Interview: Santiago Corrada

Still busy

Record-setting pace for tourism stalled, but overall 2020 figures reflect strong marketing impact

Santiago Corrada

President & CEO – Visit Tampa Bay

What helped Tampa become the busiest travel destination of the year in 2020? This is a testament to hard work. Going into the pandemic in February, we were setting records in terms of tourism numbers and we had a huge year ahead of us hosting major sporting events and conventions. We were undaunted in making sure we could get back to the business of righting the economy through safe and responsible travel. The numbers that came out at the end of 2020 were not so surprising because we were very intentional in trying to market the destination. Many of the events that were supposed to go ahead in 2020 have rescheduled with us. Obviously, our industry has suffered tremendously and we are nowhere near our historic record-setting pace.

Given the aversion to large gatherings, what is your outlook for the convention industry? In the short term, we will see these hybrid events and we’ve been able to adapt to that. We offer a hybrid grant for those meetings that cannot go ahead in person and did not count on the added expense of the technology. Our incentive is based on subsidizing the technology provided the event has an in-person component. That will be the norm in the short term until the pandemic begins to slow but just like with travel, I see this pent-up demand for people to get together in person. Selling and marketing is still a very face-to-face, relationship-based occupation. We’ve landed some major conventions for the years to come, even at the height of the pandemic.

How do you expect the increase in the minimum wage to impact Tampa’s key industries? There has been some criticism regarding the fact that hospitality is traditionally a low-wage industry. We have seen many people move through the ranks of these industries and come out the other end with extremely high-paying jobs. The rise in minimum wage is helpful but there has always been a career trajectory within these industries with a lot of opportunity for growth.

What is your near-term outlook and what changes from 2020 will become permanent? We were never a place that suffered from “over-tourism,” where it is very overwhelming to visit a place because of overcrowding. This could be a positive for us in the future, especially given the new focus on open spaces. People do not want to be trapped with a million other people anymore and Tampa Bay offers the typical Florida East Coast lifestyle without the huge crowds. We will see how it shapes up in terms of tourism as people start to feel more comfortable with national and international travel.