JOIN US IN TELLING THE STORY OF GREATER FORT LAUDERDALE

Our marketing team is creating a dynamic Greater Fort Lauderdale history video that will span from the 1960s to current day.  

If you have images and/or videos that were taken in Broward County, anywhere from 1960 to today, we would love to see them! We are interested in anything that represents how Greater Fort Lauderdale and its residents and vacationers looked during this specific time period.

It’s amazing to see how far our destination has come. You only have to look outside to see how it's evolving. Please join us in telling the story of Greater Fort Lauderdale and submit your images or videos by clicking below. Deadline to submit is extended to November 12. Click here to submit.  

SEPTEMBER STATS

IN THE NEWS

Forbes: The Other Surprising Hollywood: How this Beautiful Beach Getaway Can Make You Smile

Instinct Magazine: Start Making Plans To Be In Florida’s LBGT+ Capital For Pride Of The Americas

USA Today: The 25 most fun cities in America

Oyster: 8 Places That Are Warm in December in the U.S.

Porthole Cruise Magazine: A Cruiser’s Guide to Fort Lauderdale’s Best Shopping

Fabulous: Seven Reasons to Visit Greater Fort Lauderdale 

DIVA Magazine (UK): Travel: Florida is the perfect destination for LGBTQI travellers

House of Coco (UK): Wake Up Here: CIRC Hotel in Hollywood, FL

Island City Stage in Wilton Manors was included in American Theatre Magazine, a nationally distributed publication that covers non-profit professional theaters. Click here to see the feature.  

SOCIAL BUZZ

In October, @VisitLauderdale and W Fort Lauderdale hosted Cosmopolitan’s entertainment editor Hannah Chambers (pictured here) to experience Greater Fort Lauderdale’s most social media-worthy spots for coverage in an “Insta-Itinerary” article. Check out Hannah’s Instagram for a sneak peek and stay tuned for the article on Cosmopolitan.com! 

@VisitLauderdale on the go! Do you follow our Instagram Stories? This month we posted live from numerous spots across Greater Fort Lauderdale including the grand opening of the Guitar Hotel at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood, the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, and more!

CONGRATS!

The Pillars Hotel in Fort Lauderdale was recognized as the "Best Luxury Value Hotel" in Canada, the USA, Mexico and the Caribbean in the 2020 Condé Nast Johansens Awards for Excellence. Created to acknowledge, reward and celebrate excellence across the properties recommended by Condé Nast Johansens, the world-renowned Awards for Excellence are a trusted mark of quality recognized by consumers and travel professionals alike. Click here to see all the 2020 winners. 

The Wyndham Deerfield Beach Resort was honored with two top awards from Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. Presented at the company’s 2019 Global Conference, the two awards include the “Hotel of the Year” distinction for the Wyndham brand recognizing its top performing hotels and their teams, and the event’s top honor, “Upscale Hotel of the Year” by parent company Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, which recognizes the company’s best hotel in each segment of the hospitality industry.

NEW ON THE SCENE

YOT Bar & Kitchen, a cool and casual spot in a unique setting, opened last month at the Lauderdale Marine Center in Fort Lauderdale, featuring a nautical theme with indoor and outdoor seating overlooking a marina. 

Red Ivy Bar and Lounge, a clubby restaurant-bar replacing Tarpon Bend, opened last month in Himmarshee Village in downtown Fort Lauderdale. An upscale drinking den offering fun creative cocktails and elevated tapas with weekly live music acts. 

Craft Beer Cellar, a craft beer bar and bottle shop, recently opened in Fort Lauderdale. The 1,500-square-foot bottle shop and taproom is divided into two rooms with a dozen rotating taps pouring beers ranging from local to abroad. You'll also find a 1,900-square-foot beer garden overlooking the Middle River. 

Tommy Bahama Marlin Bar, a casual, relaxing environment to eat, drink and shop, is scheduled to open on Las Olas Boulevard and Dania Pointe in late 2019.

The Pompano Beach Fishing Village redevelopment is well underway and part of a major beachfront renovation. The city’s pier reopened last month, the landmark Oceanic Restaurant is now open, and Lucky Fish Beach Bar and Grill, an open-air restaurant with a large Keys style Tiki Bar and live music, is expected to open late 2019.

