By JEN SAVEDRA/ DT Minich, President and CEO of Experience Kissimmee was inducted into the Florida Tourism Hall of Fame last week and he truly exemplifies the best the industry has to offer.
The only tourism executive to have led three Florida destination marketing organizations – Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau, Visit St. Pete Clearwater and Experience Kissimmee –Minich was recognized for his more than three decades of leadership, innovation and service to Florida’s tourism.
Receiving the award at the Florida Governor’s Conference on Tourism, Minich said, “This recognition represents every community, partner and tourism professional I have had the privilege of working alongside throughout my career.
“Each destination taught me something different about the responsibility we have as tourism leaders. We are here not only to welcome visitors, but also to strengthen our communities, create opportunities for residents, and protect what makes Florida such a special place. I am deeply honoured to join the leaders whose vision and service have shaped Florida tourism.”
Starting out
Travel Industry Today had an opportunity to talk with DT Minich after his HoF induction and he was, as always, generous and forthcoming with his time and observations.
Minich began his career as an intern with the Convention and Visitors Bureau in Fort Myers, working his way up through all the different departments and levels to become executive director.
He was then recruited to run the St. Pete Clearwater Convention Visitors Bureau, where he stayed for about eight years.
And then, 12 years ago, he was recruited again to run Experience Kissimmee. This time however, there was an added challenge and one he couldn’t resist: not only was he to run Experience Kissimmee, but to convert it from a government to private-public agency.
Minich was hired on Aug. 12, 2014, and he had until Oct. 1 of that same year to get it privatized.
“So, it was a huge challenge,” he told us, “but something that I really wanted to do, and you know, people asked me at the time, why are you leaving some of the world’s most famous beaches, and going to Kissimmee?
“But I really saw the diamond in the rough of Kissimmee and saw the tremendous potential that the destination had and also the opportunity to be the first in the state of Florida to convert a government agency into a public-private agency.”
It worked
It has worked extremely well. When he started 12 years ago Experience Kissimmee had 32 employees. It now has 71. They started with three international offices and now have 18. And under Minich’s leadership, Kissimmee’s vacation home inventory grew from approximately 10,000 to more than 30,000 homes.
They were collecting approximately $32 million in bed tax a year, “and this year,” said Minich, “we’ll collect $90 million in bed tax.”
DT enjoying a sail on Lake Ontario
Minich credits his team with the success of the marketing, which he acknowledges has changed so much over the last 12 years in Kissimmee.
Yet, he still keeps a letter that he received from Elaine McLaughlin, the director of Fort Myers, which he says he often reads as it keeps him grounded. It is an offer letter for his first job. The salary: $21,034 a year.
“I started this career 34 years ago,” he says, adding the letter reminds him of the potential that this industry has for people – and especially for young people.
“One of the things that is most important to me are the people in all three destinations that I’ve been able to mentor over the years. After my induction, I think there were about nine people that went up on that stage took up different awards that had all worked for me in various capacities over the years and that’s when I am most proud. (I’m proud) of being able to mentor young people and being able to encourage people to get involved in this industry and show that, if you work hard, and you’re passionate, you know you can be successful in this industry.”
Quality of the product
The quality of accommodation in Kissimmee was a prime target, says Minich.
When he got there, he knew that if he could attract a few developers to start building some quality product in the destination, “it would just snowball, because, you know, then you need quality restaurants, you need quality retail, you need quality attractions – and that’s exactly what has happened in the destination.”
The Margaritaville development, eight years ago, was cow pasture land, but it was all part of building the brand.
“Nobody knew what Kissimmee was or where it was or that it was just part of Orlando, and we had to build that brand, and we’ve successfully done that, globally really, with some of the initiatives we’ve undertaken over the years, and we have big competition.”
And, of course, Orlando is big competition. But that too is now a positive.
Minich says, “Cassandra Matej took over Visit Orlando about six years ago, I’ve known Cassandra, for like 20 years… and we’ve always had an amazing relationship and so that really helped forge some cooperative marketing and we do a lot of things together in various markets and we work together as central Florida, not just as Kissimmee and Orlando, but as central Florida as a whole.
“The other thing that I’ve worked on my entire career is air service development, and I’ve worked with all three airports – the Fort Myers Airport, the Tampa Airport, of course, Orlando Airport – on developing new routes, developing additional servers, and strengthening and keeping the service that we have. That’s continuous to make sure you don’t lose seat capacity into the destination.
On a personal note
I’ve known DT Minich since his tenure at Fort Myers – that’s a long time. I don’t believe in all that time that I have ever heard a negative word said about him. Aside from his phenomenal successes in business, he’s regarded as a “good guy.” Thoughtful, considerate, generous (when he recently read and loved, ‘Theo of Golden’ by Allen Levi, he went out and bought 30 copies from a local bookstore (not Amazon) for his friends and colleagues.
On being inducted into the Florida Travel Hall of Fame he began his acceptance speech with a smile, stating: “You know, everywhere I go in the world people ask me what DT stands for. And I look at them and just say, of course it means Director of Tourism!”
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