Interview: Steve Hayes

New focus

The unprecedented shutdown during the pandemic has forced a rethink of business models and messenging

Steve Hayes

President & CEO – Visit St. Pete Clearwater

What were your major 2020 takeaways? Our communities here in Pinellas have weathered many different crises over the years. The travel industry had never seen a complete shutdown such as this. For us, it meant rethinking the model at its core, even the messaging. The great part about our destination that helped us is the vast number of outdoor activities we offer, with the beaches at the very top, walking and biking trails, and water trails. This area has fared so much better than other places. It boiled down to adapting and finding ways to do things differently. We relied more on technology than ever before, creating a video campaign on how to experience our destination and what we offer. Prior to the pandemic, we had never done a webinar. We looked at ways to get more creative in reaching out to people and with the content that we were putting out there. The last thing you want to do is be insensitive to what folks are going through, whether they are in Tampa, Orlando or Chicago. We were using research to judge when we needed to be back in the marketplace with a visitation message.

The other aspect to that is how could we message our visitor that we were creating a safe place to visit, while in parallel letting locals know that we were making visitors aware of what the expectation is in terms of safety protocols. We got great leadership here in the county that insisted on the importance of following CDC guidelines.

What steps are being taken to prepare the region for pent-up travel demand? First and foremost, we will continue with targeted messaging while being able to accommodate the demand as well. That approach will continue to be critical even after we recover. What you do not want to do is have overcrowded areas due to this pent-up demand. It would be detrimental to the effort of creating the best experience. What are the main priorities for Visit St. Pete Clearwater in the near term? Our major priority is our strategic plan, setting the course to where we want to be toward 2026 and how we want to shape the industry in that timespan. We’re talking to business and community leaders, elected officials and tourism stakeholders to set that stage. Another major focus will be content development and finding the best ways to create content that tells the stories and the experiences that we offer. We’ve always talked about the beaches but now we want to raise awareness of our arts and culture environment and our other outdoor options. We will also be looking forward to working more with our community partners.