Impact Report

Before heading down the long waters, let’s look back at how our organization stayed afloat from October 2020 through February 2021. With TDT Bed Tax Collections being $76.6 million, the pent-up travel demand from the pandemic was everything, and more, than we expected.

Plus, with several new theme park attractions, restaurant locations, accommodation guest room expansions, and meeting space additions, our sunny destination continued to grow and keep up with the demand. We weren’t fi sh out of water; we continued to thrive and expand.

The Media Relations team continues to organically pitch media and build relationships with others from across the globe. The projected goals set were just a drop in the bucket compared to how the year turned out.

Key Moments

• The annual impression goal was 250M, and the team delivered 400M.
• To bring joy during the holidays, the team delivered 100 Gingerbread Vacation Homes to select Industry Partners, travel agents, and media. The custom kit included Kissimmee-related props and cutouts to add a touch of sunshine to the holiday tradition. Additionally, they conducted a social media sweepstakes and networking event to promote awareness of Kissimmee as the Vacation Home Capital of the World®.
• The team hosted 21 journalists over two days at the Pre-IPW Global Media FAM. These reporters and journalists represented at least five countries and delivered several follow-up stories.

The Interactive Media team gathers incredible content both internally and externally to tell the Kissimmee story in multiple media. From engaging with our target audiences to maximizing our social impact, the team glistened the past fiscal year.

Key Moments

• Experience Kissimmee’s social media profiles surpassed a total of 1.5M followers, generating an engagement of more than 3M (+40% of goal) by the end of the year.
• Email newsletter subscribers increased by more than 20K, now totaling more than 80K.
• The content creators hosted by the team generated more than $10M in EMVOI (estimated media value of investment).
• The Peppa Pig TikTok video reached more than 10M views, our highest performing TikTok to date.

Awards

• Gold Stevie "Most Innovative" - TikTok Channel
• Gold Stevie "Most Innovative" - Instagram Feed
• Gold Stevie "Most Innovative" - Facebook Page

The Meeting Sales & Services team provides planning support from start to finish, as well as drives awareness to the destination as a key meeting location through building relationships with meeting professionals and Industry Partners.

Key moments

• The Meeting Sales team booked 223K contracted room nights through the It Pays to Meet in Kissimmee incentive for meetings taking place in 2023 through 2030.
• The team held a first of its kind in-person and virtual charity competition at TopGolf Orlando. This event included partnering with Experience Scottsdale, third-party partner HelmsBriscoe, and hotel partners on both coasts. Experience Kissimmee’s selected beneficiary charity was Help Now Osceola, operating an emergency safe shelter for victims of domestic violence.
• EK hosted a unique sales networking event with four meeting hotel partners in Tallahassee for key meeting planners for an interactive culinary experience.
• EK joined five other DMO/CVBs from across the country to host a VIP luncheon at a historic venue in Washington, D.C. for 30 planners from the Mid-Atlantic area.

^{*Source: Simpleview}

The Kissimmee Sports Commission is an integral part of Experience Kissimmee to ensure relationships with sporting event rights holders are enhanced and lasting.

Key Moments

• In the same fi scal year, the team hosted the USA BMX Nationals (October 2021) and USA BMX State Championships (May 2022) at St. Cloud BMX.
• The Special Olympics USA Games streamed on ESPN in June 2022 and featured more than 4,500 athletes from all 50 states and the Caribbean.
• In September 2022, the team kicked off the first year of a five-year partnership with JOOLA Global Table Tennis Championships at Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center, featuring pickleball as well.
   

Florida Sports Foundation Summit’s Best Awarded Event of the Year

^{Kissimmee Sports/Special Olympics USA Games}

Industry Partners are the heartbeat of our organization, and the Industry Partner Relations & Event Management teams do an outstanding job connecting with and introducing those partners to incredible opportunities for enhancing marketing efforts and visibility.

Key Moments

• More than 1,000 partners engaged with EK through more than 20 virtual and in-person partner events.
• The Event Management team successfully executed 71 programs for FY21-22.
• EK events have become increasingly popular, from networking breakfasts to quarterly partner updates. These events consistently sell out within hours of going live with lengthy wait lists.
• Over 100 partners participated in a series of educational sessions on diverse topics, such as social media and marketing strategy for small businesses, as well as equipping them with key industry research to aid in enhancing their business traffic.
• The IPR & Event Management teams still raised over $21K benefiting Hope Partnership by restructuring the sponsorship opportunities and collecting raffle donations from partners.
• EK’s internal Customer Relations Management database shifted to the Industry Partner Relations team to maximize support for our partners with benefit tracking and PartnerNet.

International travel continues to trend upward and with the efforts of the International & Domestic Sales team, Kissimmee is seeing more and more visitation.

Key Moments

• In October 2021, the team hosted the in-destination trade show Explore Kissimmee Fall Marketplace, the fi rst DMO to do so post pandemic, bringing in 18 U.S.-based clients. A total of 360 appointments were held on the show floor, followed by site inspections featuring 10 accommodation partners including hotels, resorts, and vacation homes.
• The 2022 Mexico Mission was the first time EK partnered with Visit Orlando on a joint sales mission with 11 EK partners. The team handled over 630 appointments, trained 220 agents, and generated 1.9M impressions with a total of $32K media value.

33 co-op campaigns in nine international markets generated:

• $3.4M Room Night Revenue
• $621K In-Kind Revenue
• 32M Impressions
   

The Business Applications & Insights team spearheads the Strategic Plan and implements innovative ways our teams stay connected.

