The Walton Area Chamber of Commerce released the following article on behalf of Coastal Vision 3000 and Davage “Buddy” Runnels.

Setting a vision for The Beach

Last year, when a delegation of business leaders from Northwest Florida visited with an executive from Southwest Airlines at their headquarters in Dallas, he made the challenge facing our region very clear.

When it comes to air service, Northwest Florida is a fragmented market, he told us. There is no clear branded national destination. He greatly admired the region’s white sand beaches. He knew that between seven and nine million people visited the region each year. He knew that around eighty-five percent of them drove into the market, some from as far as twelve hours away.

Still, the lack of a regional brand and a clearly identifiable destination made low-cost air service a risky proposition. The consumer outside or our existing drive to market does not typically know about our special beach of what any of the existing names really represents. His recommendation was that we develop what he called a regional “halo” brand. In English anyone can understand: An instantly identifiable name that refers to the whole region, from Okaloosa County to Gulf County.

He was not suggesting that we do away with brand names like “The Beaches of South Walton,” “The Emerald Coast,” or “The Forgotten Coast.” He was suggesting that we develop a broader regional brand that could be associated with existing places.

And he was suggesting something even more important. He was suggesting that business leaders in this region work together with our Airport Authorities to develop a truly regional marketing plan to support tourism and improved air service all along our world famous beaches.

When I left Dallas that day, I knew he was right - and I knew we had to do something about it. So I began talking with other regional business leaders, searching for common ground, shared interests and a way to create mutual benefits.

As a result of those early conversations, we created Coastal Vision 3000, a membership organization of regional stewards representing tourism and economic development interests in Okaloosa, Walton, Bay and Gulf counties.

Our goal is to help establish a consistent, branded identity for the four-county region and to increase national and international awareness, support our local tourism and economic development professionals, and grow our market.

To achieve these goals, Coastal Vision 3000 members have agreed to participate in a regional brand-building campaign that serves as the foundation for localized and individual destination marketing campaigns. Perhaps more significantly, our regional stewards have agreed to help bridge the geographic, political and economic boundaries that have fractured marketing efforts in our region and limited our potential.

To date, we have made tremendous progress bringing the region together, thanks to the hard work of my fellow Executive Committee members including Park Brady, Andy Phillips, Robert Kamm, Jerry Ray and leadership of the many Founders and Stewards involved. To review a complete roster of our Founders and Stewards please visit www.thebeachfla.com. Through Coastal Vision 3000, we have, for the first time, brought together the region’s Chambers of Commerce, TDCs, EDAs and Airport Authorities to work towards one ultimate goal - growing our market.

Recently, we shared our thinking and the work we have done to date developing our regional halo brand: “The Beach: A Way of Life That Will Change Yours.” I encourage you to visit our web site, www.thebeachfla.com, to learn more about this brand, our cornerstones and the thinking and people behind it.

In the weeks ahead, our regional stewards will be visiting with local businesses to explain how we can work together to build this regional halo brand to everyone’s benefit. Meetings will be held throughout the month of March for businesses to learn more about how to build the brand into their marketing plans. The brand launch is scheduled for April 2008.

It is important to understand that we are very much at the beginning of this process. We have just begun working on concepts for the regional brand and will be soliciting feedback from business leaders and other stakeholders in the weeks ahead, as we road-test our ideas.

We’re going to need as much constructive help as possible to grow our regional business to everyone’s benefit. Now is not the time to stand on the sidelines and criticize the efforts of others. Now is the time to get involved, to share with us your best thinking and can do spirit.

Current economic conditions in Northwest Florida are challenging. But we have a choice: We can go it alone like we’ve always done - or we can work together, as a region, and achieve something together we could never do alone.

If we are able to build a regional brand and increase awareness of our beaches as a national and international destination, there is still no guarantee Southwest will come. But I feel sure about this: We will be able to use our regional power to secure more competitive air service to everyone’s benefit.