This month marks my 20th anniversary at Visit Sarasota County, and my second as President and CEO – although, my tenure in our community began long before I ever thought about a career in tourism marketing.

I grew up here, was encouraged by my teachers and peers at Fruitville Elementary, McIntosh Middle, and Riverview High, and – on field trips and evening drives in my Honda Civic (a DX, the kind where you had to roll the window up and down by hand) – experienced the first of many attractions and businesses that I’d later have the privilege of promoting on the world stage.

I began my journey with Visit Sarasota County in 2005, back when Grey’s Anatomy just premiered, when texting on a flip phone felt futuristic, and when our tourism marketing agency was still called the Sarasota Convention and Visitors Bureau. While I knew I had a lot to give back to my hometown, what I didn’t fully realize was how much my hometown could give back to me.

I was fortunate to earn my chops alongside our local businesses, led by some of the most strategic hospitality leaders I’ve ever known, including my predecessor, Virginia Haley. What they’ve taught me and what I’ve discovered over two decades is that tourism’s job is not just about running ads and marketing Sarasota County – it’s also about managing the reputation and quality of life within our destination. And this has been a significant perception shift in our industry.

That’s why you’ll see our team involved in emergency preparedness to address hurricane recovery, Red Tide blooms, and other brewing crises. Close collaboration with our Chambers of Commerce, in addition to stewarding our own network of over 500 partners, helps us keep a pulse on local business needs. All the while, we’re actively soliciting resident feedback to make sure our efforts improve the lives of those closest to home; in fact, more than 1,500 voices came together to create our 2030 Destination Strategic Plan alone!

The tools of our trade naturally changed, too. Our Visitor Guides and ad campaigns used to have reader response cards in them that you’d tear out and mail back to us to request visitor information. No longer are vanity 800 phone numbers needed to avoid long-distance call charges, nor do travel journalists want to receive a package of microfiche or photos – that we would hope they’d send back to us to reuse. Instead of form, marketing now devotes attention to function, focusing on audiences and their behaviors that we can follow, measure, and tap into to encourage a trip (or several).

We’ve seen a similar shift in how we work with local businesses, moving from a transactional model of partnership to one that centers around relationship-building. The most impactful partnerships are those built on mutual investment: when we’re invited into their milestones, introductions, and ideas, we can better share the full story behind Sarasota County. And when that broader story is told well, it uplifts not just our destination but the individual businesses that help define it.

So, what hasn’t changed in these past 20 years? There is — and always will be — an art and science to highlighting the right aspects of our community to the right visitor at the right time. Encouraging people to choose Sarasota County as their destination of choice for leisure, business, and exploration as they look to relax or relocate to the Sunshine State remains as dynamic of a responsibility as it did on my first day back in 2005.

Turns out, the best way to promote a place you love is to never really leave it.

Erin Duggan, CDME, is President and CEO of Visit Sarasota County.