Convention Bureau

What would you do with an extra $30,000 for your events? That's what the Metropolitan Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau wants to know.

Now through 2010, you can book peak rooms for your events, with a minimum of two nights, and the CVB will credit your account. Triple your savings by booking three consecutive or nonconsecutive years (one in 2010) and the CVB will credit your master account for a savings of up to $30,000.

For meetings booked in 2009-2010 and actualized in 2010, you can get $1,000 off for 25-50 rooms; $2,500 off for 51-100 rooms; $5,000 off for 101-200 rooms; or $10,000 off for 201 or more rooms.

Credit will be applied to the property master account of the booking property based on actual pick up, not made as payment to the booking party directly. The offer is not valid with groups already contracted nor is it valid with other offers.

Interested planners see Tucson on an individualized site visit. The Tucson CVB and the city's finest resorts will treat you to complimentary lodging for three nights, round-trip airfare and a site tour customized to your event.

Visit Tucson on Us to learn more about the great offer and sign up for a free trip!

Have you ever found yourself searching multiple metropolitan areas trying to decide where your next meeting will be held? Those searches can be time-consuming and inefficient. Sometimes you end up right back where you started, unsure of exactly where you’re going to hold your next event. Cvent has the solution for this problem: the Cvent Destination Guide.

The Cvent Destination Guide is an informative resource designed especially for meeting and event planners. It's a one-stop guide where planners can focus site selection and event sourcing efforts by comparing meeting-specific details across cities worldwide.

The Destination Guide has so many great features to explore. Browse cities by U.S. region or state, or view one of the more than 20 cities profiled internationally. City profiles offer a comprehensive overview of things to do, convention center information, transportation options and more. Also included is a key statistics page, where event planners can find useful data such as population, hotel room inventory, mileage to nearby cities and weather-related statistics. Plus, we know that budgets are tight, so there’s even a promotions page in each city for planners in need of a deal!

Beyond the city profiles themselves, the Cvent Destination Guide also offers a wealth of additional resources such as the Event Planning Comparison Chart, where you can quickly find and compare meeting details such as average taxi fare and the number of restaurants for cities across the globe. Or, browse the Convention Center Directory, Conference Center Directory, and CVB directory, or view venues that fall into Beach Destinations, Golf Destinations, and Mountain Destinations.

Here at Cvent we try to make your meeting planning process as smooth as possible. The Destination Guide is just one of the many things we have to offer to help make your meeting planning easier and more efficient.

Mass transportation for large groups or conferences can be difficult in any city such as Chicago. Although the layout of the city is fairly easy to understand, traffic patterns and construction changes are just some of the obstacles that Chicago event planners face when booking transportation for their groups. Here are some things to consider before contracting transportation with a vendor in Chicago:

• Vendor Selection. Be sure that the vendor that you are using is not sub-contracting buses without your approval. Some smaller bus companies outsource to larger fleets of buses to handle the capacity of your group. You want to be sure you are guaranteed the size of each bus, and that every driver has the specific directions you gave the company you contracted with.

 •Traffic & Construction. Traffic and  construction in Chicago usually depends on the activities and maintenance going on around the city. Be sure to research the dates of your shuttle or transport so that you can work around the busy areas of the city. You can usually find this information on the city website.

If you have the luxury of time to do so, another good tip is to drive the route the day before your Chicago transportation is scheduled. This way, you can be sure no construction sites were overlooked.

•Drivers. After working with many different transportation vendors in Chicago, I have come across many different types of vehicle operators: the chatty driver, the texter, the grumpy driver, etc. If you are familiar with the company, be sure to take note of the drivers that you had.

Follow up and give both positive comments and constructive feedback to the vendor on their performance. This can help the transportation vendor select drivers that fit your needs for future programs.

• Drop-Off and Pick-Up Locations. Be sure to contact or visit all the pick-up and drop-off locations on your route. Lots of hotels or large venues have more than one entrance, depending on the size of the vehicle you are using. If you get the entrance information ahead of time, you may discover a more efficient way to arrive at that location.

• Destination Management Companies and CVBs. If you are not familiar with the city, traffic patterns and transportation vendors, it is often helpful to contact a destination management company or the convention and visitor's bureau. These groups can help choose the company that can accommodate your group's needs.

