Sandra Rios, PR and marketing manager for the Naples, Marco Island & Everglades CVB — a.k.a. Florida's Paradise Coast — brings 25 years of hospitality experience (casinos, the Opal Collection, opening the Hard Rock guitar hotel) to a wide-ranging tour of Collier County's three very different personalities. Naples is "unapologetically luxury": quiet wealth, owner-owned boutiques on Fifth Avenue, global cuisine, and a wave of new high-end product like the Four Seasons Naples Beach Club, a JW, the boutique Carnelian, and Florida's first Great Wolf Lodge. Twenty minutes south, Marco Island trades five-star for "beach chic" and laid-back tiki vibes, and Everglades City — population ~350 — is the authentic, stone-crabbing gateway to a UNESCO World Heritage national park.

Sandra also gets into the business side: sports tourism as a major economic driver (the Paradise Coast Sports Complex, FC Naples pro soccer, 64 pickleball courts and the US Open, plus three PGA/LPGA events), the destination's hurricane resilience and the CVB's role housing first responders, and a strategic pivot toward the drive market and domestic travelers amid economic uncertainty — including piggybacking on FIFA crowds in Miami. It's a polished, energetic look at a destination working hard to show it's more diverse than its luxury reputation suggests.

In This Episode:

• 00:06 - Introduction to Aqua Talks
• 05:50 - Exploring Marco Island and Everglades City
• 11:19 - Resilience in the Face of Hurricanes
• 15:30 - The Rise of Sports Tourism in Naples
• 21:01 - Dog-Friendly Destinations in Florida
• 24:34 - Communicating the Drive: From Naples to Miami

Key Takeaways

• Three destinations, three vibes. Naples (serene, five-star luxury), Marco Island ("beach chic," laid-back, JW Marriott with fire dancers on the beach), and Everglades City (authentic, eco-adventure, stone crab) — all in one CVB, which shapes how they market.
• "Unapologetically luxury" — but not flashy. Naples leans into quiet wealth: owner-owned boutiques and restaurants on Fifth Avenue, nothing cookie-cutter, plus a surge of new hotels (Four Seasons Naples Beach Club, JW, the boutique Carnelian with its private Sterlings club, AC Hotel).
• Family gap, filled. Great Wolf Lodge — the first in Florida — added family-friendly product to a market that skews high-end.
• Gateway to a national treasure. Everglades City is the front door to Everglades National Park, one of only 25 UNESCO World Heritage sites in North America, with 350+ bird species — a huge draw for European birding visitors and the new Marjory Stoneman Douglas Visitor Center.
• Sports tourism is a major economic engine. The Paradise Coast Sports Complex (now heading into phase three), pro soccer club FC Naples, 64 pickleball courts and the US Open (50 states, 53 countries, 55,000+ attendees), plus three PGA/LPGA tournaments and 90+ golf courses.
• Pivoting to the drive market. Amid geopolitical and economic uncertainty, marketing is shifting from summer international travel to domestic and in-state visitors — including targeting FIFA crowds in Miami with "it's an easy hour-and-a-half drive" messaging.
• Closer than it looks. Naples to Miami/Fort Lauderdale is a straight, easy 90-minute shot — a fact most visitors don't realize.
• September "Sizzle" dining supports a cause. During the slowest month, restaurants offer specially priced menus, with proceeds benefiting Blessings in a Backpack, which feeds local kids on weekends — now grown from one week to a full month.
• Pet-friendly angle. Keewaydin Island (boat-access only) is a dog-friendly beach, with a monthly "Bark Ark" boat — a nice hook for the growing pet-travel audience.

Welcome to Aqua Talks where marketing meets bold game changing ideas.

Join your hosts, Larry Aldrich and Maddie Dudley as they explore the art and science of cutting through the noise, capturing attention and fostering meaningful connections with your audience.

Whether you're a destination marketer, government contractor or simply passionate about the transformative power of marketing, Aqua Talks offers engaging discussions, fresh insights and actionable strategies designed to inspire and inform.

