Visit Florida issues RFP for PR, sales, marketing in Mexico

The Florida Tourism Industry Marketing Corporation d/b/a Visit Florida is seeking proposals for PR, travel trade relations, sales and marketing in the Mexico market.

"The objective of Request for Proposal (RFP) is to solicit proposals from agencies for management
of day-to-day Travel Trade and public relations (PR) operations, and sales and marketing services
in Mexico."

Contract will be awarded on an annual basis but it is anticipated that the selected
Vendor will provide services to VISIT FLORIDA for 3 to 5 years (contingent on VISIT FLORIDA’s
satisfaction with the selected Vendor’s performance).

Visit Florida reserves the right to award this contract partially to 2 or more agencies.

RFP in a nutshell

Proposals will be accepted:

• Consolidated bid for all services
• Individual bids for any one or more markets
• Any bid for a specific market must include both PR and travel trade services.

Two-phase selection process:

1. Agencies submit proposals
2. Agencies make more detailed submissions potentially including exercises, sample assignments and/or in-person presentations

Goals to be achieved by contractor:

• Maintain and grow visitor volume from Mexico to Florida
• Extend length of stay and spend by Mexican visitors
• Increase visit frequency and visitor retention
• Increase travel to emerging Florida destinations
• Maintain and build Florida brand awareness and engagement
• Promote industry alignment and collective impact

Visit Florida's objectives:

• Increase utilization of Visit Florida planning resources by Mexican travel trade
• Increase number of travel trade professionals in Mexico who recognize Visit Florida as a trusted source for leisure trip planning
• Increase Florida media exposure to targeted demographic markets in Mexico
• Facilitate media relations with key journalists and content creators in Mexico via networking, events, FAMs
• Increase economic impact of Mexican leisure travelers
• Translate the Visit Florida brand to increase impact on Mexican leisure travelers

Selected agency would have an annual budget of $128K for PR and $235K for Trade, inclusive of all fees and expenses.

Scope of Contractor Work (just the high points, see the RFP for much fine print):

• Provide a minimum of one managing director, one full-time staff for Trade, one full-time staff for PR, additional staff as required to complete the scope of work
• Provide comprehensive monthly reports
• Submit itemized monthly invoices of fees and expenses
• Participate in regular status calls
• Prepare annual marketing plans and budgets for each targeted market
• Assist with storage, shipping, fulfillment and distribution of promotional materials
• Provide translation services as necessary to fulfil scope of work
• Speak on behalf of Visit Florida as requested
• Respond to media inquiries within 2 days
• Assist with crisis management
• Attend an annual meeting at Visit Florida hq

RFP schedule and process:

• Proposals due: 5 PM Eastern time 5 July 2024
• Initial evaluation by Visit Florida: 19 July 2024
• Presentations by selected vendors: week of 19 August 2024
• Negotiations with vendors: 6 September 2024
• Agency selection: 13 September 2024

Send inquiries to:

Justin McGath
Manager, Contracts and Procurement, VISIT FLORIDA
jmcgath@visitflorida.org
Subject Line: VISIT FLORIDA Mexico RFP

Submit proposals electronically via Box using this upload link:

visitflorida.app.box.com/f...b415f548f78ce30759ed24bcbc

There's much more information in the RFP.