And of course, be sure to check out tools such as the Cvent Supplier Network, which can provide a wealth of options in your search for transportation and other services. You can narrow down your searches by city, services, provider type, etc. It has over 40 transportation providers in the Chicago area.

We have talked to many CVBs and DMOs who are running interesting meeting planning promotions. At HSMAI's Affordable Meetings National, I met with the Fort Worth CVB, who showed me their meeting planner promotion and I thought it was unique.

The Arlington, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Irving CVBs have partnered together to offer a meeting planning promotion that covers the DFW metro area. They describe the promotion as "the nation’s first multi-city, multi-brand, attrition-free program." The promotion caught my attention because Dallas is the fourth largest metro area in the U.S. and I like the idea of limiting the risk for event planners associated with attrition to stimulate meetings. It is great that Dallas hotels, across chains and brands, can work together to put together a stimulus plan like this for meeting planners. They are offering value beyond just a simple cash back offer or discount. These are details of the promotion

• No-attrition room contract to groups of all sizes that book and complete their meetings before June 30, 2010

• 20% discount on group ground transportation

• Group discounts on American Airlines

You can check out Dallas on the Cvent Destination Guide, or contact the Dallas area CVBs on the Cvent Supplier Network for more information.

Yesterday the U.S. Senate passed the Travel Promotion Act in a vote of 79-19. Intended to promote leisure, business and scholarly travel to the United States, the legislation will establish a public-private partnership to actively promote and market the country to international travelers.

Not surprisingly, hospitality professionals and government officials across the country are speaking out in praise of the bill. Take a look at some of the following quotes from leaders across the country:

"Essentially, it means that the United States will be more competitive in trying to lure international travelers to our country. And Las Vegas, of course, is one of the top spots for those international travelers," said Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority's Vice President of Public Affairs Vince Alberta.

"The United States Senate today took a giant step toward regaining America’s position as the premier travel destination and strengthening our struggling economy," said Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, in a statement. "Nearly every company, city, state and developed nation understands the power of promotion. By getting in the global game, America will create tens of thousands of new jobs and strengthen its image in the world as visitors leave with an improved perception of our country and her people."

"Colorado’s tourism industry is an economic engine we must keep strong," Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) said in a statement after the Senate vote. "The Travel Promotion Act will help us market our ski slopes, rivers and parks overseas, boosting an industry that means jobs and prosperity for thousands of Coloradans."

"Tourism is a powerful engine for job creation and economic growth, both in Minnesota and nationally, but today the travel industry is facing many challenges," said Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) in a statement. "By passing the Travel Promotion Act, we will not only boost the tourism industry, but our economy."

"As the global economy sputters our visitor industry suffers, and any help the federal government can provide our number one industry would aid our economic recovery," said Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), according to Pacific Business News. "As the gateway to the Asia Pacific region, Hawaii is uniquely positioned to serve as a hub for international visitors wishing to travel to our islands and then onto the U.S. Mainland. This legislation is an important first step in the right direction."

"From world class vineyards on Long Island and in the Finger Lakes to Niagara Falls to the beautiful Adirondacks and all the attractions of New York City, there is absolutely no place better to vacation than New York, said Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). "During these tough economic times, it is critical that we promote New York's tourism to help turn our economy around and ensure long term growth. I have long advocated for this type of federal initiative into tourism promotion because I believe it holds tremendous economic opportunity for New York State."

The bill now heads to the House of Representatives.

Chicago is anxiously awaiting the Olympic Committee's decision on the host city for the 2016 Olympic Games. Chicago 2016 (a privately funded organization) has been working hard to get Chicagoans to "back the bid" with numerous community events and fund raising efforts.

From well-known Chicago events such as the Chicago Triathlon and others such as the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball tournaments on the lakefront, the community is trying hard to exemplify how much it wants a worldwide audience of four billion people to display the best of Chicago as well as raise its international profile to an all time high. Hospitality industry professionals, Chicago's tourism board, and the Chicago Convention & Visitors bureau have collaborated to back the bid and distribute information on how the Olympics will benefit their industries, the local tourism market, and Chicago as a whole!

