The brief from Visit Florida is understood to be around $400,000 (£253,200) per year for PR, marketing and sales support with the goal being to increase visitor numbers, raise awareness and length of stay in the ‘sunshine state’.
Tourism is Florida’s leading industry, generating $60bn (£38bn) annually and employing more than a million people. Preliminary figures from Visit Florida show it had 23.4 million visitors from January to March, a rise of 2.4 per cent from a year ago.
The body is looking for a Marketing and PR agency to support its existing Visit Florida UK, Ireland and continental Europe offices.
With the winning agency being tasked with handling media requests, securing press trips, providing crisis comms and growing its social media presence, it is imperative the organisation attracts an agency with expertise in travel PR, media relations and social media management.
Fees are understood to be $100,000 (£63,300) for PR and $300,000 (£190,000) for sales and marketing for 2012/13 with the contract being an initial one year, with the option for a two-year renewal.
A decision is expected to be made by mid June with the contract due to start in early July.
The travel body was forced to cut its UK PR support when the recession hit in 2009.
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