• New FY23-25 Strategic Plan: After wrapping up the previous Strategic Plan, the team spent nine months developing the next three-year plan, including buy-in from the industry and community, building goals and initiatives at all levels of the organization, and communicating the new plan to key stakeholders and partners.
• Experience Kissimmee’s proprietary software, Impactulator, was showcased on several podcast episodes including Destination Marketing Podcast, Destination on the Left, and Simpleview’s The Layover. It was also featured in The Travel Vertical online newsletter.
• For continued telecommuting success, the team invested in VPN, Wi-Fi access, and internet bandwidth upgrades.
• To achieve greater visibility into visitor spending, destination traffic patterns, and other data, a new internal data aggregation and visualization platform was launched that will be used to fuel sophisticated marketing and sales programs.

The Experience Kissimmee Marketing team is the stern of the organization. Behind the scenes or in front of the camera, the team creates paid and unpaid media to drive brand awareness and recognition.

Key Moments

• In April of 2022, the team launched a Hispanic Marketing campaign in partnership with Univision in Miami and Beasley 92.5 in Tampa. The campaign included television, digital ads, social media, search ads, sweepstakes, radio, and digital audio, and it generated more than 2M impressions for the campaign.
• The dedicated Vacation Home Campaign in summer of 2022 generated more than 76M campaign impressions (11M above the original proposal), included more than $25K in added value for additional media, and beat the national completion rate average for multiple tactics.
• A New Search campaign in Canada and the UK in September 2022 functioned as a test for each market, generating an average click-through rate of 4.69% which is above industry average, to the EK website.

HSMAI Silver Adrian Award

• Florida Summer Shoulder Season Campaign

HSMAI Bronze Adrian Award

• Destination Arrival Prediction Leads to Lower CPA for DMO Experience Kissimmee Post +42% Increase in Partner Referrals

^{HSMAI: Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International}

We’re pushing through the waters, and our teams already have some incredible things underway.

• Develop and launch the Kissimmee Birding Club, an online birding trail for locals and consumers, including marketing tactics such as digital media, photography, social media, public relations, and more.
• Spearhead corporate messaging to support partners with sustainability and accessibility efforts.
• Execute satellite media tour (SMT) with Emily Kaufman, “The Travel Mom”.

• Launch newly designed website featuring streamlined usability, interactivity, improved navigation, and a new creative look.
• Partner with four Latin celebrities to create a digital series showcasing their visit to the destination, capitalizing on their social audiences for extended visibility, to launch during Hispanic Heritage Month.
• Contract at least six local content creators as guest contributors on EK’s social platforms to create unique content through their individual lens.

• Initiate new sustainability component to the It Pays to Meet in Kissimmee meeting incentive, involving meetings that prequalify to also compensate a portion of CO2 emissions by Trees4Travel planting trees for every actualized paid room night.
• Brainstorm and launch new Meetings subsite with engaging content in partnership with the Interactive Media and Brand & Content Studio teams.
• Host local planners and meeting hotel partners for a networking event at SeaWorld’s Seven Seas Food Festival in April 2023.
• Provide 16 continuing education credits with the Meeting Planner Mastermind program for 30 meeting professionals from across the country and hosting additional site visits and experiences throughout the event in Kissimmee.
• Network with Northeastern meeting professionals at the 25th Annual MPI New Jersey Golf Tournament.
• Attend LamontCo’s Associate Xchange Summit in June 2023 to network with meeting professionals and expand our current partnership.

Experience Kissimmee is now the official travel destination of the NFL UK. The three-year partnership was announced September 2022.

• Host Major League Fishing College National Championships in February 2023, airing on CBS Sports.
• Host Bass Pro Tour in February 2023, airing on the Discovery Channel.
• Host Under Armor Youth Golf National Championships in June 2023, the first time Reunion Resort has hosted this event.
• Explore, negotiate, and execute additional unique strategic partnerships on behalf of EK.
• Marketing exposure showcasing EK as a family-oriented destination to UK fans and travelers.
• EK is the presenting partner of the rapidly growing flag football sport, reaching 30K student athletes.
• Games are played in the fall at Wembley and Tottenham Stadiums.

• Develop new and unique programs for partners, such as web advertising on the newly launched website.
• Launch new events and experiences to provide more opportunities for partner engagement and networking as the destination continues to evolve.

• Assist in restoring travel trade relationships by bringing affordable trade show and sales mission opportunities to EK partners, such as a Canada Sales Mission (October 2022), Florida Huddle (February 2023), IPW (May 2023), and a Brazil Sales Mission (August 2023).
• Increase room nights, visitation, and economic impact to the destination by targeting the strongest markets of our trusted co-op partners, such as Expedia and Hotelbeds (multi-market campaigns running October 2022 through September 2023).
• Work with new and existing trade partners to identify emerging markets, strategically target new business opportunities, and increase visitation.

• Partner with U.S. Travel Sustainable Travel Coalition, B Tourism, Trees4Travel, and other organizations to understand, reduce, and offset the negative environmental impacts of travel.
• Engage the Vacation Home Research Task Force to outline specific needs and establish a plan for reporting and analysis of the vacation rental market in Osceola County and destination at large.

• Launch a new consumer advertising campaign in 2023: Kissimmee, The Big, Bold Heart of Florida.
• Execute Kissimmee Land brand activation in Tampa and St. Pete, including five Industry Partners allowing visitors to roll the dice, win prizes, and explore the Vacation Home Capital of the World®.
• Launch a large-scale co-op with VRBO and VISIT FLORIDA, the first of its kind, to highlight the uniqueness of Kissimmee’s vacation homes.
• Launch The Kissimmee Experience, a 10-part episodic video series about the wonder and diversity of our destination. Each episode is produced in-house and shares the story of partners throughout Kissimmee.