Front and Center: Becky Bovell

As director of the Charlotte County Visitor's Bureau, it is Becky Bovell's job to accentuate the area's best attributes and deliver a happy message to potential visitors. Once Hurricane Charley tore through the region in 2004, that job might have seemed daunting to some, but Bovell has responded with a characteristically sunny outlook.

"I can't minimize the damage that occurred here or people's sense of loss," says Bovell, who is entering her fifth year as the bureau's director and was elected in October to the Florida Association of Convention and Visitor Bureaus' board of directors. "The hurricane devastated lodging and a significant portion of our facilities. But I always felt that Charlotte County was poised to move to another level as a travel destination, and the storm has just accelerated that."

A little more than one year after the hurricane, many of the area's damaged hotels, retail stores and restaurants had reopened better than before. Resort-tax collections had reached an all-time high and inquiries to the tourism office started setting records last spring.

Much of the credit for the quick turnaround goes to Bovell and her staff of five, says Julie Mathis, executive director of the Charlotte County Chamber of Commerce. "Before the hurricane, Becky was on the cusp of really making us much bigger than before," says Mathis. "Since then, she's had to encourage people to come back here and I think they've been very aggressive, from a new ad campaign to sending out post cards, letting people know this is still a great place to be."

In the fall of 2004, with images of damaged homes and resorts still constants in the national media, the tourism office scrapped an existing ad campaign and organized teleconferences and visits from national and international travel writers. A $50,000 state grant helped produce eco-tourism brochures and direct-mail postcards. Under the tagline "Take Advantage of Our Good Nature," the campaign included e-mail and online advertising. The blitz generated more than 68,000 queries by September, up 14 percent from 2004.

"We had to strategically reposition

our campaign and focus on our strengths-our nature-based tourism assets and warm hospitality," says Bovell. "Fortunately, the hurricane had a very narrow track and our nature-based amenities were fine. We had to stay on the radar screen and let people know. It seems to be working."

Making adjustments on the fly is something Bovell learned to do early on. As the daughter of an Air Force officer, Bovell moved frequently as a child (her 2001 move to Punta Gorda was her 36th). After graduating from Queens College (now Queens University of Charlotte, N.C.) with a degree in psychology and creative writing, she planned on working as an airline attendant.

"I wanted to travel and see the world and that's why I took a job at Pan Am," says Bovell. "But I had landed the job on my first interview and thought I needed more practice. I took an interview with Spiro Agnew's staff as practice, and they saw I had been born in Colorado and sent me over to the Senate. I ended up getting a job working for a prominent senator from Colorado. I didn't even get to go to flight attendant school."

That first job led to work as a communications specialist in the White House, where Bovell drafted letters and other correspondence for presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. In 1985, she accepted a job as Rhode Island's deputy director of tourism.

"Politics was intriguing but led to a very demanding lifestyle," says Bovell. "I loved the job in Rhode Island because when people travel, they're in a good mood and tourism lends itself to being a happy business."

In Rhode Island, Bovell developed marketing and promotional initiatives that helped make tourism the state's largest and fastest-growing industry. An initiative she developed in 2000 revolved around Rhode Island native Mr. Potato Head and generated millions of dollars of free media exposure.

In 2001, Bovell left Rhode Island to take her current job, partly because she and her husband wanted to relocate to a warmer climate.

"But I was also attracted to the challenges that molding a new office in Charlotte County represented," says Bovell. "The bureau was in a fledgling state at that time and I had to hire staff, set policies and establish all new relationships. It was an opportunity."

Bovell's first goal was to diversify the region's appeal and draw more visitors in the off-season. With that in mind, one of her new hires concentrates on sports, bringing events like the Sunbird Kayak & Wildlife Festival and televised fishing tournaments to Charlotte Harbor. A new film office promotes the county as a location for documentaries, commercials, photo shoots and feature films like Out of Time with Denzel Washington, and Hoot, a film based on Carl Hiaasen's popular children's novel.

"When I first got here, most efforts were focused on the traditional tourist season," says Bovell.

"All the challenges we've been through have accelerated our growth and improved our infrastructure. In the next three to five years, Charlotte County is going to be a very different destination and it's exciting to be a part of it."