Welcome back to Aqua Talk, sponsored by Branches Technology LLC and Zunique. We're here for the next few days at Destination Florida in Bradenton. We will be speaking with Quite a few DMOs.

Stay tuned for a lot of good conversations coming up. Thanks. Thanks for jumping back into Aqua Talks. We're here at Destination Florida with Sandra Rios at Naples, Marco Island, Everglades CVB.

And the Everglades Convention and Visitors Bureau there. You got them all in.

Thank you.

Otherwise known as Florida's Paradise Coast. So maybe that's a little bit easier.

Paradise Coast. I was going to get there. And as far as your title, let us know what your title.

Yeah, sure. I'm the public relations and marketing manager for the division of Collier county. So represent all three of our entities.

You know, we're very diverse destination and you know, so that really dictates a lot about how we market it as well.

Okay, so this, this is about you and your destination, your cvb. Let us know a little bit about your history and what you're currently doing and where we see your desk CVB going.

Yeah, sure. So a little bit about my background. I've been in hospitality probably 25ish years.

Originally started out for about 15 years in the casino industry which is an amazing opportunity for anybody who wants to get into hospitality because it's very diverse. You can go into food and beverage, you can go into retail, you can go into gaming and then you have the hospitality component too.

So eventually that segued into I moved to Sarasota and I was the marketing and communications director for the Opal Collection, which has a real diverse portfolio.

But I was at their Longboat Key Club, which is one of their high end luxury properties and I represented five other of their sister properties in Lido Key One down in Naples.

So I was there for about seven years and then Hard Rock came knocking on my door and I had the opportunity to be part of the opening team for that beautiful guitar hotel over there. So that was really just, I'd say the pinnacle of my career from the ground up. Just an amazing product and just a lot of fun, a lot of energy.

That's A beautiful structure.

It really is. And it's so unique. I mean, there's not one plumb line in the whole building, as you can imagine.

And I know we have quite a few nice places, nice things going on with the Naples Beach Club and Four Seasons Resort. You want to talk a little bit about that?

Yeah, sure.

So we've seen a lot of hotel investment there. And so that's ended up in the build out of our new Naples Beach Club, which is a Four Seasons Resort. Very high end.

And it's just bringing, salivating and amplifying the whole destination. We've also had a lot of other partners come in too. We have a new JW that's going to open up.

We have the old Naples Hotel, which is on 3rd street, which is a real iconic street in Naples. And they took over the old Mercantile building. So they've left some of the old Naples charm, but certainly built up a beautiful destination there.

We also brought in a Great Wolf Lodge, which was the first one in Florida, which really is more towards family friendly activities. But we kind of filled a gap for something we did not have. And then the AC Hotel, and then we have just a number of other openings as well.

More in the future. There's going to be. I can never remember the name of this, the Carnelian.

I keep wanting to call it Colonial because we opened a la Colonial restaurant. So it's the Carnelian Hotel, that's going to be a super high end boutique hotel that has a private membership club called the Sterlings on the top.

And what you'll find in Naples, it's very geared toward luxury. We market it unapologetically luxury, but there's also a lot of private membership clubs throughout the destination.

Yeah, the Carnelian. I can see myself now accidentally saying the Carnelian.

I think there's a lot of ways.

I would have to practice. So, you know, I'm a Northeasterner, I'm from Pittsburgh. I'm in Florida for the last couple of years now, every month.

And I've been Trying to go everywhere in Florida and I've never been to Marco island. So speaking to me and thousands of other people, but to me right now, yeah, okay, why should I go to like where should I go?

Not why should I go to Marco Island? So what can I expect when I go to Marco Island?

Sure, it's just a short drive south of Naples. You know, Naples is five star total luxury, very serene, high end, a lot of spas. You go down to Marco island and it's much more laid back.

We call it beach chic, very quaint. We have the beautiful JW Marriott beachfront Marco Island Hotel down there. And they were just bought out by another company.

So we're expecting probably not a full renovation, certainly a decent one. So that's going to be coming down the pike within the next couple of years. We're excited about that.