Chicago 2016 has worked with as many as 75 community groups to ensure that economic opportunities will be shared by everyone. If Chicago wins the bid, it is expected that Chicago and Illinois will generate $22.5 billion dollars in economic growth as well as create 315,000 full time jobs in just one year, producing $7 billion in wages. Chicago hospitality workers are strongly supporting the bid in hopes that tourism growth in Chicago will grow!

This summer the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau (ACVB) has booked 131 tradeshows and events, generating 275,000 future room nights, it announced last week.

Among the Atlanta events, which are expected to attract nearly 328,000 attendees to the city, are meetings for the American Wind Energy Association, Asymmetrix Entertainment, Inc., the Emergency Medical Services Expo, the National Safety Council, and the American Information Management Association.

Despite the economy, Atlanta's 2010 calendar year booking pace is 130 percent above target. Next year, according to ACVB, the city will host more than 50 tradeshows, including 19 citywide conventions. Future year bookings, meanwhile, also are strong, as the city currently is targeting 341 tentative events for 2011 through 2013.

Four years after being knocked down by Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans meetings are regaining their footing. Last year, 7.6 million visited the city, according to the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau, up from 3.7 million in 2006 and 7.1 million in 2007. Before Katrina, in 2004, a record 10.1 million visitors showed up. This year looks good: Mardi Gras attendance reached pre-Katrina levels of about one million.

There are 119 hotels in New Orleans with 22,000 hotel rooms. And rates at the luxury hotels there are a good deal, many being quoted at $70 per night.

You've probably heard the saying, "Champagne taste on  beer budget" and know that it's no easy feat. You want more, you pay more, right? Well, in today's tough economy, that's no longer the case, including at luxury hotels.

Though the entire hotel market is suffering due to the recession, no segment has been hit harder than luxury hotels. Smith Travel Research has reported that occupancy rates for luxury hotels worldwide fell 57 percent this year through July, a bigger drop than other accommodations. As such, upscale properties are cutting room rates; STR reports that average daily rates of luxury hotels around the globe have dropped as much as 16 percent.

"Most luxury hotels are facing occupancy shortfalls, they are lowering rates to entice consumers to come in," Jeff Higley, vice president at Smith Travel Research, recently told Bloomberg News. "There rarely has been a better time to stay at a luxury hotel than right now."

Take Las Vegas, where high supply and low demand have resulted in a budget traveler's paradise. In fact, back in May, Budget Travel writer Andrew Lincoln took a trip to Las Vegas to see just how low the luxury hotels though would go. On the phone, he got rates as low as $129 at the Wynn Las Vegas, and ultimately booked a room online for $90.

Last week, Orlando hotels were slashing rates just as much. The Orlando Sentinel reported that The Monumental Hotel was offering rooms for $10 one night mid-August. Meanwhile, Marriott's Orlando World Center Resort was running an Orlando hotel deal of 25 percent off for any guest booking a four-night stay.

New York hotels find themselves among those markets suffering the most, and thus are cutting rates quite a bit. For the week of August 9-15, 2009, Smith Travel Research reported that New York saw revenue per available room decreases of 30.2 percent, leading the six markets that reported RevPAR decreases of 25 percent or more.

"I know I could come across sounding like the convention bureau, but New York really is a good buy right now," John A. Fox, a senior vice president at the New York offices of PKF Consulting, recently told The New York Times.

As such, Manhattan hotel operators have responded by cutting room rates by nearly one-third over last year, averaging $200 a night in July, according to the NY Times. New York luxury hotels in NYC saw average daily rates of $289.

Birmingham convention officials broke ground last month on the start of a dome project that they hope will give the city more opportunity to host large-scale events. The 57,500-seat stadium will be expandable to 70,000 seats and offer 160,000 square feet of exhibit space.

"It gives us a lot more flexibility in terms of meeting space and the opportunity to go after events we couldn't in the past because they required a large, enclosed facility," Mike Gunn, the convention bureau's vice president of convention sales, told The Birmingham News.

Though critics don't think the roughly $500 million dome is worth it, the expansion is expected to create more than 3,368 permanent jobs and attract $128 million in annual consumer spending by its fifth year, according to a study commissioned by the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex.

The Bassmasters Classic and T.D. Jakes' annual conference are among the events that have passed over Birmingham due to space constraints, Gunn said.

