stay clean. You can find out more about this event on their website at www.unitedbyblue.org

Looking for weekend weather updates? Bookmark our Weather category!

Head for the parks, the beaches or someone’s inflatable pool this weekend because the temps are heating up and the skies are begging you to get out of the house.

If you don’t have a legitimate reason to leave the house, make one up. Practice the fine art of Garden Gnome Liberation (preferably not your neighbors please), pretend to get lost en route to the Grocery store, or simply do what my Mom used to do to me as a kid. Offer up two options and let the family decide. My Mom’s tactic was “Play outside or Take out the trash” and with that, off to the great outdoors we went!

Weather For March 23-27

Wednesday, March 23: Partly Cloudy, highs hovering at 79. Lows around 59.  Looks like the weather is having an issue committing to round numbers.

Thursday, March 24: Partly Cloudy, highs around 80. Lows drop to about 47. Well, guess the weather sorted out some issues.

Friday, March 25: Hello Sunshine! Sunny, highs about 78, and look for lows around 58.

Saturday, March 26: Partly Cloudy, highs back to 79, with lows in at 60.

Sunday, March 27: Isolated Thunderstorms, highs about 79. Lows in the mid-50′s.

*Since Monday breaks the 80 degree mark, here’s a bonus weather round (waiittt for it)

Monday, March 28: Some showers, precipitation only around 30%. Highs about 81, lows again in the mid-50′s.

TA-DA! Our big finale, ladies and gentleman! 81 Degrees! Time to shimmy in celebration *dances off screen*

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

Spring has sprung, the weather’s warmed up nicely and college kids have come out of the woodwork to enjoy our white sand beaches in Panama City Beach.  Last week I parked my car in an obscure location and hiked to the central nerve center of Spring Break, right behind Club LaVela.  I’ll let the pictures tell the story.

According to our friends over at tripsmarter.com, there are roughly two million kids turned loose from colleges nationwide, all in the name of Spring Break and shaking off the past Winter Quarter.

I’m willing to bet that about 500,000 of those kids on break right now can be found in the beer aisle at Wal-Mart on Front Beach Rd.

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Ok, well maybe I’ve inflated that number a bit (the Wal-Mart estimate, not the Tripsmarter.com one) but all it takes is one adventurous jaunt to Wal-Mart at 7:30am on a Saturday to understand where that estimate stemmed from.

Sure, we can look at hotel bookings, or in-bound flights, but personally, the real test of numbers comes from those of us who live here on a day-to-day basis. We’re the ones who have to add an additional 15 minutes to our morning commute due to the surge in traffic and more recently, the surge in accidents from crazed college drivers.

It’s a strange love-hate vibe our community harbors for Spring Breakers. In fact, it’s almost along the lines of a kid-brother, or sister. Sure, the younger sibling may drive you batty, but we’re the only ones who’ve earned the right to talk smack about them. After all, we loan them our town, our beaches, and our homes for a couple of months every year and we do love them, despite how much they annoy us.

Yet, when a national magazine like Seventeen Magazine decides to run a piece on the evils of our town and our young Collegiates, it’s only natural that we would take a few moments to address some of the things the magazine stated.

It’s shocking that a relatively credible magazine like Seventeen, would opt to run such a slanderous piece on Panama City. Especially considering the run of hard luck the Gulf had last year and the extensive campaigns we’ve launched to rectify the negative PR during the Oil Spill.

The article used some pretty bold words to describe our town, referring to Spring Break in Panama City Beach as “disgusting, degrading and dangerous, especially to Women.” Ironically, this is the same Magazine who runs articles offering  ”Flirting Tips” or  ”How to Attract Men” and a “Fertility Calender” to their demographic predominantly comprised of teenage girls and tweens.

Seventeen Magazine went on to state that Spring Break in Panama City Beach was a “grim reality” filled with trash, drunks and casual sex.  Descriptive words capable of summing up any Frat Party. Hell,  if you want to get really down to it, out-of-control antics like those, are present in every town across the nation.

A large concert in Atlanta suddenly erupts in gunfire, some party in New York lands the kids in the hospital for excessive drinking, and then of course, for some college-age kids, that might just be any random Friday night out in San Francisco.

My point is, that it’s the people that bring the excess, not the location. A more constructive article would have been one that offered tips on enjoying the school break while remaining safe and aware. As opposed to running a piece dismissing Spring Break in PCB.

There’s a level of responsibility that needs to be accepted by those visiting our town. If you want to enjoy Spring Break, don’t make dumb choices.  Don’t drink too much, drink some water, eat some food, use sunblock and don’t make out with weirdos or strangers.

Our Police Department works hard to maintain the safety of everyone who visits or lives in Panama City Beach but it’s up to those visiting to meet us in the middle.

March 14-18 is the second largest week for Spring Breakers

According to tripsmarter.com there are 2,112,478 students running around the nation, currently enjoying their school break

Graph Below

Get ready, since the following week is listed as the largest week for College Spring Break.

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.)

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