Visit Sarasota County elects new chairman, vice chairman

Drayton Saunders, president of Michael Saunders & Company, moved from vice chairman to chairman of the Visit Sarasota County board of directors.

Saunders has been an instrumental part of many Visit Sarasota projects, such as Sarasota Bayfront 20:20, a grassroot effort to redevelop the 42 acres of city-owned land surrounding the Van Wezel, according to Virginia Haley, Visit Sarasota president. Though Bayfront 20:20 grew out of an idea from a Visit Sarasota board retreat, said Haley, the project’s participants now comprise 45 organizations.

“Drayton put a lot of high-level, strategic thinking into that project,” Haley said. “He really pushed to involve organizations outside the usual group of business organizations … ”

Haley said Saunders brings a global expertise to many Visit Sarasota projects.

Pete Norden, market president at iHeartRadio, will take over as vice chairman of Visit Sarasota. He called tourism a “gateway” because so many Sarasota residents relocate to the area after first visiting as tourists. Both he and Saunders have served three years on the board.

According to a report Visit Sarasota gave the Tourism Development Council on Sept. 17, visitors spent $1.36 billion in Sarasota County in 2014, and the total economic impact of tourism was $2.25 billion.

“From my vantage point,” Norden said. “Tourism is such an important part of the economy, and being able to differentiate our portion of southwest Florida is important.”

The board still has a vacancy for a general member that Haley said Visit Sarasota hopes to fill with a Siesta Key business owner.