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Chamber businesses eye packaging deals

6 min read

With the economy in a state of flux and the average worker’s vacation time looked upon as a luxury, the Greater Fort Myers Beach area Chamber of Commerce is getting together with local businesses -who are chamber members- to create packages which promote the Beach as an in-state destination this summer.

FMB Chamber President John Albion sees the summer slowdown as a great opportunity to attract Floridian tourism. This past Friday, he met with various individuals from their respective businesses at a chamber workshop hosted by the Pink Shell Resort. The brainstorming session generated new ideas for cross-promotions. The idea originally began when the Tourist Development Council and the Lee County Visitor Convention Bureau asked the local chamber offices to work towards creating packaging for its fall festival events such as the Pirate Festival slated for the first weekend of October; the Calusa Blueway Paddling Festival from Oct. 23 to Nov. 1; and the Sandsculpting championships during the first weekend of November.

“What a great year to rediscover your own backyard,” said Albion. “The idea is for local businesses to work together with other businesses. Customers are the winners in the long run and area hotels are hopefully a big winner because they can take care of the customer better.”

Albion said the “packaging” could begin with an accommodation site and go on to include additional amenities. For example, a hotel could partner with a jetski rental company, spa, golf course, restaurant or shopping mall.

“Someone may call up and say they would like to stay in a hotel,” said Albion. “They can have the option of staying in that hotel for ‘x’ amount of nights at a given price or for an additional price an added value opportunity.”

Albion explained two ways for the packaging to be effective in the area.

“First, the package being created can be offered to people up front,” he said. “There can be an opportunity that people may want to come to the area with certain things that they are looking to do. The hotel would have the ability to go on to a Web site we recently created and see what deals are being offered and put the package together. Create it from within rather than create in advance.

“Second, there is an inverted packaging approach where any chamber member can access the Web site and add a piece of a package and offer it onto the bulletin board so it can eventually become a package. That’s an internal mechanism that only chamber members can access.”

Albion said the meetings (this was the fourth one) have included 20 to 30 companies that are willing to gather, sit there and discuss what possibilities there may be.

“Our meetings have been going on for a little more than a month,” he said. “It is important that our business community understands that there is movement in some of these directions. There are opportunities or it may lead to an opportunity. You can get a deal onto a bulletin board which might lead to someone else putting together a package. So, it either directly leads to a deal up front or it creates an opportunity that leads to a deal. Ideally, in a more perfect world, these businesses can start realizing that they can be a solution to each other and not merely a competitor.”

The Pink Shell has taken advantage of packaging. To date, the resort has six packages put together for Aug. 16 through Dec. 24: For the Love of Dolphins Two-Night Stay Package; Ultimate Water Sport Package Two-Night Stay Package; Tight Lines Package Two-Night Stay Package; Lovers Key Stoop Package Two-Night Stay Package; Couples Sailing Adventure Two-Night Stay Package; and Discover Sailing Getaway Two-Night Stay Package.

Staycations

“I don’t think there’s enough of a demand base coming into the area to make everybody happy in Southwest Florida,” said Albion. “We do believe that some of the shortfall can certainly be filled by people that are already here. The problem that exists is that a lot of folks in the country

are having troubles either because of time or the economy to be able to take a vacation. What we have to keep in mind is that there are a lot of people here that are in the same boat. If they can’t afford to go somewhere else to take a vacation, they need to rediscover the very reason they moved here. This is a great time and opportunity to use some of your vacation time that otherwise you won’t get any real value out of instead of staying home and taking care of some gardening because you’re not in position to go away. There are opportunities locally that you can indeed come to and not have the traveling expenses and some of the other costs.”

According to Albion, January through part of April is a difficult time to take advantage of your backyard, but the summer is a good opportunity especially in these economic times to stay in the county.

“We’re looking at packaging with companies who could help their employees’ access,” said Albion. “If their employees are getting decent vacations, it’s going to affect morality and work production. Therefore, it’s in their interest to try to work with us and try to provide opportunities that their people can decide as they see fit.”

The fourth meeting

Local chamber members at the meeting included Angela Davis of Demand-IT Consulting; A.D. Diaz of Fort Myers Beach Golf Club; Michael Schmetterer of Mobile Massage & Body Work; Betsy Clayton and John Kiseda representing Lee County Parks and Recreation; Barb Garfold of LaHaina Island Accomodations; Nicole Olsen representing Bay Oaks Recreation Campus and the Town of Fort Myers Beach; Judith Lee of Sun Palace Vacations; Denise Smelcer of Candlewood Suites of the Sanibel Gateway; Beverly Bacon of Lani Kai Resort; Charles Hester of Hester Photography and Melissa Michaud representing Miromar Outlets.

Possible packaging opportunites ranged from a Pirate Festival slumber party at Bay Oaks; golf offers; movie night at an undetermined place; treasure/scavenger hunts for the Pirate Festival; Key West Express excursions; boat rentals; Calusa Blueway paddling experiences; shopping at Miromar and Santini Marina Plaza and various hotel propositions.

What appeared to be lacking was Chamber member restaurants.

The group has worked with the Florida Keys area (full-page ad) and will begin concentrating on Central Florida as well. The idea is to draw people from all over Florida to the Fort Myers Beach area.

“I really, really believe there is a growing sense with the way this weather has been that people will say, ‘I can do that package,'” said Albion.