Over 300 convention and visitors bureaus are using Twitter, according to a new report from New York-based destination marketing firm Development Counsellors International (DCI). That's an impressive jump over just a few months, as about 200 meeting destinations were using the social networking site when I blogged about GoSeeTell's report back in March.

In an effort to find out how destination organizations are using this ever-growing network, DCI analyzed and compared over 3,000 Tweets from the largest CVBs in the country (by population) over the course of 30 days. It found that when it comes to tweet topic, news announcements are the most common subject.

Here's the breakdown:

• Announcements about upcoming local events/news (54 percent)

• Social tweets (28 percent)

• Replies to followers (20 percent)

• Deals (17 percent)

• Re-tweets from community partners (13 percent)

Less common were travel deals (7 percent) and contests (4 percent).

DCI also used its research to identify the country's Travel Tweet Elite—the top five destinations that, in addition to having the most followers and updates, are most successful at connecting with visitors. The Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association, Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau, New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau, San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau, and Tampa Bay & Company secured the title.

Read DCI's full report.

County officials in Des Moines, Iowa, have approved the expansion of the Veterans Memorial Auditorium at the Iowa Events Center. The $41 million renovation will divide the auditorium into two floors. The first would feature a grand ballroom and the second, several meeting rooms, both of which are the kinds of spaces lacking in the current venue.

"[Groups] could do their exhibits at the Iowa Events Center and Hy-Vee Hall, but they didn't have room to do banquet or general session, breakout meetings space so we had to sell them on using the convention complex, which is two and a half blocks away," Greg Edwards of the Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau told WHO-TV.

The CVB estimates that the expansion could bring 15 to 19 additional regional or national events to the city.

"We are thrilled to now give meeting planners across the country more options and more space in Greater Des Moines," said Vicki Comegys, vice president of sales and services at the Greater Des Moines CVB. "We strongly believe this will lead to increased bookings and more exposure for the city."

The expansion project is expected to be completed in about three years.

A little over a month ago, the Fontainebleau Las Vegas filed for bankruptcy. Now, the $3 billion Vegas casino, hotel and condominium project announced it will cancel a number of meetings and conventions planned there for the first half of 2010.

The cancellations will affect events scheduled from January 1 to June 29. Among those with events planned were the Consumer Electronics Association and the International Council of Shopping Centers.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority has said it will work to accommodate any meetings scheduled for the beginning of next year at Fontainebleau. The fate of meetings set to be held in the latter half of 2010 remains unclear.

"We fully expect Fontainebleau Las Vegas to be completed so that it can accommodate meetings and conventions. The timing of that opening will depend in large part on the timing of renewed financing," Fontainebleau said in a statement on the matter.

According to the Las Vegas Sun, developers say work on the 3,900-room resort, which was previously set to open in October, is about 70 percent complete.

In an effort to provide meeting planners and attendees with a more “heartfelt” San Antonio experience, the San Antonio Convention and Visitor’s Bureau is extending its 2008 “San Antonio. Deep. In the Heart" campaign to focus on group travel.  The new “In the Heart Meetings” concept encourages meeting venues, hotels, and restaurants in the Fiesta City to provide unparalleled service to San Antonio visitors.

This summer, the CVB will promote the “In the Heart Meetings” message with $1 million spent on print and online advertisements. The campaign will focus on San Antonio’s four strongest attributes, also known as the four P’s: Proactivity, Productivity, Playfulness and Prudence.
 
In a recent USAE interview, Scott White, the executive director of the San Antonio CVB, said that the campaign “will be part of our foundation moving forward into the future."

"What really sets our destination apart is the unity that we have,” he added. “Everybody in the hospitality community really works well together to sell the destination first, and then they compete for the business.”

View more information about the San Antonio Convention and Visitor’s Bureau on the Cvent Supplier Network

Last month the city of Dallas voted "Yes" on the new 1,016-room Omni Dallas Convention Center hotel. Now, the Dallas City Council has approved an ordinance to authorize the sale of $514 million in Dallas Convention Center Revenue bonds to secure financing for the hotel, set to open in 2012.

Mayor Tom Leppert, a major proponent of the hotel project, said the vote was the right move, as he expects an upturn in the economy, according to The Dallas Morning News.

"This hotel is not going to be in place for several years, and we believe we are going to be able to capture that upturn," he said.

