Meeting News - October 20, 2008 - (Page 15)

CVBs Economy Short-Circuits SDCVB’s Expansion Plans The plan was to add managers to source new U.S. meetings business and eventually enlist two more personnel to prospect business in Asia and Europe, but that was until the bottom dropped out of Zoom Airlines in late August—taking down with it San Diego’s only Europeandirect service—and then Wall Street crumbled shortly thereafter. Now, the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau will have to go into 2009 far more prudently. “Before the economic trials and tribulations,” said Margie Sitton, SDCVB’s senior vice president of sales, “we were to go aggressively after the international market. Zoom’s London (Gatwick)-to-San Diego route gave us a lot of enthusiasm—until it went down—and we were doing our due diligence in China and Korea. Of course, that’s all changed.” Domestically, the bureau had intended to hire and deploy six new national sales directors in Dallas, Sacramento, southern California, and a fourth strategic location. Instead, it will look to fortify core accounts using its existing sales directors in the Northeast and Midwest. “We’ll make sure our domestic markets are taken care of first,” said Sitton, formerly senior VP of sales and marketing for Starwood Hotels & Resorts, who herself was recently hired. Most of the SDCVB’s new ventures are on the back burner indefinitely. The bureau is not alone, as the effects of the Wall Street crisis and the economy, now in real threat of plunging into recession, are forcing both companies (Oct. 6 MN cover story) and hospitality suppliers (see Gaming, p. 48) into retrenchment. A client event at Wembley Stadium in London will still go through as planned on Oct. 26, when the San Diego Chargers play the New Orleans Saints in the NFL’s second-ever regular-season game outside North America. “From a leisure standpoint, England is a strong market for us, and we’ve invited U.K. group customers and planners to the Chargers event,” Sitton said. “We’ll have a suite at the game, and we’ve given away plenty of tickets.” Also, at least two SDCVB officials including president and CEO David Peckinpaugh will join the California Travel & Tourism Commission at IMEX 2009 in Frankfurt, May 26-28. They’ll have a booth, as they did at the last IMEX, which was held this past April. At IMEX, “Steve Schell [VP of sales] found U.S. business there,” Sitton cracked, but the plan will be to pitch overseas leisure and group buyers the pleasant year-round weather and atmosphere that San Diego is known for, until more concerted efforts can resume. r JUST OPENED Please your LEFT and RIGHT brain. September 2008 think RALEIGH. www.meetingnews.com October 20, 2008 MeetingNews 15 http://visitraleigh.com http://visitraleigh.com http://www.meetingnews.com

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Meeting News - October 20, 2008

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