Nowadays, you can do pretty much anything on your mobile device. Have your hands been cold in this recent balmy Jacksonville weather? Warm them up with the new mobile pocket heater from iPhone. Crunching for the Bar Exam? Try the newly released BarMax, which includes 1,371 real MBE practice questions, practice essays, audio lectures, 1,000+ flash cards and e-mail support with Harvard lawyers.

This mobile-craze is not a phase, but rather, one of the leading tools for destination marketing.

How can you, as a Visit Jacksonville partner, build lasting relationships and communicate timely messages to your audience? While e-mail marketing has been an instrumental tool in this process, the effervescent emergence of mobile marketing is a tried and true tool for reaching these individuals while on the move.

Visit Jacksonville is already on the mobile-wagon with iJax.mobi and you too can join. The mobile site compiles our Web site's offers, coupons, listings and events for visitors on the go. We highly encourage you to take advantage of this great resource as smartphone unit sales are projected to reach more than 700 million of the 1.8 billion handset market by 2012. At those levels, smartphones will represent 65 percent, or $200 billion of the $312 billion total mobile phone market.*

Convinced yet? Become a part of our mobile team by simply loading your deals onto ARES and events to our RSS feed on Jacksonville.com's event portal. Once loaded, your information will be aggregated and streamed to our mobile site.

Stay tuned for Visit Jacksonville's upcoming work with iPhone and a potential application for our city and greater Northeast region.

*statistics provided by MocoNews

As we enter a new year, we at Visit Jacksonville find ourselves submerged with even more facts and figures regarding marketing in today's world.

Today's topic will focus on the traveler's use of the Internet and how imperative effective marketing in this outlet can lead to success in the travel and tourism industry.

A recent U.S. Travel Association study notes that as of April 2009, 79% of adults in the U.S. are online, resulting in 182 million Internet users. Of these, 74% have taken a trip of 50 miles or more that included an overnight stay, amounting to an impressive 135 million travelers. Subsequently, it is an irrefutable fact that consumers are traveling despite the current economy, even if it is not at an extreme distance to home.

And gone are the days of "bulky" internet traveling. The technologies owned by online travelers shifted somewhat between 2007 and 2009, with a substantial increase reported in ownership of laptop computers, MP3/iPod players and navigation systems. In fact, two-thirds of Internet users have reported making their travel reservations online through the aforementioned technologies.

An increase in the use of social media and networking is evident with the age of online travel planners relying on comments posted by other travelers. Are you part of the conversation? Both business and leisure trips planned online through impact of social media show the largest shift in the last year with 39%.

Get connected! If it isn't already, make 2010 your year for connectivity and keep these two important points in mind:

• K.I.S.S.: Keep it succinct, silly! The delivering of your information to your audience should not be a novel. You wouldn't want to read it and believe me, neither does your audience.
• Know your "ity"s: Mobility and simplicity are often highlighted in the online traveler's new dictionary. People want their information on the go and short, highlighting the important items. What's your hot deal? What is your lowest rate? Engage the audience with a ticket item and information to connect with you.

Holiday season is just around the corner but it's not Santa who will be taking the streets just yet. The season for celebration commences this weekend, as the Georgia Bulldogs take on the Florida Gators at the Jacksonville Municipal Stadium this Saturday, October 31 for the Florida vs. Georgia football classic. The City of Jacksonville expects yet another action-packed weekend as fans from all over the south settle in for the big game and all of the festivities. The Jacksonville Landing will be hosting events and acts all weekend, starting this Thursday, October 29 with no entrance fee and an Orange Tree Hot Dog Eating Contest at 7p.m., where the champion will receive two tickets to the Florida vs. Georgia game on Saturday. Friday and Saturday welcomes live entertainment from 8p.m. - 2a.m. Check out our mobile site, ijax.mobi, for other events, maps and coupons for the weekend!

Don't forget to celebrate our military community during the 2009 Week of Valor on November 4-11, too! This week will be filled with a variety of events highlighted by the Jacksonville Sea & Sky Spectacular on November 6-8, featuring the U.S. Navy Blue Angels and the Veterans Day Parade. This week-long celebration will encompass ship tours aboard U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard vessels, military-themed movies, displays and demonstrations at the Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Kansas City Chiefs football game and more.

Visit Jacksonville has a special marketing initiative in Kansas City and in the region to drive visitation during this weekend.  It includes radio advertising in the region, pay per click advertising in our targeted markets and newspaper in Kansas City.  All of the marketing drives to www.VisitJacksonville.com/chiefs.

And finally, Jacksonville turns into a winter wonderland with its "Winter on the Water" celebration starting November 28 with the Jacksonville Light Parade. Downtown Jacksonville's St. Johns River is transformed into a spellbinding display of lights as the region's finest boats and captains' parade magically decorated vessels down the river. This enchanted night is topped off by an unbelievable fireworks display over the St. Johns, featuring the city's signature "waterfalls" fireworks.

