Tourism in the Tropics

Let them drink mimosas!

Sunday morning brunch no longer has to be bubbly-free in Fort Lauderdale.

Earlier this month, city commissioners changed a law that banned the sale of alcohol in restaurants before noon on Sundays (sales are still not allowed in stores).

The reason, said Mayor Jack Seiler: tourist dollars. He pointed out that cruise ship passengers who get off a ship on a Sunday morning and want a Bloody Mary with their brunch shouldn't have to go to a neighboring city when Port Everglades is right there in Fort Lauderdale.

Feedback has been positive, the mayor says. Listen to him tell WLRN Miami Herald News about one reaction:

Bubbly Reaction

 

 

 

 

 

Design icons live among us

Miami Beach's New World Center is already proving a popular place for events other than classical music concerts and outdoor wallcasts. Wednesday night, the new building hosted Travel + Leisure's 2011 Design Awards, honoring 16 winners and a Design Champion.

Guests were checked in on iPads by people wearing white backpacks (which was confusing until we remembered that "urban mobility backpacks" by Puma and iPads were among the night's winners). 

Miami-based companies, landmarks or legends got several shout-outs at the event.

The new Herzog & de Meuron-designed 11 11 Lincoln Road complex on South Beach, best known for its parking garage-slash-wedding hall-slash-front page New York Times story, was named "best mixed-use venue." The development also includes shops, restaurants and residential space.

Norwegian Cruise Line nabbed the "Best Transportation" award for 128 studio staterooms aboard the Norwegian Epic, which launched last summer in Miami. Designed by Priestmangoode, the studios (designed by the magazine as "crisp but cozy") are meant for solo travelers.

This year's design champion was Mitchell "Micky" Wolfson Jr., art collector and founder of the Wolfsonian-FIU museum in Miami Beach. Travel + Leisure Editor Nancy Novogrod referred to Wolfson as as "a Miami legend."

He joked that he was chosen in part because Novogrod felt guilty for not hiring him at the magazine, despite many years of begging.

As he accepted the award, Wolfson said his interest in design is driven by curiosity about why people make things.

"The first thing that attracted me to design was wonder," he said.

Another winner? The host venue, which Travel + Leisure Editor Nancy Novogrod called "a contender for our 2012 design awards for sure." 

See the full list of winners here.

Spirit rewards you for throwing luggage

Probably not a great idea to start throwing bags at the airport, but Spirit Airlines is giving frequent flier miles to anyone who participates in a luggage-tossing promotional event Wednesday night at a Davie country western club.

The Spirit Airlines Luggage Chuck starts at 5 p.m. at Round Up Country Western Nightclub & Restaurant, 9020 W. State Road 84.

Contestants will be asked to throw a piece of luggage (specifically, a duffle bag) at a designated target. The winner gets a million miles, which the Miramar-based low-cost carrier says is enough for up to 200 round-trip tickets.

All participants, even those with lousy aim, get 5,000 Spirit frequent flier bonus miles.

 

Down week for Miami-Dade hotels

The numbers for this year's Super Bowl week are in, and Miami-Dade hotels saw a big drop as expected.

For the week of Feb. 6-12, the area suffered the biggest drop in occupancy, average daily rate and revenue per available room among the top 25 markets, according to figures released Friday by Smith Travel Research. (Last year's game was on Feb. 7)

Compared to 2010, occupancy fell 6 percent to 77.2 percent; average daily rates dropped 17.4 percent to $175.32 and revenue per available room was down 22.3 percent to $135.39.

In Dallas, which hosted this year’s Super Bowl on Feb. 6, average daily rates increased over the previous year by nearly 16 percent to $111.20

 

New ship for RCCL

Look for a new Royal Caribbean ship in fall 2014.

Royal Caribbean Cruise Line has signed an agreement with German shipyard Meyer Werft to build the first in a new generation of 4,000 passenger cruise ships. The new series, dubbed Project Sunshine, calls for a new 158,000-ton ship carrying 4,100 guests at double occupancy -- about the same size as its Freedom class ships, and significantly smaller than the 5,400 Oasis-class ships that sail from Fort Lauderdale. The deal -- announce in Euros at a current worth of $944 million per ship -- includes an option for a second ship to be delivered in spring 2015.

