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TOOLS TO ATTRACT VISITORS
TO YOUR CITY CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU
THE CHALLENGE
To attract more visitors and tourists to your city.
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WHAT IS A CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU?
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF CREATING A CVB?
HOW TO CREATE A CVB?
WEB RESOURCES
EXAMPLES
WHAT IS A CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU?
A Convention and Visitors Bureau(CVB) is as a local tourism marketing organization that specializes in planning and organizing conventions, meetings, conferences and visits to a city, county or region. The range of services provided by a CVB is wider than that provided by a tourism information center but usually includes services of the latter. The size of a CVB, its assets, and menu of services is specific to each city’s attractions, transport routes, available facilities, and resources. CVBs have proven to be effective tools for tourism attraction in many foreign cities but, to the best of our knowledge, have yet to be organized in Ukraine.
Services provided by CVB
CVBs provide a wide variety of services from comprehensive event planning assistance to more narrow and select support functions. The most common services provided by CVBs include support of corporate, city and special events as well as housing, transportation and tour services.
Corporate events. CVBs can help organizations arrange conferences, exhibitions, trainings, seminars, and staff retreats. Each CVB should provide a full list of services to its clients to help them decide what type of assistance to request. At the planning stage, a CVB can help the client locate a venue and make equipment and catering arrangements. If the CVB does not have its own facilities, it should provide a list of possible vendors and help the client in the negotiation process. It is helpful if a CVB has preliminary agreements with vendors to provide event facilities.
After settling on a venue, the CVB can send invitations, register participants, print name tags, and prepare welcome bags containing city guides, maps, promotional materials, and other city information. Depending on the needs of the client, a CVB can provide assistance in developing the program for the event by planning and scheduling tours and activities and even inviting speakers. If the customer wishes to promote or advertise the event, a CVB can prepare and distribute press releases, place advertisements into local newspapers, invite media representatives, or organize press conferences. The CVB services list should also include assistance with making hotel, transportation, and catering arrangements. A sample list of services from the CVB in Longview, Texas (USA) is presented below.
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Example 1 – CVB Services for Corporate and Other Large Meetings, Longview, Texas
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Regardless of the client’s specific needs, a CVB should be one of the first points of contact for an organization planning a corporate event and must be responsible for the quality of services provided. It is easier and less time consuming for clients to obtain all necessary information in one place and to deal with one person responsible for the entire planning process.
City and special events. A CVB can help promote its city as an ideal place for various types of special activities, such as children’s programs, weddings, reunions, or friends’ programs.
Below is an example of wedding services provided by the CVB in New Orleans, USA.
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Example 2 – CVB Wedding Services, New Orleans, Louisiana The CVB is a non-profit organization that offers complimentary assistance with group accommodations, marriage licensing information, wedding event venues, caterers, florists and more. We can help you or your client:
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Festivals, fairs, and sporting events also attract visitors and their families and friends to the city. A CVB can provide some of the same types of services to organizers of such events as it does to corporate clients. It can help its local government or other host organization develop a program for the event, invite guests, design and print promotional materials, and provide logistics services for event attendees.
Housing, transportation and tour services. A CVB should be able to provide information about all the temporary housing options in the city. It can also offer booking assistance for a set number of visitors or for large groups only. For example, the Housing Bureau of the CVB in Savannah, Georgia, USA services groups using three or more hotels with 500 or more rooms on peak nights. It helps clients obtain necessary information and design housing forms. It also mails housing acknowledgements letting delegates know that their reservations have been processed and provides reports on room pick-up and delegate listings.
Transportation services can be provided for larger groups but single visitors should at least be able to obtain reliable information about taxis, rental cars, and public transportation. Since there is something unique to show or tell about each city, a CVB should have readily-available information about city tours or consider providing its own city excursion if this service is not available.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF CREATING A CVB?
A CVB is a good economic development tool, which can help increase the number of visitors and the amount of money spent in a city thereby fostering local economic growth. CVB’s are good marketers for a city, and if properly run, provide a wealth of information about the city’s attractions and amenities. Corporate visitors and group tourists have numerous options of what cities they could visit. The easier it is for such groups to plan and organize activities in a given city, the more likely they’ll choose that city as a destination over others. Overall, since CVB’s greatly facilitate group visits to a city, they play a large role in ensuring the health of the city’s tourism, hospitality, sports and meeting industries for the continued economic benefit of the community. For example, the Edinburgh Convention Bureau, a well-run organization in the United Kingdom, generated over £37 million for the local economy in 2004. Another successful case is presented below by the San Franciso CVB in the United States.
