Walton Clounty TDC must re-establish beach brand

I'm not qualified to comment on whether the TDC had anything to do with the influx of college spring breakers.

I will speculate that, with PCB taking over from Daytona and Ft. Lauderdale, it might well be impossible to avoid some "spillover" into SoWal, unless we get some hard-nosed action from WCSO. That wouldn't exactly exude the warm-fuzzy luxury vibe for SoWal.

It also seemed, at least in my Eastern Lake neighborhood, that we had the top $ end of the college demographic - I saw Bama kids driving Rovers in houses near me, fer crisake. Stickers for all the high-dollar Greek houses on the cars, too.

In my own neighborhood, most of the experienced owners of vacation rentals knew better and just didn't rent to the college gang. The loudest party was at the newest rental house, just finished last year. And I'll bet they don't do it again next year, if the reports of damage that I hear are correct.

Here's a tip - the college kids want a house with a pool. Neighborhoods like Summer's End that share a community pool were just about free of them.

My latest post on my Thiurd Cup of Coffee blog:
http://thirdcupofcoffee.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/walton-clounty-tdc-must-re-establish-beach-brand/
The TDC needs new leadership and a new branding/marketing focus. I talked to a prominent Florida tourism official for some fresh thoughts.

Some excellent points made in your blog but I disagree that we need to market more to a certain type of tourist. The spring break crowds have consistently grown year by year and I think it has to do with kids growing up on vacations here. And also spillover from PCB. I think our new branding is more polished than many of us liked with the fancy font and commercials. Some of us miss the wooden signs and beach umbrella logos. So I don't think the recent branding caused spring break increase in college kids. And I don't agree that we are completely upper income tourist town.. Many of us moved here after visiting for years and we were not coming here because of the high end stuff.. It is much more complicated than that. It happens to be a town rich with beauty and great people from all over and art and so on. Its a happening place and it is unique...

I agree with your assessment, Teresa. While our condominium complex is undergoing extensive renovation, we did have some rentals during spring break. Nothing disasterous or even minor occurred on our stretch of beach. If renters and rental agencies do a decent job of screening those renting to assure that the unit will not be overcrowded and evict those who do so, we will all be just fine.

Totaly agree with Teresa and Andy. The need to change our branding for the upper crust to keep the rowdy spring breakers away...???.....so the rowdy kids renting in Rosemary, Watercolor, Seaside and gulf front homes will go where if we 'change' the branding???? No I do not believe this is the answer. Crack down on parents that rent for their under 25ers and fine them appropriately!

Franny, that would be all well and good, except there is no law prohibiting such rentals. And even if there were, it would be impossible to enforce across state lines.
As for the change in clientele, it's not just the branding; it's the marketing of the brand. When you have shotgun marketing, you who will be influenced by your efforts. Targeted marketing, though certainly more expensive, zeros in on specific demographics.
Finally...if the spring breakers didn't come to Rosemary Beach and Watercolor, where would they go? Preferably back to Panama City or South Padre or Lake Havasu. Those destinations have always welcomed the rowdiest of the spring breakers with open arms. Most of us in South Walton prefer our spring breakers to be families who spend more money and typically do not put 50 drunken hell raisers in a single home that they trash. If the Club LaVilla-type spring breakers are the ones we want, let's build a beach club. (Oh, and we must hire two dozen more deputies when we do.)

Just disband the TDC, or at least the marketing wing. Few souls who come here are compelled to do so from their ads and for those who have been living under a rock, it is now a cesspool of cronyism that has deviated dramatically from the early days. Use the bed taxes to fund beach cleanup, physical plant maintenence of walkovers and maybe maintain a few local info kiosks. That is it. We'll all survive and thrive without jingles, feminine hygiene product inspired fonts and big blue signs.

Rick, there may be no law forbidding renting to the under 25ers, but there has been an established policy since I have lived here (1995). And I do not see on this thread where anyone wants the 'Club LaVilla types' on our beach. My point is parents who are renting homes for their kids and their 100 closest friends under the disguise that the parents will remain on the property to supervise. This has been a huge problem for the last few years.

I have always contended that South Walton is a growing town in many ways (and has been one of the fastest growing counties in FL for years) and without being a real "town" we are under the governance of a Florida county government which is not and never will be designed to lead the way for a thriving hot spot on the beach. The TDC has surely made mistakes but I think it is the County BCC who can't possibly provide the necessary services, infrastructure, decisions, progressive and forward thinking necessary to meet the needs. South Walton will need to grow up and incorporate some day or stay behind the curve - some folks like it just as it is and that's fine with me too..