Visit Jacksonville also has a strong marketing campaign for the "Winter on the Water" festivities utilizing newspaper advertising in the region and pay per click in our targeted markets to drive visitation to our custom landing page.

Please make sure you have your deals loaded to be featured on this page and generate leisure bookings!

Visit Jacksonville's "Everyone Wins" sweepstakes saw a lot of activity in its first week and thus far has had over 650 entries! Our couples, football and shopping grand prizes have not been selected yet, so we expect our entry numbers to soar within the next few months.

Let your guests know where to find all there is to do in Jacksonville - all in one place! We at Visit Jacksonville are proud to offer our partners a one-stop quick reference sheet for all front line staffers with up to date information on all that Jacksonville has to offer. Featuring udontknowjax.com, Jacksonville's own social media site, iJax.mobi, Jacksonville's mobile site and the newly developed event calendar streamed through Jacksonville.com, there will always be an informed answer when asked, "So what is there to do in Jacksonville?" If you would like a printable copy for your staff, please contact Jacqueline Simard at jsimard@visitjacksonville.com.

Visit Jacksonville would also like to welcome our new service sales manager Robin Wright onboard. Wright will be assisting with local sports, SMERF and government organizations.

As always, there is much ado about Visit Jacksonville!

Fall is on its way and with the new season comes a new promotion. This fall's "Everyone Wins" sweepstakes launches mid-September and includes three grand prizes. Visitors can register online to win a football, shopping or couples getaway with tickets to a Jacksonville Jaguars game and overnight stay, shopping gift certificates and overnight stay, or beach resort stay. Visitors need not be discouraged if they don't win the grand prize, as merely entering merits an instant win, from coupons to local attractions to 2-night stays! Be on the look out for print advertisements in publications like Oprah, Southern Living, People, Visit Florida Reflections, Atlanta Magazine, New York Magazine and Florida Travel and Life, as well as our specialized URL's: visitjacksonville.com/football, visitjacksonville.com/shop, visitjacksonville.com/couples.

For the first time in several years, Visit Jacksonville is offering our partners the opportunity to participate in our leisure advertising program. Many of the opportunities are very affordable for our partners to be in affluent and influential travel publications at a greatly reduced cost. To maintain branding and awareness for the destination, the opportunities will be in a listing format with the branded Visit Jacksonville advertisement. All opportunities are half-page, four-color ads but time is of the essence! For more information on the marketing co-op program, download our informational pdf here.

The Visit Jacksonville sales department has added new tradeshows focusing on association, corporate and medical markets to further develop the relationships and generate business. In addition, more sales calls have been added to focus on Corporate, Medical, Government, Association and Multicultural markets. These calls will not require a co-op fee. Only individual travel costs. Buyer Education Trips (BETs) have also increased to two in the fall and three in spring. Deadlines for each vary depending on the activity's date. For more information on the sales co-op and BET programs, download our informational pdf's here and here.

Check your inbox soon for your personal invitation to the free Marketing Panel event being held September 30 at Magianno's in the St. Johns Towncenter. Here you'll learn about the opportunities to empower and market your business by successfully using the resources and mediums of the key speakers and Visit Jacksonville Marketing Team. So come take advantage of this insightful, thought-provoking discussion. Speakers will include Will Seccombe of Visit Florida, Jim Walsh, Regional Sales Manager of Travelocity, Mark Farrell, ARES Representative and Mya Carter, Director of Marketing at Visit Jacksonville. Please RSVP to this event no later than September 28th, 2009 to rsvp@visitjacksonville.com

Have you looked at the Experience Finder recently? It's launched and the results are stronger than ever. Bookings have doubled and impressions value at 91,865 for the month of July.

The Visit Jacksonville office has moved to a great new location in the heart of Downtown Jacksonville and we couldn't be more excited to show off our new space. You can find us, as well as our new Visitor Center, at 208 N. Laura Street, Suite 102.

Travel Industry Sales and Marketing Manager Katie Kurycki has been quite busy moving around too!

Katie recently had the opportunity to visit the ARES Call Center in San Diego where 30 percent of bookings from our Web site are made. Katie was able to educate the ARES representatives on all that Jacksonville and its surrounding areas have to offer. They were shocked to learn how large our city is as well as the attractions available to residents and guests alike. In fact, most of them wanted to visit by the time she had finished her presentation. ARES has proven to be a great tool for our Web site and Katie's visit is just scratching the surface of all we can do with them.

Katie also attended the HSMAI Internet Marketing and Revenue Management Strategy Session, bringing together industry experts on internet marketing. Did you know that most consumers are shopping over 20 Web sites before they finally book their travel?  The process is taking some travelers up to seven weeks of research before they make their final bookings.

Are you on enough sites to win the booking from another hotel? Have you considered social sites as a place to do business? Can your Web site be viewed on an IPhone or Blackberry? The world's technology is changing so quickly and everyday there is something new for us to try.  Who knows what the next big thing will be? Stay on the move to find out.