Florida the first stop on my world tour

During my sabbatical travelling the world with my fiancé Sue Smith who latterly became my first wife, I was fortunate enough to subsidies my travel as I travelled not with bar work but with well paid travel related work.

The first stop on our world tour was Florida and I rember arriving on a rainy March night to the mess of an airport operation that was Orlando International Airport in those days. The airport was owned by a consortium of American schedules airlines who really did not give too hoots about their tour operator driven charter cousins who they banished to a secondary terminal that required a shuttle train to the main terminal to exit.

Ludicrously customers has to collect their luggage from one set of convey belts as it come off the plain and then resubmit it before entering the customer only train forcing the to go through this same stressful process of finding your baggage amounst crowds of people again.

Fortunately as I was completing some project work for ILG whilst in Florida I was picked up by the area manager and wisked directly off to the car hire without the hassel of having to find the shuttle bus that took customers to the offsite car park.

All in all the experience took 2.5 hours and I was not surprised later in my career that this had escalated to 3 hours plus as charger capacity to Florida grew rapidly as more and more theme parks opened. This first unfavourable impression of Florida left a deep impression and was why later in my career I lead the project to dump MCO and create a new airport but that’s a story for a later chapter.

My time in Florida taught me a lot about what a truly differentiated holiday product Florida delivered ideal for familes and extended family groups as the three Disney parks of the time completely wowed me.

I have to say in those early days Universal Studios was less of a hit as when we visited neither of the two big rides King Kong or Jaws was operational but it later became my firm favourite as my status in the industry later on gave me access to the VIP backstage tour that they offered but Disney didn’t

However, it was the cultural customer first at all times approach of Disney that really shone through and showed me that actually people would pay a pretty penny for top notch service and memorable life experiences.

Interestingly Florida never presented itself as an annual trip for UK customers but instead a 3-4 year rotation as they kids grew up and wanted different experiances and that’s why Universal studios which was aimed at an older age group of kids slotted in so perfectly with Disney and Seaworld to provide 7 or 14 night combined passes that 90% of UK customers brought in advance when visiting, even though once they arrived they quickly realised the the pop up discount store tickets aimed at the more fickle American market often represented better value.

I have seen the same arbitrage operate in reverse many times because the further you fly the more exhotic an experience seems and the more you want it all planned in advance. Just talk to the Americans visiting the white Isle of Ibiza and your be gob smaked at the amounts they have pre-paid for boat trips, combined night club tickets and bookings via concierge services for the top resturants. Having come so far they want to maximise their experience and will spend large. The same applies to UK vistors when they visit Florida and the destination for Airtours delivered as much in resort profit as it did in getting them there.

This was precisely why I was sent to review the operations of Loraine Frame the local ground handler. My report after this visit actually recommended that we continued to operate with her business as it was professionally run and much more efficnet than any ILG Resort I had seen operating and later in my career I was happy to see Airtours use this same ground handler, who by then had become a personal friend.

They say business and friendship never mix but I think in travel that’s absolutely rubbish as Friendships are always built on Trust and trusting people to deliver the service your customers need is paramount.

Again later in my carreer I saw Airtours launch their own ground handling operations and although this worked well is smaller beach destination it was a disaster in Florida where who you know was just as important as what you know, with relationships built up over many years being required to work alongside the entertainment giants of Disney and Universal

After 3 months of working for ILG as a digital nomad I had raised enough money to fund my journey to Australia and off I went.