But it's a place where you can go to the Snook Inn and just have that tiki hut kind of feel, feel like you're one of the locals. But then the JW is very high end with an adult tower, a private spa up there, but they even have fire dancers on the beach at night.

So you just have a real cool vibe, but a lot more laid back than Naples. And if you keep going 20 minutes further south from Marco island, you hit Everglades City. And that's just one of our treasures. It's real authentic.

A lot of eco adventures, a lot of outdoor activity, a lot of community pride. The stone crabbing industry is their main industry down there. So we do promote that heavily through the tours, our tourism marketing channels.

But they're also proud that, you know, they only have a population of about 350 people. Yeah, small community, very tight knit. And they still have one schoolhouse that has all the grades up from kindergarten through 12th grade.

So it's a real unique spot within the country.

But that is also the back door or the front door to enter the Everglades national park, which is a real national treasure because it's only one of 25 UNESCO World Heritage sites in North America.

So if you're coming down as a family or you're just really interested in ecology and preserving, you know, conserv conservation and land, it's definitely a must see. And they just opened up the new Marjory Stoneman Douglas Visitor Center. So that's brand new.

Driving through, driving down Alligator Alley. I've noticed there are some walking trails. Have you walked, have you been on any of those trails or. I was kind of curious how far out they May go.

I mean the Everglades just goes and goes.

It goes and goes.

Yeah.

Long horizon. Horizon, right.

And I at times I want to get out on that trail, but I kind of, you know, like maybe I shouldn't be out there. But it, it's obviously looks well taken care of and it's probably very, very safe.

I was just wondering if you've been out there or if you kind of know how far it might go or. It's definitely an attraction because it grabs my attention every time I see it.

Yeah, I've never been on those trails. And you'll find pretty much I don't know where the demarcation line is between us and the next county.

Okay.

But you go into the Wild Cypress Natural Preserve and that's part of Collier county and it has a beautiful boardwalk system. It's something that people don't realize. So you can go out there and walk along a beautiful, beautifully orchestrated two mile boardwalk.

Something that people don't know is birding is one of the most, one of the top, most popular. I don't want to say sporting events, but it's certainly something people do when they come over.

And in the Everglades you have over 350 species of birds alone that you can see that you won't see anywhere else. So that's a real attraction, especially for our European visitors who come over and they got to fill out the rest of their cards.

The birds they've seen, they have a whole real checklist.

I think that's something good for our US Citizens also. I mean, I love looking at birds. And then you never really realize you like it until you start seeing different birds.

In a, in a meeting we had, one of our staff members said, told us that they set up bird feeders in their backyard because parrots come in. And I'm like, parrots? And then she kind of gave a little bit of a history of how they fly from up south during the summer or something.

And then I saw three parrots flying in St. Pete. So are or can you confirm or know? Maybe. I don't know if you know, but parrots in flying through the Everglades, is that true?

I've heard of that. I've actually seen flocks of parrots in Naples like this. A little group of about 10 of them.

But a little bit of the history of that is during one of the. The hurricane that hit Homestead and that's way before my time. I forget when it hit the, the zoo.

Yeah, a lot of birds ended up being really getting released Just through no fault of their own. So that's how some of these flocks have come about.

And they kind of.

Yeah, they went wild. Yeah.

Yeah. I hear a lot of people talk about the recent hurricanes, but you mentioned Homestead. I'm familiar with it because my.

My father owned a company in a nuclear contracting industry, and they had Homestead, the nuke, or the nuclear power company down in Homestead. And I was down there one time after. What was that hurricane again?

Is that Michael.

No. You just mentioned down in Homestead was a huge hurricane that hit in the early 90s.

Yeah. I don't remember the name.

And it just. It devastated South Florida.

It's unfortunate.

And I was in the Air Force in Panama City Beach Tyndall, when Hurricane Opal hit.

Yeah.

So, I mean, firsthand I've seen some of the devastation, but. But the amazing thing is how Floridians rebuild.

