Business owners on Anna Maria Island are finding cooperation may be key to putting the Gulf Coast area ahead of other tourist destinations.
Several tourism-related businesses are partnering with one another to package services such as lodging and dining as a way to not only increase their bottom line but draw tourists.
“It’s a huge draw to have everything all inclusive,” said Patti Davis, co-owner of the Harrington House Bed and Breakfast in Holmes Beach.
Davis’ hotel is one of several businesses on Anna Maria Island that is packaging services such as dining, spa treatments and recreation to stay competitive.
Last year, the Harrington House began offering babymoon packages, a honeymoon-like vacation for soon-to-be parents before the baby is due.
The Harrington House partners with the Chiles Restaurant Group, Beach Bistro and Acqua Aveda Spa and Salon to create packages that include on-site massages and manicures with gift cards to local restaurants.
The packages range from $35-$500 on top of room rates, and Davis said the bed and breakfast sold 10 babymoon packages last year for one- to three-night stay.
“We work together on these much like with the weddings,” Davis said. “It’s a matter of helping out the restaurants, the local spas. It really does help our businesses to work together.”
Due to the success, Davis said she is planning to partner with the same local businesses to create other package options such as romance and girlfriend getaway packages.
Ashok Sawe, owner of Palm Tree Villas, said he started offering similar packages at his Holmes Beach hotel several years ago after learning about the marketing concept at a business seminar.
“It’s good to sort of spread the business around to different people on the island,” Sawe said.
The Palm Tree Villas’ packages include romance, eco-adventure, island getaway and girlfriends getaway that range from $465-$825 and include room rates for at least three nights.
“It’s our competitive edge,” Sawe said.
However, Sawe said the success is not so much on the profit with package purchases but in the recognition it gives the resort when tourists plan return visits because of the experience.
“We don’t make a lot of money on them because we discount everything,” Sawe said. “But it makes people remember us because they’ve done something different than just sit in their room.”
Caryn Hodge, marketing director for the Chiles Group, said co-op packaging has been successful for the restaurants not only because of the restaurant gift card purchases from hotels but because owners are putting discount coupons in the rooms to draw in diners.
The Chiles Restaurant Group includes the BeachHouse in Bradenton Beach, the Sandbar in Anna Maria, and MarVista in Longboat Key.
Hodge said of the estimated 200 coupons that were distributed last month to island Realtors for condo vacation packages, about 75 percent were redeemed.
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