Customer Service & the Hospitality Industry

This week's Businessweek magazine features a great story on consumer's backlash against company's poor customer service. They also have rated the top 50 customer service companies in the US. Interesting, and not surprising, that many of these companies are in the tourism and travel industry sectors.

Busch Entertainment Corporation Announces the Most Significant News in its History

Under a surprisingly guarded cloak of secrecy, Busch has announced it will make "the most significant announcement in it's history" tomorrow at 11:00am EST. The announcement will be webcast at WorldsofDiscovery.com.

Bloggers at OrlandoSentinel.com are speculating, but the fact that such an apparently momentous anouncement hasn't been leaked (yet) is unusual.

Hyatt Regency Bonaventure Resort & Spa A+

Our 2008 Annual Conference will be May 28-30 at the Hyatt Regency Bonaventure Resort and Spa in Weston (Ft. Lauderdale). Their team has been very responsive and accomodating to us as plans for the conference are finalized.

Say Yes to Orlando

The Orlando Orange County Convention and Visitors Bureau has lauched its new "Say Yes to Orlando" campaign. The idea is that in Orlando, visitors have an amazing variety of vacation options, so while Orlando says "Yes" (you can) to potential visitors, those folks should, say "Yes" to Orlando as a vacation destination.

28 hits to this Blog

I received 28 hits to this Blog on February 19. The previous daily high was 26.

OK, I know thats not a huge number, but hey, it's not bad for 3 1/2 month old blog.

In the last 30 days, visitors have come from United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, India, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, and Greece.

Love Your Island

Chris Belland of Historic Tours of America and TrustedTours.com operates his enterprises from Key West. I met Chris in the mid-1990s, when we served on the Florida Attractions Association Board together.

I’ve always considered Chris to be a visionary, years ahead of many of his contemporaries in thoughts and ideas.

One of Chris’ personal and professional causes is “going green”, doing what he can do to protect our natural resources. As Chris pointed out to me on a recent visit to the Keys, going green isn’t just the right thing to do, but can also be a positive decision for a businesses’ bottom line.

Chris has agreed to present “Love Your Island” at our annual conference in May. “Island” refers to Key West but is also a metaphor for the planet Earth. Of course, we are also looking at ways to make our Annual Conference more “Earth-friendly”.

I recently found that the “Love your Island” team in Key West has a web site established and I wanted to share it with you.

Miami Seaquarium Dolphin Harbor TV Spot

Our friends at Miami Seaquarium have opened a swim-with-the-dolphin experience – Dolphin Harbor. We were able to tour the spectacular new attraction last month, but I wanted to share their television commercial with you.

VISIT FLORIDA Announces New CMO

VISIT FLORIDA has selected its new CMO. Here's the text of the press release:

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Feb. 13, 2008) – VISIT FLORIDA® announced today the hire of J. William (Will) Seccombe as the organization’s new chief marketing officer. Seccombe will lead VISIT FLORIDA’s marketing efforts, including overseeing direct marketing, advertising, Internet marketing, public relations, promotions and corporate communications.

“Will brings to VISIT FLORIDA great tourism marketing expertise. He will be a vital team member in advancing VISIT FLORIDA’s goals to promote and grow Florida’s tourism,” said Bud Nocera, president and CEO, VISIT FLORIDA.

A Colorado native, Seccombe brings more than 15 years of senior-level communications experience, with an emphasis in tourism marketing and online marketing initiatives. Seccombe comes to VISIT FLORIDA from Revolution Communications, an integrated marketing company which he founded with a focus on the travel and hospitality industry. Major clients have included the Colorado Tourism Office; Seccombe was also the previous vice president of marketing for the Denver Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Seccombe is a member of the Association of Travel Marketing Executives and the National Western Association. His duties at VISIT FLORIDA officially begin on March 3.

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eBay Seller's Stike

As a former eBay Powerseller, I’ve been watching the news on the reaction to recent changes on the eBay site. eBay has (once again) raised fees for sellers, withholding sellers ability to pop buyers with negative feedback (though I was never a fan of feedback extortion used by some sellers), and PayPal delaying transfers of funds between buyer and seller.

I know eBay is tired of its reputation being dinged by bad sellers, but it seems like ALL sellers are being penalized because of a few bad apples. eBay has said that it is going after bad sellers for years. Apparently, they either don't have the technology or the resources (or the will) to fix the problem in a systematic manner.

So rather than using a scalpel to strategically remove the bad sellers, they're using a sledge-hammer and damaging the entire eBay seller's experience.

Welcome Home STS-122 Atlantis

13 days ago, we were at the Cape to watch the launch of Atlantis. Today, after 5.3 million miles of travel, Atlantis returned safely to KSC. Congratulations NASA and the space-flight team.

VISIT FLORIDA Print Ad

VISIT FLORIDA

Discovering Tallahassee

With the family in town, we're getting out and discovering some of Tallahassee's dining gems.

For Valentine's Day, I took Anita to Torreya Grille on Apalachee Parkway. It's a family owned and operated eatery. The ambiance was perfect and restaurant offered a great diverse menu. Unfortunately, the service was underwelming. Anita had the blackened shrimp and salmon combo. I enjoyed the Greek platter. Both were excellent. In spite of the medicore service, we'd try it again. ***

Tonight, we took the kids to Ricardo's Italian Restaurant on Capital Circle NE, another family-owned and operated restaurant. The Italian diner featued all you would expect, moderate prices, and friendly service. We enjoyed calzones and penne pasta. The restaurant has Lucille Ball (Ricardo) photos on the wall. We'll be back. ***

Mike, Linda, & I have been to Food Glorious Food on Monroe St. a couple of times. This is one of my Tallahassee favorites. Great service & decor, an amazing menu, and the food is, well, glorious! ****

Harry's Seafood Bar & Grille on Kleman Plaza downtown is a "Tallahassee-chic" New Orleans-style restaurant. The atmosphere is excellent and the food good...and substantial. I've enjoyed the best jumbalia ever, with enough to take home for a 2nd meal. ****

Thanks, Linda & Mike

Today, Linda, Mike & I spent over 2 1/2 hours participating in 3 different online demonstrations of association and web content management programs.

We lost our Comcast Cable Internet service for about an hour (half-way through one of the presentations).

Thanks for hanging in there, team!

Weeki Wachee Springs Florida's Newest State Park

After several years of challenges from the water management district, one of oldest tourist attractions, world-famous Weeki Wachee Springs officially became a part of Florida's award-winning state park system today. It is a great day for the citizens of the town of Weeki Wachee, Hernando County, and the citizens of Florida.

Not a bad day for mermaids, either!

Congratulations to our friends at Weeki Wachee Springs!

Emily...

my 15-year old daughter is special.