Sun Life a big fan of the exposure Miami football brings

It costs about $7 million a year for Sun Life Financial to have its name on the Dolphins’ stadium, and the insurer’s marketing chief says the investment had paid off. The Canadian company best known for selling life insurance calculates its brand awareness increased significantly in the year since it sealed a five-year deal reportedly worth about $38 million.
Sun Life puts its name on the stadium just weeks before the 2010 Super Bowl was held there, ending LandShark Lager’s brief naming deal with the Dolphins.
“It was very attractive right out of the box,’’ said Bill Webster, Sun Life’s vice president for brand strategy.
Sun Life signed the deal at a time when many financial institutions were backing away from sports deals, out of fear the outlays would seem lavish in the face of financial difficulties. But Webster said Sun Life saw the expenditure as a way to announce its financial strength in contrast to competitors accepting government rescues and otherwise facing problems.
“It’s difficult to accept bailout money, and then put your name on a stadium,’’ Webster said. “The reason that we were comfortable doing it is the very reason others were pulling out.’’

With no Super Bowl, hotel rates plummet

Hoteliers in Miami-Dade and Broward must have been smiling around this time last year. The Super Bowl was in town. And room rates soared.

But this year's numbers are probably bringing less joy. While occupancy rates held steady, prices tanked this year, according to Smith Travel Research numbers for the week between Jan. 30 and Feb. 5. Last year, those dates included the run-up to the big game on Feb. 7.

Occupancy actually increased in Miami-Dade to 80 percent from 75.5 percent during the same time in 2010. In Broward, occupany fell slighty to 75.8 percent from 77.6 percent.

But the real drop came in average daily rate, which was $247.90 in 2010 in Miami-Dade. This year? Down almost 30 percent to $174.41. Broward's drop was also steep: from $179.51 to $129.34, a nearly 28 percent drop.

Since that span doesn't even include Super Bowl Sunday, we'll be interested to see the following week's numbers when they're released.

 

Miami Beach brand ventures afar

The Delano, that super-chic, super-expensive Miami Beach hotel, is taking its name to some upscale, far-off destinations.

Parent company Morgans Hotel Group announced Thursday that it had inked agreements to expand the brand to Cabo San Lucas in Mexico's Baja Peninsula and the coast of the Aegean Sea in Turkey.

Both are locations that one analyst described to me as "jet set," which I already knew from watching MTV's Laguna Beach, whose rich reality show cast went to Cabo for Spring Break.

Both of the new hotels are supposed to open in 2013, so we'll keep our eyes peeled for updates on the projects. The last two Delano expansions that Morgans announced -- one to Las Vegas in 2006 and one to Dubai in 2008 -- never happened.

Can't wait two or more years to visit one of the new spots? A stay at the Miami Beach location, with a city view, will set you back $655 a night.

 

Is Dallas really a new player in the Super Bowl big leagues?

The media reviews of the first Super Bowl in the new $1.3 billion stadium have not been kind. CNBC.com has a link to an AP critique titled "Super Bust."

The NFL and team owner Jerry Jones point to the unlikely pounding by winter storms as causing most of the problems. What are the chances of that happening again? But Atlanta must have had the argument in 2000, when an ice storm disrupted NFL merriment during Super Bowl week. The league hasn't been back since.

And we heard similar talk out of Miami when hurricanes disrupted MTV's annual video awards twice in a row (2004 and 2005). The show also hasn't been back since.

In a push for a tax-funded renovation of its stadium, the Miami Dolphins have cited Dallas as an example of why South Florida can't rest on its laurels as the NFL's favorite Super Bowl location. Without an improved stadium, can Miami Gardens hope to compete with Dallas in the future?

We'll have to see how long the bad reviews linger.

Miami welcomes Marina

After a long stretch without any new ships, the Port of Miami just welcomed its fourth since July.  

Oceania Cruises' new ship, the 1,250-passenger Marina, sailed past South Pointe Park bright and early Friday morning. (Believe me - it was both bright and early.)

More than 100 Oceania employees gathered outside Smith & Wollensky with signs and noise makers. Joggers and dog walkers paused to take it all in. Waiters snapped pictures with their cellphone cameras. Your blogger snapped pictures with her phone camera.

Marina is still around for now; her invite-only christening ceremony is Saturday afternoon, with Entertainment Tonight's Mary Hart serving as godmother.  And if you see fireworks in downtown Miami Saturday night, that's part of the party too.  A pyrotechnic display is scheduled for 7 p.m. near Bayside.

Marina follows Costa Atlantica (not new, but new to Miami); Celebrity Eclipse and the towering Norwegian Epic, which started this wave of new ships in July. 

Enjoy watching the ships sail through Government Cut while they're here. Before long, they'll all be Europe-bound for the summer cruising season.