Yeah.

And I've seen that firsthand just recently on. On your coast just north of Naples. And actually, no, we got far from Naples, really decimated. They've rebuilt.

I always tell people it was an equal opportunity hurricane because there was not a neighborhood spared in our destination from that hurricane. But everybody was tremendously resilient.

A lot of the residents stepped up and they were working hand in hand with our first responders, certainly the tourism team. You know, our responsibility in a hurricane like that is to find housing.

Yes.

For first responders as they come in. Because we obviously work so closely with the hotel partners. We call them up every day. Do you have extra rooms? How many rooms you have?

Are you online? Are you serving food? Do you have water? And so then we pair up. Whatever.

It could be fema, it could be Red Cross, it could be medical people, personnel coming in. It could be people from the sheriff's department, you know, that need housing. So that's what we do during hurricanes.

But we were one of the first destinations to recover from that and that. And we were very. In that regard. Yeah.

And I saw the community really stepped up.

I did a little bit of a tour up and down the coast after that, and I saw a lot of the local businesses worked out of trailers, essentially, until they got their facilities back up. And it was relatively quick.

Yeah, we laugh because we always say the residents came up because they wanted their favorite restaurant on Fifth Avenue to get open again, because they wanted to go have their wine in the afternoon.

I was at your. Downtown Naples is really nice. I actually spent some time in Naples not too long ago, and I really like the downtown area.

A lot of really nice Quaint shops, shops. And. And you have all kinds of different products and services right there, whether a little. A little bit of things for everyone.

And Naples is a, I would say, very classy, really classy destination in Florida. So you're going to get a little bit higher end.

But there's still, like you said now that you got great Wolf Lodge there, it's still a lot for family also.

Yeah, there's a lot for family. But just talking a little bit about Fifth Avenue, you know, it's real quiet wealth in Naples.

It's not flashy, it's classy, as we like to kind of put it. But as far as those boutiques and the restaurants, so many of them are owner owned.

They take a lot of pride in what they're presenting, whether it's a beautiful dish in a restaurant or whether it's personal handmade art. And that's part of the charm is it makes it very unique. Nothing there is cookie cutter.

Yeah.

So that's a big part of the appeal.

And the cuisine is really, really me. I kind of like. I know what I like when I come to this, the west coast of Florida. I love grouper sandwiches.

And I probably missed out on so much more, but I can't pass out getting those grouper sandwiches. And when I was in Naples, I found two really good restaurants that had really, you know, really good grouper sandwiches.

So what would you recommend for someone like me that only goes and gets one thing. And I know, you know, there's so much more there than I actually had a chance to experience.

Yeah, I'd say expand your boundaries and try something different.

That's a four.

So we're known really for our global cuisine. I mean, we have Baa Baa Persian down on fifth Avenue. We have great authentic Italian Barbatella. That's over on 3rd Street.

We have Ridgeways, which Tony Ridgeway has been a restaurateur in naples for over 30 years. So if you want to live like a local, definitely go check that out.

But yeah, groupers, you know, you can go to a tiki bar and get a great grouper sandwich, you know, at the docks or the boathouse, you might want to check out one of those places. Real, super laid back. But then you could go to Trulux or Ocean prime and get grouper sandwich of a different kind.

That would be great.

Yeah.

You know, and one of the big initiatives I know in the Naples area, a destination and probably true to my heart, is sports tourism.

Oh, yeah.

And what's going on in Naples with Sports, we know pickleball is really popular now, so I'm assuming pickleball is a big thing down there. So other than, well, on top of pickleball, what are some of the other sports activities that really like to promote in Naples for sports tourism?

Sure. Our Paradise Co sports complex broke ground just as I was here about four years ago.

And it's a world class facility built to really attract student athletics. It serves the local school system with student athletics, but it brings in all the groups nationally to compete in their tournaments. But in.

In addition to that, it's also now home to FC Naples, which is our first professional soccer league. So they had a winning team last year, they're into their second year now, and they have a huge fan base that's really supported by the community.

