Pictured: Suzanne Hackman has always had a passion for sales and the relationships she builds through her career. Photo provided by Suzanne Hackman.

Suzanne Hackman, director of sales and industry relations at Visit Sarasota County, was recently awarded national recognition for her forward-looking approach to the industry. At a Smart Meetings annual summit, Hackman was awarded the 2025 Visionary Award for her collaborative work at Visit Sarasota County. Hackman recently sat down with SRQ to discuss her experience.

Since you began your time at Visit Sarasota County, what has been your approach to sales and industry relations?

“My main role here is to connect with our hotel partners. I’ve really built a relationship with them, and work as an extension of their sales team in many ways. In my previous roles, I’ve always been very successful at building those relationships and growing the market. Over the last year, I’ve aimed to meet with local hotels, find out what their sales goals are and what their tactics are, so that we can align our strategies with theirs, ensuring we're helping to market to the clients they want to reach. Success is often remarkably better when you have industry partners working with you. It shows destination cohesion.”

How did you learn your approach to sales?

“When I was in college, I was working in room service at a hotel, and I was bitten by the bug of sales. I would see the salespeople and what they were doing, and I thought that that just seemed really cool. So when I was graduating, I asked about the possibility of a job in the catering office, and I got it as an intake coordinator. The rest was history. Now, I have 17 years of destination marketing experience, working in sales, helping destinations get their sales and marketing off the ground and developing relationships with their hotels. Moving to work with Visit Sarasota County was attractive because the destination is smaller, but it's growing, and it's exciting to see the developments that are coming to Sarasota.”

What does receiving the visionary award mean to you?

“I was really humbled and honored. I was nominated for the award, so it was nice to be nominated by a peer. The Visionary Award, to me, was kind of sentimental, because I do feel like I've always had a forward-looking vision about what's happening in destinations and been blessed with the ability to come up with creative ideas to move the needle, see results and get return on investment. It just solidified that what I've been trying to achieve in my career is being noticed.”

Pictured: Suzanne Hackman has always had a passion for sales and the relationships she builds through her career. Photo provided by Suzanne Hackman.