Here at Visit Sarasota County, we hear time and again from visitors and residents alike that a hallmark of Sarasota County’s charm is its thriving arts and culture scene. So much so that back in 1996 we started using a phrase to help reflect the great abundance of our arts community. In 2000, we registered that saying as our trademark – Florida’s Cultural Coast – to ensure this identity is promoted and celebrated all year long.
The show doesn’t start or stop at that catchy three-word phrase, however. Each year, we leverage tourist development tax funding granted to us by the Board of County Commissioners to position Sarasota County as the place to travel for museums, galleries, performing arts venues and so many more cultural treasures. This is an effort we take great care to strengthen and steward, continuously learning and innovating to enrich our destination for the benefit of all who cherish it.
A few years ago, we heard from many leaders in the community that other destinations around Florida were heavily promoting their areas as havens for arts and cultural enthusiasts. These communities with bigger marketing budgets were outspending us with their messaging. We at VSC had been successfully targeting this same market but had been doing so via lower-funnel strategies, mostly in the digital space. We heard the outcry for our community to reach out to this market with higher-funnel strategies, like full-page print ads, billboards and other brand-building awareness strategies.
With this in mind, VSC asked the county commissioners for $350,000 in special funding from the tourist development tax to do a higher-funnel advertising campaign focusing on Florida’s Cultural Coast messaging and targeting. This investment was in addition to our annual plans and set the stage for new opportunities to spotlight our arts and culture amenities, not only in the Sunshine State but also globally.
This journey began, as all good ones do, with listening. In partnership with the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County, we brought more than 30 creative minds together representing an array of local organizations for a series of forums. These conversations were essential in gathering the feedback necessary to craft our strategic approach and give our partners a say in how Florida’s Cultural Coast comes to life across media and geographies.
With a plan in place, VSC got to work – especially in building relationships across the pond. In late 2023, we hosted a group of writers and journalists from the United Kingdom and gave them a front-row seat to a handful of our world-class institutions. Then, just last month, our very own Sarasota Ballet rekindled those connections during a performance at The Royal Opera House in London. There, we held an activation with over 25 tour operators and media, giving our partners – like Brian Hersh, CEO of the Arts and Cultural Alliance, and Jason Ettore, general manager of the Sarasota Ballet – a chance to share why Sarasota County is such a special place to visit.
To date, this international campaign has generated more than 91 million media impressions and secured high-impact stories in Reuters News, BBC Radio London, and Wanderlust Magazine, among many others.
We’ve also been putting the story of our cultural coast front and center to prospective visitors right here in Florida with eye-catching digital billboards and content placement in other arts-centric communities like Tampa, Orlando and Miami. Through streaming platforms, playbills and beyond, we’re gaining momentum in attracting visitors who are educated, enthusiastic and eager to experience our local culture.
In the next year, we hope to unlock even more possibilities and replicate our successes outside of Florida. We realize tourism is only Act One, and then, if a visitor falls in love with our destination as so many before them have, relocation becomes Act Two. In other words, our identity as Florida’s Cultural Coast fosters lifelong residents and even philanthropists whose generosity powers so many of our community’s artistic pursuits.
All of us at VSC truly appreciate these groups who continue to enrich our lives and the experiences of travelers year-round. We give our thanks to those artistic leaders who aided in bringing this programming to life with brilliant ideas and the county commissioners without whom we would not have had the funding to achieve those dreams. If all the world’s a stage, our arts and culture organizations deserve a standing ovation. We hope you’ll join the applause.
Erin Duggan is the president and CEO of Visit Sarasota County. She can be reached at 941-955-0991, ext. 108, or eduggan@visitsarasota.org.
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