Meeting News - September 8, 2008 - (Page 29)

CVBs Dallas Creates African-American Marketing Campaign The Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau, working with the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce, has debuted a marketing campaign focused on attracting AfricanAmerican tourism to the city. It has released both a new website and visitors guide concentrating on cultural attractions and interests like the Dallas Black Dance Theatre and promoting dining, entertainment, and shopping destinations to African-American leisure and business travelers. Although the pages of www. visitblackdallas.com are branded according to the Dallas bureau’s current “Live Large. Think Big.” campaign, all of the website’s features, resources, and information are distinctly for African Americans. The site is the latest among recent CVB microsites catering to specific tourism market sectors. Dallas’ initiative is similar to the Houston CVB’s strategy to attract Latino visitors with a Spanishlanguage website. “The African-American experience is woven throughout the city’s performing, visual, and culinary arts; religions; architecture; customs; and politics,” said Phillip Jones, president and CEO of the Dallas CVB. “We take great pride that the city is among the top choices for [African-American] meetings.” Visitors guide (inset) showcases the Dallas Black Dance Theatre. MeetingNews Q&A: Tom Norwalk Moves On Up in Seattle While Tom Norwalk may be new to the top spot at the Seattle Convention & Visitors Bureau, he’s hardly a stranger to the bureau or the city. A former sales and marketing vice president of the SCVB, he is a Seattle native and has a quarter-century of experience in the service industry, including at the Seattle Hospitality Group and the Golf Club at Newcastle. Now SCVB president and CEO, Norwalk shares his views on bureau membership, the city’s convention space, and spending of Seattle’s hotel tax revenues. Atlanta Freshens Up Staffed Visitors Center at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport Atlanta meeting attendees and conventioneers can get some lastminute tips on the destination right after they pick up their bags, now that the city’s CVB has reopened a visitors center at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Located between the North and South terminals of the baggage claim area, the visitors center is staffed with an employee and has printed information and six flatscreen monitors welcoming groups and displaying happenings in the city. The Atlanta CVB has three other visitors centers, at the Georgia World Congress Center, Georgia Aquarium, and Underground Atlanta. r www.meetingnews.com Q A What are your biggest challenges, taking over the CVB? strong advocates about the need for a new convention center. First and foremost, we need to keep the momentum going. We’ve had a great run over the last five years or so, from new hotel development to an incredibly busy convention center. We need to continue to focus on the right kinds of convention business for the city. How do you specifically intend to pitch Seattle as a convention destination? The main pitch is to continue to do what we are doing so well right now with the business that fits the convention center, such as medical, health, technology, and education groups. That’s not going to change, but we certainly will be QIs A that absolutely necessary? We need to educate our politicians about the importance of the tourism and convention business. One way to do that is to show them a very robust and growing membership base. Q A It is. Our center is now one of the smallest in our competitive niche. There are discussions starting about where it should be located— maybe at the Seattle Center—how it’s going to be paid for, and then the size, with 500,000 sf at minimum. So far, it’s preliminary, but it’s a logical next step for us. What about building CVB membership? Q A I understand that the legislature recently moved to divert hotel tax revenues into the state’s general coffers. Because the convention center has been so successful, it was a fairly easy target for the legislature to take some of the money for other purposes. That’s been a lightning rod for the entire industry in that we have got to do a better job telling the story about the employment statistics and tax revenues derived from tourism and conventions. —Marc Boisclair MeetingNews 29 Q A Growing membership and being aggressive in doing that, that’s very important. We have a bit of an issue now in terms of funding. September 8, 2008 http://www.visitblackdallas.com http://www.visitblackdallas.com http://www.meetingnews.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Meeting News - September 8, 2008

Meeting News - September 8, 2008 Contents Letters to the Editor What's Up @ MeetingNews.com Social Scene People Making News Hotels & Resorts Convention Centers CVBs International Green Beat Insider Report: Golf Destination Insider MN Webcast Report Advertisers Index Live from the Forum Mexico Hawaii

Meeting News - September 8, 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.