But to your point, sports tourism is a huge economic driver for any county. We're fortunate that we had the funding to build the sports complex. We're actually almost moving into phase three to continue the final phases of it.

But in terms of the pickleball, it has 64 courts. We're called the pickleball capital of the world. In April, we host USO Pickleball Open and all 50 states are represented as well as 53 countries.

And we had about over 55,000 attendees over the course of a week that come to Naples specifically for that tournament. So in addition to that, we also are the home to three PGA and LPGA championship tours. We have.

We host the Chub Classic, we host the grand for Grant Thornton Invitational, and we also host. Oh my God, I forgot. The last one totally blanked.

It happens to me all the time. So don't.

Grant Thornton. Yeah, I forgot.

It happens to me. I was literally just talking about my favorite restaurant and I went to name my favorite restaurant and couldn't remember the name of it.

So it happens.

What the heck. And I love them all.

I was actually, I'm starting to golf more in Florida and I. My first location down here, I. I played horribly.

You did?

Yeah. I was looking forward to playing here and I've been training all winter and the winter in Pittsburgh was pretty bad this year.

15 Inches of snow, zero degree.

And I'm like, I was training hard and to get to Florida and realize I've been training with my irons all winter and pulled out my driver and looked horrible. But I had fun.

Well, Aside from the three tournaments that we do host, we also have over 90 public private courses in Naples alone. So if you want to. You're a golfer, an avid golfer, or a Beginner, doesn't matter your skill level. This is a place you want to be.

You know, 300 days of sunshine a year. It's definitely a draw for the golfing community.

Yeah, I definitely, I like the area now. Maybe it's a misconception or I misheard. Do you have to take a ferry to Marco Isla?

No, there are ferries that do leave out of Marco Island. One will take you down to the Florida Keys.

Okay.

But you might be talking about Key Waden. Okay. We do have an island that's off of. It's right before you get to Marco Island.

It runs parallel to the, the roadway if you drove, but it's only accessible by boat. So we do have a water tax as system that'll bring you there.

But a lot of the resorts on the coastline or on the waterway do have boat rentals and a lot of people will take them and go down to Kiwi for the day. It's also the only beach where you can bring your dogs. So it's a dog friendly one.

Wow.

And once a month, Pierre, Florida does have a, what they call the bark ark. So they do have a boat that'll take you over, you know, with your little four legged furry friend and you can run on the beach.

I got one of those.

You do? Yeah. So that's always a fun opportunity because people do like to travel with their pets.

Yeah, we do. I and I. He goes with me almost everywhere.

Oh, really? Wow.

Yeah, he's my buddy. Yeah. His name is Aries. Black lab. English lab.

Okay.

Yeah, he like, he very smart to train. Yeah. But they, they're tough to train because they're excited all the time.

Yeah.

They learn very fast, but because they're so excited, they just don't want to listen to you.

Yeah.

Yeah. And it's like you're training them something. They're paying a lot of attention to you. They're staring at you. Oh, there's a ball over there.

And then they're gone.

Let me ask you this. Who's training who? Right.

Sometimes he's training me.

Yeah. For sure.

And then I get frustrated and then he wants to come over and just call me when I, when I stop. Now you didn't want to pay attention to me 20 minutes ago. Now, now I have to pay attention. That's a black lab. But you're. They're lovable.

Bull.

Yeah. They're great water dogs too.

Yes, yes.

Yeah.

And he's, he. His first time at the beach here, he let. Got too much salt water.

Yeah.

So what drink it he drank too much because he didn't know, hey, this is water. I'm gonna drink it. So, you know, he got a little sicky, but he went over, laid down for a little bit and he was great.

And then we found some really great dog bars where he could just like, call it Dog bar because they have bars and then they allow dogs there. So then the dogs play with each other in the water. So I've come to that.

A lot of Florida destinations are very pet friendly, like you were just saying at the dog beach. So that's because a lot of people like to travel with their dogs.

Yeah.

And right now, in. In this environment, we're kind of in a drive market, a driving market to a lot of destinations.

