The venerable Riverside Hotel on Las Olas Boulevard, the city's oldest inn, is easy to find for vacationers, said general manager Heiko Dobriko.
"In the lobby you see people working with their laptops." But their clothes don't reflect the businessman.
"As technology advances, it remains an exciting journey to the point where we can work anywhere in the world," he said. "Most people can work from anywhere and still get the job done."
He said bookings for the upcoming Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show in late October are high and the event typically attracts business and leisure travelers.
Blitzer Traffic at Hyatt Centric Las Olas West began in 2011. It's in early 2021, with a short hiatus at the end of the year due to the Covid gap and relaunching last spring, said Kathryn Baza-McLennan, director of sales and marketing. Marketing.
"We had a lot of inquiries in March, April and June," he said, and that continued long into the summer. Our target is above 2019 levels.
He said the guests were mainly from the US, but also from Canada, England and Brazil.
"It's funny because you don't think of Brazil as a certain market like Fort Lauderdale, but we've definitely got our fair share," Beza-McLennan said.
The hotel invites its employees to use the service with daily check-in. The Day Office program allows you private use of your rooms from 7:00am to 1:00pm and includes premium Wi-Fi, discounted meals and access to the hotel's gym, pool and spa.
Wave effect
The town center has co-working spaces, restaurants and Brightline train service.
Some vacationers need clean office space that hotels don't have, says Tim Huss, founder of General Provisions in Fort Lauderdale.
"This is something that is constantly evolving," he said. "It's not something we focused on before the pandemic."
As a result, the company has improved its membership-based business model, allowing a one-day pass for people who want to access the site for a short period of time.
"You can use it for a day or a month," Haas said. "This is the range of use."
It also added 25 private offices and work spaces "better suited to passing passengers".
Amy Guerrera, founder of Miami's Breakwater Hospitality Group, owner of The Wharf Fort Lauderdale and Rivertail Downtown, welcomes families with visiting entrepreneurs.
"You know how they dress," said the father, explaining that his wife and children were free to wear clothes.
"Overall, we're definitely seeing improvement. Guests from out of town. And that's great."
Brightline, the cross-border rail line that serves Fort Lauderdale, Miami and West Palm Beach, has "seen a significant increase in business travel" since the company resumed service last year after a long Covid-related shutdown, a spokeswoman said. .
Local transportation links to the stations help passengers reach tourist attractions in Fort Lauderdale, Miami Beach, Miami's Brickell Avenue area and West Palm Beach Plaza.
The concept helps the industry
Peter Rickey, director of the hospitality and tourism management program at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, said the vacation travel concept has been around for more than a decade.
"Covid has increased the use of leisure travel where people often work remotely so they travel with friends, family, significant others or alone and combine their travel with quality work/life," he said. Email: “If you are attending a business meeting, you will arrive a day or two early or stay a day or two longer.
"Hotels, restaurants and travel destinations will benefit greatly from the 'sushi' phenomenon by extending the typical traveler's stay," he added. “If Access has a duration of 2.3 days, I would expect this fun activity to be extended to 3 days as an example. Increased stay means more revenue for the destination, more dollars for our local workers and more tax dollars for our community. ".
Ritchie argued that the hospitality industry could "benefit the sector by introducing more transparent and transparent forms of holiday or beach telecom advertising and marketing".
"There have been several campaigns," he said, but not enough to position any hotel as a leader in the sector.
The American Hotel Association, an industry trade group in Washington, D.C., is offering loans to travelers to help hotels recover.
"During the pandemic, telecommunications growth trends have created new types of hotel guests, including tourists and digital nomads," association president and CEO Chip Rogers said in an emailed statement. "Blitzer travelers combine business and pleasure trips, while digital nomads travel for work, staying in different places for as long as they want."
In a survey conducted by the association in May, 82 percent of business travelers were willing to extend their trip by a day or two.
"So this is a trend that started during the outbreak and hopefully will continue," Rogers said.
Set the stage
There are no promotions to attract tourists in Fort Lauderdale. But Lauderdale Broward County's tourism promotion agency is looking beyond traditional beach-oriented attractions to "emphasize the diversity of the community and the downtown experience," said Jenny Morzon, CEO of the city's development authority.
"It has become a trend or an interesting story," he said. "As businesses hire staff for meetings and conferences, we believe hotels have become so successful as a leisure destination that they want to be a destination for business travel as well."
Leisure travelers, visitors who combine tourism with business, are helping to improve some downtown Fort Lauderdale hotels, with many extending their stays to see local attractions. (Courtesy of Fort Lauderdale DDA and Advanced Imaging)
Some hotels are actively promoting specific industry groups to visit.
According to Alexander, it was not by chance that the technical team found the Courtyard Marriott Hotel in Bandra Village. The hotel, which opened last year, targets travel planners in California and Europe through online shopping.
Some visitors work for companies in Broward County. Other companies are based in the San Francisco area, "but they have half the team here."
Guests at work also expressed interest in exploring the area, taking water taxis to other parts of the city and cleaning beaches.
"I'm interested in seeing a group of colleagues vacationing together," he said. "It benefits us because they last longer. I think our purpose is important. It wasn't that important before."
Get to the beach
Leisure travelers can also be seen at beachfront hotels, which typically cater to vacationers for most of their business.
"We've seen our business travelers take extra days to enjoy the sun and all the amenities we have to offer," said Trish Penderson, director of sales and marketing for AC Hotels Fort Lauderdale Beach.
"Nowadays, leisure planning is a real trend, and we see it not only with business travelers, but also with tourists who need to combine work while on vacation," he said. "The ability to work remotely increases the popularity of the movement we're seeing."
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