Florida's tourism website offers comprehensive information on the most beautiful  islands, beaches, neighborhoods, and destinations . From family-friendly resorts to romantic getaways, the site inspires visitors with tips, highlights, and exclusive offers.

With the aim of modernizing the CMS and simplifying editorial processes, the city, together with OpenSense Labs, decided to completely relaunch on Drupal 9.

Project highlights

• Migration of the existing website from  Umbraco to Drupal 9

• Introducing a  progressively decoupled architecture  with dynamic components in  React.js

• Implementation of  dynamic listing pages

• Implementation of the  Layout Builder  for flexible design by editors

Goals

• Development of a  modern, unified web platform  for different target groups (tourists, families, couples, etc.)

• Updating outdated technologies that previously affected performance and user experience

Process and solutions

Simplified content creation

The use of the  Drupal Layout Builder  enabled structured data maintenance and the easy creation and customization of pages by editors –  without developer support .

Using Pattern Lab

Pattern  Lab  was used to develop and maintain UI components in a structured manner. The component-based approach saved significant development time and simplified subsequent adjustments.

Relevant Drupal modules

Key functions for travel and tourism portals were implemented using modern Drupal modules, such as  a honeypot  for spam prevention. The selection of appropriate modules reduced development time and increased maintainability.

Component-based development

A component-based approach simplified the relaunch technically and accelerated implementation by  up to 50% . The  agile methodology  (Scrum) supported a flexible and goal-oriented approach.

Result

• Improved editorial experience  – from content creation to publication

• Dynamic listing pages could   be created without extensive development

• Significantly shorter project duration  through modular component development

• Drupal 9 enabled significantly  more editorial flexibility  and easy extensibility

• On-time go-live  – supported by needs-based team expansion (staffing services)

Conclusion

Migrating to Drupal 9 was a correct and important decision: The new platform offers  more performance, flexibility, and scalability  – both for the editorial team and for the site's users.