- May 3, 2024
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The County Commission approved the Tourist Development Council’s recommendation to fund the fifth Maya at the Playa Conference, a five-day, 1,250-visitor event.
Since its inception in 2006, the Maya at the Playa Conference has grown into one of the largest archeological events in the country, Commissioner Milissa Holland said, after the Board of County Commissioners approved the Tourist Development Council’s recommendation to bring the event back to Flagler in October, for the fifth consecutive year, at a cost of $10,000.
With a series of workshops, picnics, lectures from field experts and performances celebrating Mayan culture, the conference has been host to 33 states and 14 countries in the last three years. It has served more than 1,000 students with college-level instruction and, paramount to the TDC, brings a whole lot of visitors to town.
“It’s a really big deal,” Holland said. “It’s one of our best-kept secrets.”
More than 250 daily guests are projected to attend, with a weekend total of 1,250 — yielding 350 verifiable hotel room nights. Last year yielded about 250 room nights at two hotels.
The 2011 conference will be expanded from four days to five and will be funded through a Tourist Development Tax Promotional Fund — from a $38,000 pot allocated for overnight-stay special events.
A small price to pay, Holland believes.
“We’ve seen it grow, and we’ve seen the economic impact to our community,” she said.
Mat Saunders, Maya at the Playa director and former Flagler Schools employee, expects his event to bring more than $150,000 to local businesses.
Saunders, who lived in Palm Coast for seven years before accepting a position out of state, taught at both Matanzas and Flagler Palm Coast high schools. He started the anthropology/archeology program, which eventually grew into Maya at the Playa, at FPC, and ran the Princess Place program for three years. He has also organized for the past six years summer trips to Belize, offering students actual excavation experience.
“I designed the conference around the kids,” Saunders said. “It was amazing that it just blew up. It really turned into something … We’re still grassroots — we’re not huge — but we’re huge at what we do.”
Although he no longer lives in Florida, Saunders says he’d never take the conference away from Flagler.
“I still call it ‘our’ community,” he said of Palm Coast, “because it’s still very special to me.”
The conference will run Oct. 5 to Oct. 9, an otherwise slow time for tourism. All-inclusive week passes will cost $200.
