Stacy Ritter, CEO, Visit Lauderdale
In an interview with Invest:, Stacy Ritter, CEO of Visit Lauderdale, talked about the role that the expansion of the Broward County Convention Center will have in attracting larger conventions and more business travelers to Greater Fort Lauderdale. She also discussed the impact that Lionel Messi’s playing for Inter Miami has had on Fort Lauderdale’s sports tourism sector.
What were some of the key milestones for Visit Lauderdale over the past year?
The Workforce Development Tax collection continues to break barriers. That is a testament to the amazing things available in Greater Fort Lauderdale, the welcoming vibe that we have, and the impact of Visit Lauderdale’s “Everyone under the Sun” message. We also have lots of new properties coming online. For instance, the convention center expansion that includes an 800-room Omni Hotel continues to move forward and will open around November 2025. Pier 66 will open in December 2024. That includes an iconic tower and a new 400-room hotel.
The constant drumbeat of new things to do and see and new places to go keeps Fort Lauderdale a top-of-mind destination. We continue to grow and evolve both from a resident and a visitor perspective. Visit Lauderdale also continues to reach out to the far corners of the world where we had never gone before and find interest and excitement.
Why is the expansion of the Broward County Convention Center so important?
The convention center is a beautiful place, but lacking a hotel attached has made it harder for us to bring larger conferences. The 801 rooms that we will have in the Omni hotel will allow us to respond to proposals for much larger conventions and conferences. We need to be able to compete with the Atlantas, Nashvilles, and Austins that have attached hotels.
The county invested $1.5 billion to expand the convention center, including an expansion of the old building on the west of the complex and the construction of a new building on the east side facing the water. That hotel is a game-changer for us. Fort Lauderdale is the second most popular booking site for an Omni convention center and hotel, and we are not even open yet. We will bring the IPW 2026 convention to Fort Lauderdale. That is the largest travel trade show. It is sponsored by US Travel and will attract 6,000 people from around the world. We would never have been able to bid on that without the Omni.
How is Visit Lauderdale balancing the needs of leisure and business travelers?
Between 75% and 80% percent of our visitors come for leisure, which makes us an overwhelmingly leisure destination. Nevertheless, the 20% to 25% of visitors coming for business travel is also important. Hotels rely on that business because it is booked years in advance, whereas leisure travelers may decide today that they want to travel next Friday. That gives hotels little lead time to balance their bottom line.
Our largest department is dedicated to group travel because we understand how important that business is to hotels, retail, and restaurants in Greater Fort Lauderdale. We have always been a popular destination for that sector because the weather is perfect with an average temperature of 80 degrees.
What are some emerging trends in the tourism industry that impact the Greater Fort Lauderdale context?
I like big, bold initiatives, and I have determined that we should do one of them per year. In January 2024, we had the Rose Parade. Similarly, in October, we took over the Sphere in Las Vegas for five days during IMEX, which is the largest conference and group trade show.
Experiential, wellness, and “bleisure” travel, which entails adding a day or two on either side of the conference to decompress, continue to be trending. That is great for us as people can have amazing experiences and wellness in a year-round outdoor destination. Additionally, many young people are influencer-driven and get their travel information from social media, whereas my generation prefers to talk to travel agents and tour operators on the phone and have someone else do the booking.
What is Visit Lauderdale’s strategy to make visiting Greater Fort Lauderdale more accessible to people with disabilities?
Accessible travel has also become a huge part of what we do compared to 20 years ago when nobody was talking about people with disabilities traveling. Making it easier for those people, training hospitality workers to recognize that people come with different needs, and showcasing the accessibility that we have has become a huge part of what we do. We have a whole project focused on wheelchair-bound people, with neurodivergent kids and their families, and with blind influencers. We also have three ambassadors for the destination, including Abbas Karimi, who is a double-silver medal Paralympic swimmer who was born without arms.
The Americans with Disabilities Act passed 30 years ago, but it has never been amended or updated. ADA plays to the lowest common denominator, which is wheelchairs. It never took into consideration all the invisible disabilities that people may have, so we decided to pay particular attention to that. It has been completely unfair to ignore an entire population of the world who likes the beach, having dinner with friends, or going to the movies like anyone else. We should make it easier.
How do you see sports tourism contributing to the local economy in South Florida?
I would be remiss in my job if I did not remind everybody that Lionel Messi plays in Fort Lauderdale. Messi has transformed Fort Lauderdale into a soccer place. People from all over the world are coming to see him play. Nevertheless, branding with Inter Miami has been difficult because everybody thinks that Messi plays in Miami when the team plays in Fort Lauderdale until the Miami stadium is finished.
Nevertheless, we have become an amazing sports town. We have a Stanley Cup-winning hockey team in the Panthers that is here to stay. They recently built a new Iceplex in Fort Lauderdale that is just amazing. We also do a ton of sports events in the convention center, including amateur, high school, NCAA, and professional sports. That center has become a mecca both indoors and outdoors. Moreover, the Ansin track in Miramar allows us to bring NCAA track and field events to Miramar, which also creates a positive economic impact that a lot of people do not see.
People come here, stay in hotels, eat in restaurants, and spend money in our shops. That influx of visitors and money is what keeps a destination evolving and growing. Even FIFA soccer coming to Miami will have an impact on Fort Lauderdale. As an example, with the Taylor Swift concert, 50% of attendees stayed in Broward County despite the concert being held in Miami. We will get the same bump from FIFA even if there are no games in Broward County.
What are the top priorities of Visit Lauderdale for the next two to three years?
Ensuring the success of Broward County’s investment in the convention center project. It is the first time that we have had an attached hotel successfully, so we feel a great deal of responsibility to ensure that the hotel is filled and successful.
We will also continue to evolve our marketing to ensure the message of diversity and inclusion is front and center. We are the only destination management organization in Florida that has chosen to double down on diversity and inclusion. Most of the others have decided to run and hide from the issue and hope it goes away. We will continue to fight to ensure that everyone knows this destination is diverse and inclusive.
Finally, we will expand our reach globally as new markets continue to emerge for us, the airport expands, more flights are put on the books, and more hospitality product is brought online.