As of now, the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau reports that 172,000 tentative room night bookings are scheduled at the hotel in coming years.

The Dallas hotel will feature over 80,000 square feet of meeting space.

I recently read that Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning is going to represent the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association. As part of this partnership, he'll be used on the CVA's website and in targeted messages to convention and meeting planners, including email campaigns sent directly to planners and print ads placed in trade publications.

This isn't the first time I've seen a famous/celebrity spokesperson working on behalf of a meeting destination. Another incidence that comes to mind is the Atlanta CVB, whose website features a celebrity video of Ludacris, Alton Brown, Shawn Mullins, Ted Turner and John Smoltz elaborating on the great things about Atlanta.

Have you ever used a celebrity spokesperson, whether it be a local news personality or famous actor, to promote your meetings and events? I think it would definitely make for great event promotion. However, in today's tough times, I'm not sure that a celebrity's approval alone would be enough to make me pay for registration. Do you think the use of a well-known name can boost event attendance?

The Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau is making Boston events even more enticing. Book a meeting in this historic city at one of 25 participating hotels through March 31, 2010, and you can take advantage of the CVB's value program, which features exclusive offers from CVB partners Amtrak, American Airlines and the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority.

Program deals include a minimum of three percent credit to the master account at participating hotels, a 20 percent discount on Amtrak, special discounts on airfare from American Airlines, a round-trip voucher for each attendee on Boston's subway system and special discounts at city attractions.

The offer is valid only for new meetings at participating hotels. To qualify, groups must be 10 or more rooms on peak night. Participating hotels include Boston Marriott Copley Place, Doubletree Guest Suites Boston, Hilton Boston Back Bay and Hyatt Harborside. Several of these hotels offer great deals on top of the CVB's offer, making it easy to save money on your Boston meetings.

Find more information at the Greater Boston CVB website. And don't forget, you can research meeting hotel deals and promotions at participating properties and others in the Boston area on the Cvent Supplier Network!

The construction of Nashville's Music City Center, a new downtown convention center, is becoming more and more of a reality. The Nashville Metro Council has voted 33-3 on a proposal to borrow $75 million to purchase almost 16 acres of land south of Broadway for the center.

If the proposal passes its final vote June 2, the last of the three needed to approve the purchase, the project to build the 1.2-million-square-foot facility will move forward. Construction is scheduled for completion in 2013.

Proponents of the new center say that by growing convention business, Nashville can reap economic benefits for tourism, jobs and downtown development. They also say that Nashville, with the 115th largest convention center in the country, is turning away business that the new convention center will allow it to accept.

Some, however, disagree with such predictions. Though the convention center will be much bigger than its existing facility, it won't be able to compete with those of other destinations such as Chicago (where the center is seven times larger) and Las Vegas (where it is five times larger).

"Nashville is not, nor will it ever be, in the top tier," Heywood Sanders, urban studies professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, told Nashville News.

This, combined with a slowing convention business and still-increasing supply, should be considered before going forward with the center, according to opponents.

These issues and more regarding the Music City Center will be discussed Sunday, May 31, in a debate between project supporter Butch Spyridon, president of the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau, and opponent Sanders.

It's a great year to host an event in Washington, DC. Thanks in great part to President Barack Obama, DC has been in the spotlight as a sought-after event destination, starting off with January's much talked-about Presidential Inauguration.

Now, Destination DC and the Walter E. Washington Convention Center have teamed up to offer event planners a president-themed DC meeting promotion. Just like the Reno-Sparks CVA's creative promotion, this offer pays homage to our 44th president by offering these incentives:

• 44 percent off the total convention center rental
• 44 meals up to $44 each
• Free drawing held at 4:44 PM daily for an 8 x 10 classic view photo of DC
• 44 free table top exhibits
• 44-minute reception, 44-cent wine and beer

These incentives are offered to planners who sign a contract in a hotel using 1,000 rooms on peak nights with meeting space at the Washington, DC convention center. Those who book an in-house meeting at one of 36 participating DC hotels can receive a variety of incentives as well, including 10 percent off food and beverage and free Internet within the room block.

Available May 2009 to March 2010, the 44 Power Savings gives planners a chance to save money while hosting an event in one of the most popular and powerful locations in the country. Visit Destination DC for more information.