Charlotte County tourism goes global

CHARLOTTE COUNTY, Fla.- Tourism leaders are expanding their reach, looking to bring in visitors from around the world, especially during the summer months.

“There’s a lot more to Florida than just Disney World,” said Charlotte County Tourism Marketing Director, Chip Futch.

Tourism officials are thinking outside the box in an effort to bring international tourists to Southwest Florida.

“We’re all seeing incredible numbers– Charlotte, Lee, Sarasota, Collier, Manatee. We’re pushing it hard,” said Futch.

Now they’re setting their sights on bringing Spanish, German and Portuguese speaking travelers to Charlotte County. They’ll release five videos in different languages promoting wildlife, recreation and the adventure to be found.

“They’ve come to Florida before, but they might have only seen Miami or Orlando so we’re showing them a different side of Florida. They also tend to travel during the summer which is great as we all know it probably couldn’t get any busier in the winter,” said Futch.

WINK News got an exclusive look at the filming of one of those videos at Babcock Ranch in Punta Gorda.

Vange Tapia is an actress from Mexico City who studied tourism in college. Now she travels around the United States hosting these videos to air in Spanish speaking countries and online.

In the coming days, tourism officials will be back out with German and Portuguese speaking hosts to shoot more videos.