Let’s be honest. No one is asking for more emails.

Our Marketing Enews is designed to help you get the most out of your Visit Sarasota partnership by keeping you in the loop on opportunities, updates, and insights that can help your business.

Each month, we share ways to get in front of the Visit Sarasota audience, remind you about opportunities like our social media post callouts (one of the easiest ways to earn extra exposure!), highlight where our PR teams are generating media coverage, share new and updated website content, and include research snapshots to help you stay on top of our visitor demographics.

This newsletter is for you, so your feedback matters.

If there’s a section you always skip, tell me. If there’s something you’d love to see more of, tell me that, too. We like to include a marketing tip or insight each month, so if there’s a topic you’d like us to cover, I’d love to hear your ideas.

Thank you for being a valued Visit Sarasota partner. We appreciate your partnership and look forward to helping you make the most of it.

~Jess Bertolini, Director of Web & Digital Engagement

2027 Visitors Guide Early-Bird Offer

We're now beginning to reserve space in next year’s Visit Sarasota Official Visitors Guide, one of the destination's premier marketing pieces that travelers use while planning where to stay, dine, shop and explore. The guide is distributed through Visitor Information Centers, SRQ Airport, sporting events, trade shows, meeting planner requests, and digitally on VisitSarasota.com.

For a limited time, partners who reserve a Full Page advertisement will also receive a complimentary Featured Listing on VisitSarasota.com (a $1,025 value). Your Featured Listing keeps your business prominently displayed on its category page for a full year, helping you stay visible long after someone picks up the guide.

If you've been thinking about advertising in the Visitors Guide, this is a great time to reserve your space. Just send me a quick email, and I'll be happy to walk you through the available options.

Contact Andy Roberts at Sales@VisitSarasota.org or 941-342-2429.

Fall Happenings

We are gearing up for the fall season! Share your inspirational content to get visitors excited and eager to book their trips! 

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

Sarasota’s Secret Season: Luxury Without the Crowds

Help us showcase why Sarasota County is especially appealing during its quieter seasons. We are looking for elevated experiences that offer exceptional value, personalized service and a more relaxed pace without sacrificing quality.

Relevant submissions may include luxury hotel or resort packages, spa experiences, private tours, upscale amenities, exclusive access, special seasonal offers or other ways visitors can enjoy Sarasota County with fewer crowds.

Please share:

- A brief overview of the experience or offer

- What makes it feel luxurious or exclusive

- Seasonal availability and pricing, if applicable

- High-resolution images

- Website and media contact information

Deadline: August 7, 2026 to pitchus@visitsarasota.com

 

Where Fine Dining Meets Find Dining: Sarasota’s Flavor Hunt

We are looking for culinary experiences that invite visitors to discover something unexpected, memorable and uniquely Sarasota. Think hidden gems, signature dishes, chef-led experiences, locally sourced ingredients, creative tasting menus or restaurants worth seeking out.

Relevant submissions may include under-the-radar dining spots, distinctive menu items, chef stories, neighborhood favorites, culinary trails, specialty markets or experiences that turn dining into part of the adventure.

Please share:

- The restaurant, chef or culinary experience

- What makes it distinctive or worth discovering

- A signature dish, ingredient or story

- High-resolution images

- Website and media contact information

Deadline: August 21, 2026 to pitchus@visitsarasota.com

Three New Instagram Features to Try

Instagram has quietly rolled out a few updates that give businesses more flexibility with existing content.

Reorder your profile grid to showcase your best or seasonal content first.

Replace the audio on existing Reels and posts without losing your likes, comments, or shares.

Add individual captions to carousel slides to tell a more detailed story or highlight multiple experiences or menu items.

These updates are designed to help businesses get more mileage out of the content they’ve already shared, rather than always starting from scratch.

Read more: The Verge recently rounded up all three features here: https://www.theverge.com/news/968243/instagram-creators-replace-audio-tiktok-competition

Media Wins: Sarasota & Florida Capture National Attention for Family Travel

This month’s PR coverage showcased Florida’s Gulf Coast as a premier destination for family vacations, award-winning beaches, and cultural experiences, generating strong visibility across national and international media.

36 total articles

344M+ potential audience reached

 

Highlighted Articles:

US: This Beach Was Just Named the Best in the U.S. for the Second Year in a Row — Major People feature reinforcing Siesta Beach's national acclaim.

US: The Best Florida Family Vacation Might Surprise You – It's Not Orlando — USA Today feature highlighting Florida's Gulf Coast as a top family destination.

UK: 5 Secrets for Supercharging Your Family Holiday Sales to Florida — Travel trade feature promoting Florida family travel to UK advisors.

Germany: Die heimliche Kulturhauptstadt ("The Secret Cultural Capital") — Amerika Journal print feature positioning Sarasota as a leading arts and cultural destination.

 

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.

One more reason to feel like a firework this month beyond America’s 250th birthday weekend: Visit Sarasota's June local media hits. Of the 37 stories secured, 26 of them—70% —feature Savor Sarasota, which generated $2+ million in additional revenue for local restaurants during its entire June run. The 2026 USRowing Youth National Championships took center stage from a sports PR perspective this month, captured in an impressive 48 stories. Tourism research continues to be of monthly interest to local reporters, with stories this month reporting on April’s data.

Monthly Local PR by the Numbers: 86 stories garnered 727 million impressions.

Top Local Stories

Nearly $1.02M in sales generated during Sarasota restaurant weeks | Your Observer

55 Restaurants to extend Savor Sarasota menu through the end of June - The Bradenton Times

Youth rowing championship brings 4,000 athletes to Sarasota

Stronger Together: How Local Partnerships Drive Tourism

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

Fall Social Media Campaign

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 June 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!