Accessibility Champion: Brett Laiken

Chief Marketing Officer, Visit Florida

Note: This interview is part of an ongoing series featuring interviews with 24 Champions of Accessibility for 2024 selected and celebrated by TravelAbility.

Q: When did you begin focusing on accessibility in your destination and what was the impetus for wanting to make your destination more accessible?

We don’t have a tipping point where we decided we needed to start focusing on accessibility – it’s just continued to grow organically. 

We’ve been inspired by real travelers and we use real families for our marketing. That said, we did launch a series, Limitless Florida, three years ago. Limitless Florida is a video series that shares the story of Floridians with different abilities and shows how Florida offers them and their families the experiences they’re looking for.

Q: What are your main responsibilities and tasks in your organization?

I am the CMO for VISIT FLORIDA and I oversee all marketing activity for the organization. This includes ensuring collaboration across various disciplines to align on messaging and focus.

Q: Aside from budget, what are the most difficult obstacles or barriers that you face regarding the advancement of accessibility in your destination? What initiatives have you undertaken to improve accessibility in your destination, and which are you most proud of?

With a state the size of Florida, there are vast differences between regions.As such, there are also differences in offerings. We lean into each individual destination’s ability to support those with different abilities. 

We launched a partnership with Wheel the World with VISIT FLORIDA covering 50% of the destination audit. We did this to remove any potential budgetary obstacles and to improve the statewide promotion of accessibility. Additionally, we have hosted numerous webinars to educate partners on how to be the most accessible destination, business, attraction, etc. 

Q: Who do you follow? Name an organization/company/individual you look to for ideas or inspiration. 

Since our partnership has been built with Wheel the World, I follow them to see how they are trailblazing a path for others to follow. They share content from content creators who are real people they work with, such as Curb Free Cory, who showcase their travel journey throughout Florida. I also follow Florida visitors to see what they are enjoying in our state. Our team then looks for ways to share these same experiences with those who have different abilities.

Q: What are your plans around accessibility in 2024/2025?

We will continue to promote accessible adventure in our marketing while also continuing to partner with our DMOs to provide educational opportunities along the way. A new effort for this coming year is a greater emphasis on educating travel agents on accessibility in Florida, so that they can be our ambassadors.