By Paul Bonnette
Panama City, the city where life sets sail, is home to world-class fishing, boating, hiking, and sightseeing, and a four-season paradise for anyone who enjoys the water. As president and CEO of Destination Panama City, Jennifer Vigil’s job is to showcase all that Panama City has to offer. For Vigil, this is less of a job and more of a passion.
Less than a decade ago, Destination Panama City as a marketing organization did not exist. The tourist organization was only formed in 2015, and Vigil was selected to develop strategies designed to drive tourism to the area. With an MA in public administration, Vigil originally had no intention of working in the tourism industry. “I always say that I affectionally started on the dark side, remembers Vigil. “I thought that I wanted to be a City Manager. I made it all the way up to the City Clerk. I had basically reached the pinnacle of what I wanted to reach. I backed away from a regular government job and did a bunch of freelance work, and ended up being offered a position at Visit South Walton as the Director of Administration which was incredible. Visit South Walton is one of the top ten destination organizations in the state of Florida so the opportunity to come into the industry at one of the top ten was pretty fabulous.”
As the Director of Administration for Visit South Walton, Vigil realized that her background made her uniquely suited to driving tourism to the area by studying [the] behavioral patterns of visitors. “I think a lot of people think that tourism is just making commercials and ads,” says Vigil. “With tourism, the personal satisfaction I get out of it is the science behind it. Tourism is complete behavior analysis. It is finding out who is coming, how they are spending money, how they are learning out about us and really using technology, especially with this generation.”
When the City of Panama City formed the brand-new destination marketing organization, Vigil knew it would be a challenge worth taking on. “I was always up for a challenge, and I couldn’t think of anything more exciting than building a destination marketing organization from the ground up. For me there always has to be a little bit of a challenge… I am always a proponent of growth,” she explains.
However, building Destination Panama City as a world-class destination organization would be met with numerous challenges such as Hurricane Michael and the COVID-19 pandemic. For Vigil, each challenge would be an opportunity to move forward. “I think in life there is no choice but to keep putting one’s foot in front of the other. You wake up every day with the opportunity to decide whether to do that in a positive or negative way. The biggest hurt somebody can do to themselves is not moving forward. My dad’s favorite thing to tell us was that we had to live exceptional lives, not acceptable lives.”
Today, Destination Panama City has evolved and cemented itself as a cutting-edge destination marketing organization, bringing in thousands of visitors from all over for the fishing, shopping, and dining, but for Vigil, it’s the satisfaction of showcasing the importance of tourism that drives her.
“It’s a personal satisfaction for me to do work that I find interesting…Bay County tourism is the number one economic driver. After the hurricane (Michael), tourism was one of the first things that came back. Tourism sustained our community through the pandemic.”
Having completed the Southeast Tourism Society Travel Marketing Professional Course as well as the Certified Destination Management Executive Course, Jennifer Vigil has no intention of slowing down she tells PCB Life. “I plan on taking everything that I’ve learned and continuing to grow, making sure that tourism destination management has a seat at the table.”
