Lee County’s new tourist bureau on wheels took a shakedown cruise this afternoon to Centennial Park, downtown Fort Myers.

For about two hours, husband-and-wife-team and bus operators Amy Wood and Barry Gershman showed drop-in visitors and members of the news media around the 40-foot motor coach.

“It’s beautiful. … Clever idea,” said Ernest Warren, 83, of east Fort Myers. Neighbor Louise Fuller, who’s been a tourism ambassador at Southwest Florida International Airport, talked him into stopping by.

On the outside, the RV is clad in vivid, large-as-life photos of the region Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau promotes as “The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel” brand. Scenes show couples fishing off Lighthouse Beach on Sanibel, walking among the live oaks at Hickey’s Creek Mitigation Park east of Fort Myers, and relaxing on Fort Myers Beach.

Inside, the coach is decorated with an understated beachy flair. For Monday’s stop, the wide-screen TV monitor showed a promotional video.

Wood and Gershman will take the bus to more than 200 events in 2008, starting with Capital One Bowl pre-game festivities Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 in Orlando.

The still-developing itinerary also will include travel and outdoor-themed consumer shows, art festivals, boat shows and baseball spring training games throughout Florida and similar events in key feeder markets for local tourism, including Boston and New York.

The bus also will stop at travel agencies, the offices of major meetings planners and the Tallahassee home of the Florida Legislature.

The visitor bureau is leasing the coach and its operators for about $200,000, money from the bed tax charged to short-term lodging and campsite rentals in Lee County.