Dania Pointe, a 102-acre premier mixed-use development with almost 1 million sq. ft. of retail and restaurants, opened 22 stores with more coming soon. An additional 370,000 sq. ft. of retail, dining and entertainment options, along with two Marriott hotels, two office buildings and residential apartments will be part of the second phase.

The Las Olas Beach Park project, a $49 million initiative bringing two new waterfront parks to Fort Lauderdale beach, is set to open to the public before the end of 2019. The project includes more green space, a tree-lined promenade, landscape and streetscape enhancements, pedestrian connections, and the state-of-the art parking facility. 

GFLCVB HIGHLIGHTS

Stacy Ritter spoke on the first Brightline Trains Connecting Conversations panel with fellow leaders William Douglas Talbert III of the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau and Jorge Pesquera of Discover The Palm Beaches. Moderated by Brightline President Patrick Goddard, the panel discussed regionalism, cultural tourism, the arts, meetings and conventions, and much more. Click here to see a clip from the night.

TOURISM SALES

Caitlan Etchevers conducted a New York Sales Mission in Westchester and attended a local travel agent show with 250+ in attendance. She also visited Signature Travel Network Agencies and attended the ASTA NJ Fall Travel Show (pictured here) with four partners. They concluded their NY/NJ Sales Mission with a lunch & learn in Albany for 20 advisors. This month, she will be attending Cruise World with Pre & Post Fams and hosting Holland America Mega Fams.

Tracy Vaughan attended Destinations Florida in Weeki Wachee Springs State Park. Gabriel Martinez held a TravelBrands Mega Fam in the destination, hosting sales reps from TravelBrands, Canadian Tour Operators and 34 of their top travel agents in Ontario. The host hotel was Ocean Sky Hotel & Resort.

Gabriel hosted a Virgin Holidays Fam with sales agents from Virgin Holiday and British Tour Operator from England and Scotland. The group stay in the Courtyard Fort Lauderdale Beach. Gabriel also conducted a Virtuoso webinar for travel advisors in Latin America, focusing on the experiences that differentiate GFL from other South Florida and Florida destinations. 

INTERNATIONAL TEAM

The German office participated at the FTI North America Roadshow with one of Germany´s biggest tour operator organizing a B2B events in Mainz, Hannover, Hamburg, Berlin and Leipzig (pictured here). The team trained 214 agents during a marketplace and presentation. They also participated at two evening events in Germany (Munich and Dresden) within the TUI B2B training series to nearly 60 agents in attendance learning about the destination. 

The online campaign with key specialist tour operator usa-reisen.de published an extensive highlight page dedicated to Greater Fort Lauderdale with new trips and packages. Click here to view. The online campaign in co-operation with Visit Florida and German OTA weg.de also went live. Click here to view.   

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

Richard Gray attended Out & Equal Summit in DC, the largest LGBT+ conference in the world. He is pictured here with Sabrina Kent, COS, NGLCC. 

Richard Gray also attended the WE Trade Business Chamber Conference in Bogota, Colombia, as a presenting sponsor and made a presentation on Pride of the Americas, coming to GFL April 21-26, 2020.

Richard spoke at the CMI Annual Conference in Las Vegas, where the GFLCVB was a presenting sponsor. And he is working on bringing a new Transgender event to the destination, called Wildside. Stay tuned! 

The Greater Fort Lauderdale Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce is working on their 2020 Guide. Please contact Keith Blackburn keith@gflglcc.org to be part of the guide. 

TIME TO VOTE! 

Fort Lauderdale and Wilton Manors have been nominated in the GayCities Best of 2019 Annual Travel Awards. 

• Best City (Fort Lauderdale) 
• Fun in the Sun (Sebastian Street Beach)
• Timeless Hood (Wilton Manors)

Please click on the links above and VOTE daily. Share on social with #BestofGayCities. 
Voting closes on December 6.

The Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau is proud to be the presenting sponsor for Pride of the Americas, welcoming visitors from North America, the Caribbean and Latin America to the destination, April 21-26. Click here for a glimpse at what's to come.  

Pride Fort Lauderdale is working with Delmay and Partners in Hollywood to create a housing/hospitality program for the event. If your property would like to participate, contact Jeff Delmay at jeff@delmaycorp.com. To learn more about sponsorship, advertising and other marketing opportunities during Pride of the Americas, contact J.W. Arnold, Executive Director, at jw@pridefortlauderdale.com.

