Florida tourism board mines data to attract visitors

Palm Beach County, Florida, loses 8,000 jobs every year between March and August. That's 12 percent of the leisure and hospitality jobs, one of the county and state's most important industries, and it's 1.6 percent of the county's total nonfarm jobs. Imagine if that didn't happen. "Our role should be to alleviate that as much as possible," Jorge Pesquera, CEO and president of the county's Convention and Visitors Bureau, told tourism leaders earlier this year. Raising visitor numbers during the ebbs and valleys is a big goal, and the county's tourism marketing agency is using new tools -- the business intelligence that comes from mining extensive data sources. "There's an art and science of marketing and by combining it you can show real powerful results," said Will Seccombe, president and CEO of Visit Florida, the state's tourism marketing agency. The CVB gets daily information on who is visiting the county and staying in hotels. They track where they are and much of what they do -- eat out, go to museums and parks, shop. Thus the county's tourism mar