21 JAN 2019: David Downing, the president and CEO of Visit St.Pete-Clearwater (VSPC) has resigned. Downing has been the subject of recent headlines in the local media accusing him of overspending on everything from meals and alcohol to vacation days. Meanwhile, tourism in the area is booming – by the end of last year the county collected about US $60 million in bed tax dollars, translating to about US $1 billion spent on overnight stays — a 9 percent increase over the previous year.
Downing has been with VSPC for 12 years and has headed the organization since 2014. His resignation is effective February 1st. In a meeting with Travel Industry Today, Downing said he has accepted a position with a private company in the area that is involved in hospitality, though he cannot reveal the name at this time.
What the VSPC tourism chief did want to discuss is the “meteoric growth in every metric you can imagine” that his destination has seen over the last 12 years.
The growth of the destination
“And it speaks to the destination itself,” he said.
“How cosmopolitan it has become. How complex, how diverse. You know, we can have the number one beach at the same time we have this trophy shop of museums in downtown St. Pete. We have Fort DeSoto and Weedon Island and Caladesi Island, but still we’re the most densely populated county in Florida. There’s a lot of contradictions that come into play, and that’s why it has become so interesting.
“As a marketer, there are so many switches we can flip to promote this destination. It’s an embarrassment of riches.
“Culture and cuisine. And throw in some more world class beaches. When you look at the growth of this destination, you look at the growth of the tourism economy, the 104,000 people employed by tourism here.
Not all easy breezy …
“You know, we just like to pretend it’s all big, easy, breezy, beautiful pictures of people on beaches, but what we do at the end of the day is economic development. We promote.” He emphasized.
“Our objective isn’t always getting more visitors. Our objective is to create a greater economic footprint out of the visitation we have. If our objective were simply higher numbers of more bodies each year -that’s not a strategy. That’s a strategy that has no end. And when does it end? If one year you don’t get that extra person, is that considered a failure?
The responsibility and objective, said Downing, is to be “prismatic” about how to measure success in the destination.
“It’s not a sum, it’s an algorithm. There’s a lot of moving parts to it. At the end of the day, when we can, we do create that greater economic footprint, rather than just adding more footprints to the beach.” He laughs at the wordplay, and quickly grows serious again, “It’s our sweet spot. It falls within our greater definition of success.”
A matter of expenses
The Tampa Bay Times reported that “for more than 10 days before Downing’s resignation, (the newspaper) had been requesting hundreds of pages of records related to his travels across the globe and the way he operates the agency. He has racked up more than $300,000 in expenses on a county credit card since 2014, including thousands on meals and alcohol. It’s unclear who Downing treats because the records are shielded.”
Given what he does and the industry in which he does it – where meals and entertainment are part and parcel of promoting your destination and doing business in travel and tourism – that hardly seems a hugely excessive amount over a four year period.
And asked about it, Downing seems perplexed. That is part of what the job is, he says, it is what he does to promote and market his area.
The neighbours in the sandbox
The CEO of Visit St.Pete/Clearwater has to be on his game. This is a destination selling tourism in a state with tough competition. Very tough competition.
Downing says sometimes it is taken for granted that – “our competitive destinations are not just neighbors in our sandbox. They are some of the biggest names in tourism in the world. Sometimes I think we’re too close to it to understand that we’re talking about Orlando and Miami – Mickey and Miami.
“That’s what everyone around the world knows about Florida.”
So, when you have those two as a starting point you have to get really creative and get into their area or space he says.
What doesn’t Orlando have? VSPC publicizied themselves as the Beaches Of Orlando and they use that to advertise – BeachesOfOrlando.com. In Miami, the message was shrewd and simple, “Real beaches have sunsets.” And where would you find these beautiful beaches and spectacular sunsets – just head west across the state and check them out.
“It raises your game when you have to compete with Titans who are in your state.” Says Downing, “How do you do it? You use their brand as a springboard for your brand.
It’s simple enough he suggests, as the less well known entity you can be either similar to, or the opposite of, the more popular destination. Then, while these areas spend large amounts of money in advertising, “we piggyback on their brand and their image, and try to build ours off of it in a strategic way.”
What next?
We asked Downing what comes next for St.Pete/Clearwater?
The answer was immediate, “Growth. Regionally, nationally, and internationally. The sustained presence, and the sustained brand awareness that we’ve been able to effect in our key markets in Canada, the UK and Germany and our growth throughout Latin America. That people come here for so many different reasons simultaneously, is both a challenge and a great opportunity.”
There are people who come for the culture – there are an amazing number of museums and galleries in the area – led by the spectacular Dali Museum, then there are those who come for the award winning beaches, and there are those who take it all in and enjoy the entire experience.
You have to look too, at the Twin Center market says Downing, like promoting Orlando Beaches, and he suggests there is even a Twin Center Tampa-Saint Pete/Clearwater. It’s about awareness of the region he says referring to both Tampa Bay and the Gulf Coast.
“It’s just at a point right now where I think the next wave is going put it into that upper echelon.” He says.
“I think we’ve done it for so long and have such a staying presence, and have so many resources put toward it – we’re doing a lot of research right now, international research, that we have out to our agencies. When we get those back, that will give us a really, really good blueprint as to where we need to go.”
That blueprint however, will no longer include David Downing.
And in one of those quirky twists of fate, Downing will be honoured in New York this week by the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) as one of the Top 25 Extraordinary Minds in Hospitality Sales, Marketing, and Revenue Optimization.