We are 2 weeks away from one of our favorite events of the year. Think 1920s flair while showcasing 100 years of history, light bites, drinks, music, stilt walker, and a speakeasy surprise!

GET YOUR TICKET

See you there! 

~ Your Marketing and Partnership Teams

Summer can be a slower stretch for some partners, so I’ve put together a simple package to help keep your business visible and bring in more traffic during those months.

It includes VisitSarasota.com Banner Ads, a placement in our consumer E-newsletter (73,000+ opted-in travelers), and a Social Takeover… all designed to keep you in front of people while they’re planning their trips.

If you want me to send over available dates or talk through whether this makes sense for you, just shoot me a quick email.

Andy Roberts, andy.roberts@milespartnership.com

Summer Fun Inspiration

Help us inspire spring itineraries: what should visitors see, taste, or experience while they’re here?

Share images or videos for a chance to be featured on our social channels.

Can visitors find you on Google?

Every month in 2024, Google helped drive more than 2B+ direct connections, including phone calls, requests for directions, messages, bookings, and reviews for 19M+ American businesses.

If you haven’t checked yours lately, now’s a great time. A few simple updates can make it easier for visitors to find you, learn about what you offer, and turn those quick searches into real experiences.

Optimize your Google Business Profile

Visit Sarasota County recently hosted a Satellite Media Tour showcasing the experiences drawing visitors to our destination. Thanks to our partners at KEF Media, Lou Hammond Group, and host venue Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium (MoteSEA) for a seamless production.

We were proud to feature local leaders from Mote SEA, Nathan Benderson Park, and University Town Center, highlighting the continued momentum of these standout attractions. Satellite Media Tours help bring Sarasota County into homes nationwide—sparking travel inspiration and keeping our destination top of mind.

Grateful for the collaboration that helps us share Sarasota County’s story in such a meaningful way.

Media Wins: Florida & Sarasota Lead Spring Travel Coverage

This month’s PR coverage delivered exceptional reach, led by high-impact U.S. placements and supported by visibility in key international markets. Coverage highlighted spring travel, Gulf Coast beaches, arts and culture, and niche experiences.

41 total articles

430M+ potential audience reached

Highlighted Articles:

US: 10 Best Gulf Coast Beaches Across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida— High-reach MSN syndicated placement

UK: Opera, outdoor sculpture and globally renowned galleries: explore Florida’s Arts Coast — Major national feature

Germany: Floridas verborgenes Surferparadies — VUSA newsletter feature

View the full list of articles: https://visitsarasota.softr.app/pr-mentions

Local Media

Our Partnership & Sports teams pitch local journalists, freelancer writers, and publications to strengthen understanding and appreciation for Sarasota County's powerhouse tourism industry among residents and local businesses alike.

Spring break is traditionally the busiest season for Sarasota County tourism—and our local media was intently interested in how it shaped up. But sports tourism held the strongest gravity for March’s media coverage—with events like the TerraNova series, Nathan Benderson Park competitions, USA Swimming, and the Senior PGA generating both volume and credibility. Concurrently, the highest-reach stories of the month focused on tourism data, with outlets like Bay News 9, ABC7, and the Herald-Tribune covering declines in visitation and broader economic questions. Supporting stories around SRQ Airport growth, bed tax revenue, and broader thought leadership added context though, reinforcing our destination’s long-term strength.

Check out the full list of stats and stories below.

Monthly Local PR by the Numbers

37 stories.

Garnered 11.4 million impressions*. Numbers based on the unique monthly visitors (UVMs) for each publication’s website, pulled from Cision and SimilarWeb.

Top Local Stories

Sarasota OKs $1.5 million for golf tournament tourism promotion | Your Observer

Spring Break's Impact Beyond Season - SRQ Daily Mar 14, 2026

Registration now open for 21st Annual3 Savor Sarasota restaurant promotion – Carlos Eats

Watersports events line up at Benderson Park in April | Your Observer

Spring break economic impacts for Sarasota inn

Dashboard: We’re capturing our local media wins in an online dashboard viewable to the public and partners, which is updated in real-time: https://visitsarasota.softr.app/local-pr-coverage-public

Regional Spotlight Campaigns

This year, thanks to new funding, we are utilizing a platform called Zartico to analyze visitor movement and spend. These insights along with data from our research firm, Downs and St. Germain, will give us a deeper understanding of our visitor and help us market to them more effectively. 

In March 2026:

*Data from Zartico comes from a sample size of credit card spending and cell phone geolocation data. To be considered a visitor for credit card spend data, the billing zip code needs to be out of the area. For location data, it is where the cell phone has been overnight the most in the last 30 days (it's home location). 

This email goes to everyone on the Marketing and Communications team to keep us in the loop of all the great things you are doing!