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Example 3 - CVB Benefits, San Francisco, California “Ultimately, we measure our success by our ability to attract visitors to San Francisco. Overnight visitors are a priority, as they generate the greatest return for all segments of the community. Since 2002, San Francisco has seen its number of visitors – and the money they spend – increase steadily year over year. Visitors to San Francisco (in millions) Visitor spending (in billions) Additionally, in 2004, visitors to San Francisco generated $347 million in taxes and supported 61,300 industry jobs and a payroll of $1.53 billion.” 4 |
1. Organize a working group. The first step in organizing a CVB is to bring together a group of qualified and committed people to work on the issue of institutionalizing visitor attraction. Creation of a CVB should be an initiative of the city, which should put together a list of relevant city stakeholders. Representatives of those stakeholders will become the members of the working group that develops a strategy for the CVB, and later the members of the Advisory Board of a created CVB.
2. Analyze city resources and potential. The CVB working group should define and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the city’s potential to attract visitors as well as estimate the approximate market size for CVB services. Based on this analysis, the working group should develop a simple strategy articulating strategic objectives and targets for the CVB. All further concrete budgeting and marketing efforts should be based on this analysis and strategy. The mission and vision of the CVB should be defined at the beginning of the strategy. A sample mission statement from the CVB in Seattle, USA is provided below.
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Example 4 - CVB Mission Statement, Seattle, Washington State Seattle’s Convention and Visitors Bureau is a non-profit economic development agency responsible for competitively marketing the Seattle area as a destination for conventions, tour groups and individual travelers. The goal of these marketing efforts is to enhance the employment opportunities and economic prosperity of the region. Our members benefit from the Bureau’s marketing programs and gain direct access to the visitor market.5 |
3. Develop a list of services and a rough budget. Based on the analysis of what the city can offer visitors and the CVB strategy, the working group should create a list of services that the city can easily provide using available resources. It is also useful to create a wish list, which includes services that can be developed to supplement or widen the assortment. Those services can be developed later, according to priority and resources available. The list can be ambitious but has to be realistic.
The list of services should inform the creation of an indicative budget that will estimate how much the services will cost and the potential revenues of sales from the services. This budget will help determine how much the CVB will cost the city and will serve to inform strategic decisions in the future. The CVB budget may require preliminary agreement from the city council because it could carry direct implications for the city budget.
4. Choose an organizational model and structure. CVBs around the world have adopted several different organizational models ranging from fully public to semi-public to fully private entities, which all operate on a non-profit basis. The type of model chosen by different cities has largely depended on the potential size of the consumer market for CVB services. If the size of the market is small and there is no guarantee that minimum targets will be met, cities have found it practical to organize CVBs as city-owned enterprises or, in some cases, as semi-public non-profit NGOs that receive tax benefits along with annual scopes or work and subsides from public budgets. Local and regional governments have reaped benefits from CVB operations even when the market potential has been fairly low because CVBs help maximize that potential by attracting more visitors to pay local taxes and generate revenues for city budgets. Having large financial stakes in CVBs has also allowed local governments to exercise maximum control over their operations.
In cities with larger and more stable visitor markets and sizeable hospitality industries, semi-public CVBs representing partnerships between municipalities and local entrepreneurs are more common. The former International Association of Convention and Visitor Bureaus, currently the Western Association of Convention and Visitor Bureaus, suggests that this organizational model, having operations that “are funded by sources from both the private and public sectors, from strategic alliance relationships and from key internal profit centers”9 is ideal for the CVB of the 21st Century. One of the most common examples of a semi-public CVB is when the local government provides facilities and equipment while other tourism industry stakeholders, mainly hospitality vendors, finance the majority of CVB operations through membership fees in return for marketing and other special services. These services may include advertising on the CVB website and in print promotional materials, invitations to special events, exhibition space at special rates, and access to research information. An example of a welcome membership letter is provided below for the city of Nashville, USA. The local government can also contribute to CVB operational financing by outsourcing certain tasks, such as creating and updating city profiles, thereby guaranteeing minimum incomes for CVB employees throughout the year.
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Example 6 – Fee-based Membership Welcome to CVB, Nashville, Tennessee The Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau is pleased to share the latest initiative in our long-term goal to grow Nashville’s Hospitality industry from $3 to $5 billion. On February 1, we will launch the 1st membership campaign in the history of our organization in order to broaden the community-wide awareness and support of this ever-growing industry. We are asking you to join as a “charter member” in order to set a leadership standard that will ensure the future success of this program. There has been a great deal of discussion throughout the community regarding the value of the hospitality industry and its role in the economic vitality of our city. Broad-support of the NCVB from the business community will ensure our success and our continued role in building a great city.6 |
Cities with large CVB market potential can attract enough private sector interest to set up fully private CVBs or create public-private partnerships where the private side wholly finances CVB start-up and operations. Such possibilities often exist when the CVB is part of or connected to a larger project of building a Convention Center, which can bring many conferences and exhibitions to the city and, with them, purchases of goods and services for lodging, dinning, entertainment, retail, transportation, and business needs. A city with large conference potential can attract a private investor or a consortium of investors to build a Convention Center and a CVB by offering a strategic plot of land and the right to build on it. The private investor can then become the owner of the CVB and use profits from conventions generated by the Bureau to finance its operations. Alternatively, a share of the CVB operational budget can be financed through membership dues of hospitality vendors and through purchase of Bureau services by the city government. The public-private partnership deal between the city and the investor can also follow the build-operate-transfer model where the investor would build and operate the Convention Center on government-allocated land and then, after about 20 years, transfer ownership back to the local government.