So you'll probably be seeing a lot more visitors with their dogs.

Yeah, for sure. And speaking of drive market, you know, that's going to be a big focus with all this geopolitical climate and economic uncertainty.

You know, a lot of our marketing strategies are really shifting from totally focusing on that summer international travel to shifting to really bring in domestic travel and just really telling the Florida residents, come on and spend a week at the beach.

Yeah, pivot is our favorite word in marketing. On any given day, any given week, you're moving dollars around and saying, oh, my God, this is a great digital opportunity. Here's a case in point.

FIFA. Yeah, the FIFA game's coming up, so we're really targeting those individuals that are going to be going to Miami saying, come on over to visit.

Come on over here and don't spend as much on your hotel room. It's an easy drive back and forth. But certainly stay in our destination for a couple days, a couple nights, explore and learn more about us.

So that's how we can shift some of those dollars around to get in front of the people who one can afford to be in our destination, and B, who are able to discover our destination and become a legacy visitor and come back.

I mean, have you thought about communicating to that visitor that's not from Florida, similar to myself, where I'm here all the time now and where I'm going with this is I didn't know how easy you can get from Naples to Miami because you look at Florida, that's on the other side of the state. But do you, you ever communicate that it's not that far, that it's an easy drive? I didn't know until I actually did it.

Yeah, we always say it's just an hour and a half away. It's a straight shot.

It's literally a straight shot and you're in Fort Lauderdale and then it's just head south a little bit and you're in Miami and just keep going further down and you could be in the Keys. Yeah, but it's really an easy drive. The road is great. There's always nice traffic flow back and forth and people don't realize that.

But culturally, coasts are very, very different.

And it's a nice shift though. It's a really nice shift. If you want to go from the Miami to the Naples area, it's a nice shift from faster to a little bit more comfortable.

Little nice cruise.

Yes, yep, for sure. And in fact I live in Naples and I'd say about once a month I go over to Miami for a weekend. Just change of pace, change of scenery.

But I like coming home and sitting, sipping champagne, watching my beautiful sunset because you can't replicate that over in Miami. But we certainly are famous for our Naples sun sunsets.

So is there anything you would like to tell for future visitors, Anything about what's really going on in the Naples Marco Island Everglades that they might not know today?

I think Naples is certainly changing. I think the one thing people should know that it's a very diverse destination.

As I mentioned, you can come and stay in a five star hotel during the night and then you can be taking an airboat from ride the next day in the Everglades and eating at the Havana Cafe or like a real Cuban sandwich. And it's just very diverse, very different. One thing I do want to mention is September is our low season. It's our slowest season.

Typically most Florida destinations, summer slows down a little bit. But for us, because we're so seasonal in Naples, you know, we like big part of tourism is to keep people employed.

Yes.

We have 28,000 people in our industry and we want to keep those people working.

So during September, our full month is sizzle dining where all of the restaurants, all your favorite grouper sandwich restaurants are going to be offering specials, specially priced menus through the month of September. And it goes to support Blessings in a Backpack, which feeds kids on the weekends so they get to take a backpack home. And it's just a great program.

It was, it's been tremendously successful over the past three years. And we continue to hope to grow it. It started out as a one week night, then it was a two week and now it's for a full month.

Yeah.

So something to mark your calendars for.

Definitely.

And I can honestly say one thing that I can say that most visitors wouldn't know, at least I didn't, that if you're in Miami, Fort Lauderdale area and you want to take a little break and you have time for a nice hour and a half drive, definitely come to Naples.

Yeah. Come on over and see a professional soccer game, have a great meal and you can head back home all in one day.

Yeah. Thank you for joining us.

Yeah.

Thanks for asking.

Thank you very much. And I know you've, you've met with a few of our staff members. Actually you've worked with some of our staff members before.

Yes, Yes, I have.

Fran Vacar. Yeah. So I hope you get time to meet with friends.

When I was up at Longbow. Kiko. Okay.

Thanks for joining.

Yeah. Thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

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