MULTICULTURAL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Starting in December, Greater Fort Lauderdale welcomes more than 700 black state legislators from 46 states gathering for the National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL). The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), representing influential leaders of the black press from around the country, will bring their annual think tank meeting back to the destination in January 2020. The lineup continues into 2020 with the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO), as well as Black Fire Chiefs, and the National Black Optometric Association who will fill hotels with some of the top professionals in their fields – in addition to other gatherings of Greeks and faith organizations.  

UNDERGROUND LAUDERDALE

Noelle Stevenson attended Tour Connection Nashville with more than 200 entertainment travel agents in attendance. She met with key promoters and key music industry leaders to discuss 2020 partnerships, including Tortuga Rock the Ocean and Live Nation, and hosting music videos in the destination. (Noelle pictured here with Chris Stacey, founder of Tortuga Rock the Ocean and Chris King, key music industry leader). 

October Film Permits = 49

Gridiron Grill-Off takes place at the Pompano Beach Amphitheater with musical guest Brett Young this weekend, November 9. And the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival is underway now through November 17. Click here for tickets.

Waves, an A24 production filmed in Broward County, has been nominated for 2019’s Gotham Awards as Best Feature. Directed by Trey Edward Shults, the film starred Sterling Brown from NBC's 'This is Us.'  

OCTOBER CONFERENCES & CONVENTIONS

The CVB Convention & Groups Sales team attended: IEEE Communications Society (pictured here), NJ Sales Mission, Virginia Gold Cup, PCMA NY Education Day, NECVB Reps Reception in NYC, BizBash in NYC and Connect Faith in Grand Rapids.  

Groups meeting in November will generate more than $10 million to Broward County. Groups include:
Nov 1-5: Florida International Bankers Association (1200 attendees)
Nov 8-9: Women EmpowerX (3000 attendees)
Nov 8-10: South Florida Regional Convention, Inc. (2000 attendees)
Nov 8-14: 2019 FYSB RHY Grantees Training (700 attendees)
Nov 11-18: 2019 Cruise World (1500 attendees)
Nov 13-22: 2019 PhocusWright Conference (600 attendees)
Nov 14-16: Anime Iwai 2019 (400 attendees)
Nov 15-17: Vision Preview 2019 (500 attendees)
Nov 27-Dec 3: Hurricane Showdown (900 attendees)

SPORTS DEVELOPMENT

Congratulations to the Class of 2019 inducted into the Broward County Sports Hall of Fame. Inductees (pictured above, left to right) include Jesse Vassallo, Swimming; John Cohen (Spirit of Sport recipient), Dr. Guy Harvey, Fishing; Tamara James, Basketball; Eddie Rodger, Soccer; Roberto Luongo, Ice Hockey; and OJ McDuffie, Football. Click here to read their bios.

Greater Fort Lauderdale welcomes Regional SportAccord Pan America, December 10-12 at the Broward County Convention Center. Meet Olympic Legend Nadia Comaneci and talk business with more than 50 international Sports Federations and discuss with Pan - American and World Sports leaders the latest issues impacting sports. Register here. 

FLL NEWS

September total traffic: 2,192,688, down -9.4%; domestic traffic: 1,676,264, down -8.7%; International traffic: 516,424, down -11.5%; YTD total traffic: 27,502,786, up 1.4%. According to the Airports Council International Report for YTD August 2019, FLL ranked 18^th in total traffic and 10^th in international traffic. 

NEW SERVICE 

• Spirit Airlines: Nashville (Oct)
• Frontier Airlines: Cleveland and Cincinnati (Nov)
• Southwest Airlines: Cleveland, Louisville, Boston (Nov, all seasonal)
• Swoop: Winnipeg (Nov)
• Air Transat: Vancouver (Dec)
• Azul: Belo, Horizonte, Brazil (Dec)
  
  
  

PORT EVERGLADES

Port Everglades celebrated the achievements of women in the maritime industry with EmpowerHER, an invitational event that highlighted a paradigm shift in the maritime sector wherein a growing number of women are welcomed and awarded leadership roles. The EmpowerHER event assembled 160 women from more than 60 companies with a Port Everglades affiliation who have made positive impacts as role models in encouraging new female recruits to maritime careers.