The organizational structure of a CVB, including the number of employees and their qualifications, also depends on the particular range of services and the anticipated number of visitors to the city. To operate effectively, CVB employees should have marketing, client relations, event planning, communication, web and promotional materials development, and administration skills. Each city should have its own model and decide whether to employ people with these skills on a full- or part-time basis, contract external companies, or use volunteer services. Additionally, the various skills of Advisory Board members should be used effectively in operating the CVB. The Advisory Board should also ensure that the CVB has a clear mission and objectives as well as an approved plan to achieve them. The example below shows the organizational structure chosen by the CVB in Pittsburgh, USA.
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Example 7 – CVB Organizational Structure, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania The Pittsburgh CVB is managed by the Board of Directors and Executive Staff. The CVB has six Departments in its organizational structure:
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5. Find a site and facility structure for the CVB. The kind of facilities needed for a CVB mostly depends on the menu of services that it plans to provide. Some city CVBs have big trade and convention centers, where they can hold large exhibitions and private parties. Other CVBs only host small conferences and seminars. At a minimum, a CVB must have an equipped place for meetings and catering as well as office space for personnel providing informational and organizational services. If a CVB is not able to meet certain customer requirements, it would be useful to have information about companies that can. An important factor to consider is the location of the CVB within the city. The CVB should be situated in a central or easily accessible area to minimize the amount of travel time for visitors.
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Example 8 – CVB Facilities, Savannah, Georgia Savannah International Trade and Convention Center offers meeting and exhibition space with fantastic views of the bustling waterfront. You’ll find some very contemporary meeting sites. The 330,000 square foot Savannah International Trade and Convention Center offers meeting and exhibition space with fantastic views of the bustling waterfront. In the heart of the Historic District, the Savannah Civic Center features 25,000 square feet of exhibit space; Several other local sites offer at least 10,000 square feet of space and boast more than 10,000 hotel rooms.8 |
6. Promote and advertise. All the above will be useless without letting potential customers know about the services provided by the CVB. Different channels and means can be used to spread this information: promotional brochures and booklets, advertisement in special printed media and TV, direct mail, and, of course, opportunities of modern technologies and the Internet. It is very important to have a smartly designed web site for the CVB. At the minimum, the site should contain the following information: list of services offered, characteristics of available meeting facilities, information on housing and transportation, calendar of the city’s events, and contact information. Some existing CVB web sites link the calendar of events with facilities occupied for the events. It allows potential clients to see whether it is possible to have an event on a certain date at a certain venue. Some CVB web sites have special forms that clients can fill out online to request the information they need. Web addresses of select CVB web sites in the U.S. and Europe can be found in the Web Resources section below.
7. Put together a marketing plan. All steps listed above should be incorporated into the CVB’s marketing plan. The marketing plan will be a guiding document for all further work. As any other marketing plan, the plan for a CVB should begin with the mission and goal of the organization. After careful analysis, all further concrete marketing programs should be developed and listed. For example, the Longview CVB Marketing Plan consists of seven categories of marketing programs: convention sales, convention services, visitors’ services, tourism sales, special events, communication/public relations, and advertising. You can see Longview’s CVB Marketing Plan in the Examples section below.
1. http://www.visitlongviewtexas.com/ - The web site of the Longview Convention and Visitors Bureau.
2. http://www.neworleanscvb.com/ - The web site of the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau.
3. http://onlysf.sfvisitor.org/ - The web site of the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau.
4. http://www.seeseattle.org/ - The web site of the Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau.
5. http://www.musiccityusa.com/ - The web site of the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau.
6. http://www.mcvb.com.au/bureau-home.aspx - The web site of the Melbourne Convention and Visitors Bureau.
7. http://www.visitpittsburgh.com/ - The web site of the Pittsburg Convention and Visitors Bureau.
8. http://www.savannah-visit.com/- The web site of the CVB in the city of Savannah.
9. http://www.iacvb.org/iacvb/resource_center/pdf/futures_proj_sum.pdf - The site of the former International Association of Convention and Visitor Bureaus, now the Western Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus whose new web site is http://www.wacvb.com/
10. http://www.traveldailynews.com/makeof.asp?central_id=766&permanent_id=17- An article on the results of a study on “Financing Convention Bureaux: A Comparison of US-Based and Non-US CVBs.
11. http://www.conventionedinburgh.com/overview/ - The web site for Edinburgh Convention Bureau Ltd.
Longview’s CVB Marketing Plan (PDF file)