Just disband the TDC, or at least the marketing wing. Few souls who come here are compelled to do so from their ads and for those who have been living under a rock, it is now a cesspool of cronyism that has deviated dramatically from the early days. Use the bed taxes to fund beach cleanup, physical plant maintenence of walkovers and maybe maintain a few local info kiosks. That is it. We'll all survive and thrive without jingles, feminine hygiene product inspired fonts and big blue signs.

said no local business owner ever.... (except for the fonts and signs)

;-)

said no local business owner ever.... (except for the fonts and signs)

;-)

I would counter that the TDC's recent MARKET!MARKET!MARKET! strategy, with a damn the consequences mentality of a come one, come all philosophy makes the area so unpleasant at times there may be a tipping point where more equals less in the long run.

I would counter that the TDC's recent MARKET!MARKET!MARKET! strategy, with a damn the consequences mentality of a come one, come all philosophy makes the area so unpleasant at times there may be a tipping point where more equals less in the long run.

Just messing with ya.. You have good points. Especially since we did have an overnight influx of BP dollars designated for marketing - more millions than we will ever see again for this purpose. I doubt the TDC will market at that level ever again. It does seem to have worked too well. I think things will settle as they usually do with more normal crowds. But, high season has always been uncomfortable as far as I'm concerned. It's the reason I love to live in the woods.

Rick - I don't believe anything the TDC has done has brought more spring breakers. They are coming because daddy has a free house (or if they have to pay it's a couple hundred each for a week) and they want to enjoy the beach they enjoyed as kids, drink and hook up as often as possible. The day's plan: meet someone on the beach and go back to the house for self discovery. You don't need a club La Vela for that. Sunshine, tequila, and bikinis are what it's all about.

"Self discovery"... Is that what it's called now?

"Self discovery"... Is that what it's called now?

The coining of a wonderful new term!

I wish they would focus more on the drinking and hooking up and less on vandalism and throwing trash everywhere.

I find it hard to believe kids who grew up coming to our beaches are trashing the place like this.

We desperately promoted the area to get heads in beds after the spill and get money in the local economy. Now that we have recovered, we need to be smarter about our desired guest list before we drive away our core visitors. 90% of our visitors are repeat visitors and we are starting to drive them away because of crowds and lack if infrastructure.

I wish they would focus more on the drinking and hooking up and less on vandalism and throwing trash everywhere.

Drinking and a lack of respect causes a lot of that.

Comes with the territory. I have a feeling most rental owners will put up with some damage if they make good profits.

Sorry y'all, but not really buying the idea that the spring breakers are coming here because that's what they did as kids. If that were the case, we'd have been over run by spring breakers 30 years ago.
Take a look at the marketing strategy a decade ago as compared to after BP. Granted, the TDC was trying to get heads -- ANY heads -- in beds after BP. Completely understandable as our economy suffered every day.
But my point is that the TDC needs to go back to targeted marketing. That brings a different kind of visitor...and a diofferent kind of spring break crowd (more families, fewer hooligans.
I'm sure this is a point where we'll just have to agree to disagree. And that's great. Wouldn't the word be a boring place is we all agreed all the time?

Like that term "self discovery." Nice and sanitary...yet everyone still has a grip on its meaning.

The huge groups of kids you are seeing are not the result of any marketing strategy. They all know each other. (This is my viewpoint from the 30A perspective- Miramar/Sandestin seems to be more of a part of the Destin big picture, and is very different.)

How, you say?

Because once upon a time, families from different cities vacationed here, some bought second homes. Every year, more and more of their friends came here on vacation with them, or came here on their recommendation.

Gradually and oh so subtly, it became the "in" thing to spring break with everyone at your school, neighborhood, zip code. The parents think there is a safety factor in all the kids coming to the same place to run loose, but also they like to have their own freedoms to hang with their own friends (while the kids are running loose). The kids wail and tell their parents that they will be ostracized if they are the only family "left behind". So every year, we have more and more groups of families (I bet their are hundreds from several zip codes/schools). I am not sure what happened to the true family vacation- the one where it is just YOUR family, reconnecting, relaxing, having fun- not stressed out over whether any of the kids in your group are going to get in trouble, but powerless to stop them from hanging with the other 499 kids they know at the beach. When you get large numbers of teens who all know each other together, that's when the fun begins.

My real point is this- this spring break crazy phenomenon- it's all about peer pressure and going where everyone else is going, NOT marketing. I have heard parents say "I couldn't listen to little Suzy whine anymore so we just gave up and came here so she could hang out in Seaside with her friends" or "OMG I was the only person left in my neighborhood last year so we just had to some here this year!"

Even with the college kids- non of them really watch commercial TV or read Southern Living. There was a connection (came here as a kid, parents have a place, came with a friend), and connections are like tentacles.

I see where maybe the marketing has been successful in the "day visitors" to the 30A area- they stay in PCB or Destin, but come over to shop or eat.