This initiative was launched as the World Maritime Day theme for 2019 by the International Maritime Industry (IMO) to recognize women in the port, government, cruise, cargo and shipping. To kick-off this event, artist Alice Aycock unveiled Port Everglades’ newest public art installation, a 30-foot dynamic three-dimensional interpretation of waves, water, wind, and vortexes of energy in a roundabout between Cruise Terminals 21 and 25 (pictured above).

The newly transformed Carnival Sunrise arrived in her new homeport last month to launch a schedule of four- and five-day Caribbean and Bahamas cruises from Port Everglades. New features include casual food and beverage options, a new water park, theater and other live entertainment and updates to state rooms and two redesigned Captain's suites.

CVB TEAM ON THE MOVE

Oct 30-Nov 2: WE Trade Business Conference, Bogota
Nov 3-6: CMI Annual Conference, Las Vegas
Nov 13-15: PCMA, "Heartland Chapter State of the Industry", Kansas City
Nov 19-22: Canada Sales Mission, Toronto & Montreal 

CVB team pictured here cruisin' the waters on Fort Lauderdale Tiki Boat Tours.

Click here to check out more of our CVB team in action at various events and functions around the world.

HAPPENINGS AROUND TOWN

Through Nov 17: Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, Savor Cinema, Fort Lauderdale
Through Dec 10: Shrek The Musical, Broward Center for the Performing Arts
Through Dec 27: Existencia Natural – Natural Existence Exhibition, Pompano Beach Cultural Center
Through Dec 27: Works by Michelle Drummond Exhibition, Pompano Beach Cultural Center
Nov 9: 14th Annual Riverwalk Mutts & Martinis  
Nov 9: Beauty and The Beast Animated Classic, Broward Center for the Performing Arts
Nov 9: Gridiron Grill-Off, Pompano Beach Amphitheater 
Nov 9: IRCC 2019 Diwali Festival of Lights, Broward Convention Center         
Nov 9: Oakland Park's 3rd Annual Art & Antique Walk and Craft Show
Nov 9: Sting, Hard Rock Live
Nov 9: SwampFest Bluegrass Festival, Flamingo Gardens
Nov 9: Tarpon River Brewing Beer Run
Nov 10: Jamaican Jerk Festival, Miramar Regional Park
Nov 10: 13.1 Half Marathon
Nov 10: Exotics on Las Olas
Nov 14: Discovery After Dark, Museum of Discovery & Science
Nov 14: Florida Panthers vs. Winnipeg Jets, BB&T Center
Nov 14: Get Lit – Light Up Lauderdale, Esplanade Park
Nov 14-Dec 15: Lipstick, Island City Stage
Nov 15: 14^th Annual Recycled Fashion Show, Young At Art
Nov 15: Jonas Brothers, BB&T Center
Nov 15: Leningrad, Hard Rock Live
Nov 15: Storm Large, Broward Center for the Performing Arts
Nov 16: Downtown Hollywood Artwalk, Market & Mural Tour
Nov 16: Taste of Lauderdale Lakes
Nov 16: Alicia Keys, Hard Rock Live
Nov 16: Dennis DeYoung & Night Ranger, Pompano Beach Amphitheater
Nov 16: Florida Panthers vs. New York Rangers, BB&T Center
Nov 17: Kevin James, Hard Rock Live
Nov 19: Florida Panthers vs. Philadelphia Flyers, BB&T Center
Nov 21: Florida Panthers vs. Anaheim Ducks, BB&T Center
Nov 21: Light Up The Galt, A1A & Oakland Park Blvd
Nov 22: Fantasia with Tank & The Bonfyre, Hard Rock Live
Nov 23: Chris D'Elia, Hard Rock Live
Nov 23: Holiday Fantasy of Lights 5K Walk and Run, Tradewinds Park
Nov 23-24: Riptide Music Festival, Fort Lauderdale beach
Nov 24: Florida Panthers vs. Buffalo Sabres, BB&T Center
Nov 24: Holiday Fantasy of Lights Family Bike Night, Tradewinds Park
Nov 26: Light Up The Beach, A1A & Las Olas Blvd
Nov 30: Florida Panthers vs. Nashville Predators, BB&T Center
Nov 30: Lynyrd Skynyrd, Hard Rock Live
Nov 30: FATVillage Art Walk, Flagler Village 

For more events visit sunny.org/events. If you would like to submit an event for approval, go to sunny.org/submit.

Best wishes,

Stacy Ritter, President