With New Name and New Location, ‘Visit Miami Beach’ Expands Mission

Argentina tourists Graciela Blanco and Mabel Blanco are helped by interns get Julieta Rodrigo and Cesar Jorge. Rodrigo from the Miami Beach High School Tourism AcademyJorge attends FIU’s School of Hospitality.

By Charlotte Libov….

Argentina tourists Graciela Blanco and Mabel Blanco are helped by interns get Julieta Rodrigo and Cesar Jorge. Rodrigo from the Miami Beach High School Tourism AcademyJorge attends FIU’s School of Hospitality.

The Miami Beach Visitor Center has a new name and a new, roomier location to reflect it’s expanded mission. Now called “Visit Miami Beach”, you can find this visitor’s and concierge center in the lobby of Hall C of the Miami Beach Convention Center. It is open now, and will be fully stocked by the end of this month. A grand opening is slated for September.

The new center is poised to take advantage of it’s location by offering services to the Miami Beach Convention Center, while still keeping it’s central mission of providing help and information to travelers.  In addition to the regular offerings of reservation services for travelers in need of hotel rooms, cars, and tours, the center will also provide other concierge services, souvenirs and sundry items.

Previously, the center offered primarily information, but that will now all change, as the staff will also be to offer concierge service, and book local hotels, cars and even tour reservations as well on an enhanced basis. According to Dona Zemo, the center’s Director, helping tourists will remain a prime focus on the center. “Well be able to book hotel reservations, which is very important. Most visitors from Europe arrive here without reservations and they’ll walk out of here with a reservation in hand. We’re like an old-fashioned travel agency. They leave feeling safe and secure in our city and it enhances their visit with us,” she added.

The center, which will be fully stocked by June’s end, also will carry a full line of traveler’s necessities, including retail items, like souvenirs, cards by local artists, posters, t-shirts, guidebooks, maps, event brochures, as well as sundry items for the conventioneers such as allergy medication, aspirin and sunblock. The center continues to be the sole distributors of the Miami Beach InCard, and “Go Miami,” a discount tourism program.

The center’s staff includes Zemo and Monique Beaudet, the Assistant Director who, between them, have more than 30 years of experience serving Miami Beach visitors. Other staff members include Visitor Specialists Matthew Perl and Sarabeth Beitchman, along with interns from Miami Beach High School’s Tourism Academy and the Florida International University’s School of Hospitality.

A major plus for the center is its new location, which takes full advantage of the Miami Beach Convention Center. In fact, plans call for expanded hours and the location of satellite centers throughout the convention center during major shows.

“As the parent organization of the center, the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce is looking forward to a close working relationship with Global Spectrum at the Convention Center as we enhance our services to welcome and accommodate our many visitors”, commented Ceci Velasco the COO of the Chamber, adding, “The relocation gives a higher exposure to our well trained staff.”

Also welcoming the move was VCA Chairman Elsie Howard, who commented,

“The Miami Beach Visitors and Convention Authority is in full support of the move of the visitor’s center to the convention center,” said VCA Chairman Elsie Howard, adding, “ We believe that this is a way to reach more visitors, to deliver tourism information to more guests, to provide improved assistance when needed and to ensure that visitors can experience all that Miami Beach has to offer.”

Located in Hall C of the Miami Beach Convention Center, “Visit Miami Beach” is open 10-4 daily, seven days a week, with hours expanded during major convention shows.  Tel: 305- 672-1270


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1 COMMENT

  1. Miami is getting bigger and more popular around the world you will need to keep planning to meet the demand of tourism.

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