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How To Attract Conventions & Travelers To Your Community
The next step is to develop a clear-cut proposal that addresses all issues. What do you have available in your community that will appeal to that company? Have you worked out time frames, restaurants, overnight accommodations if needed?
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Business New Haven
11/22/1999
By: Priscilla Searles
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Visitors help the economy of a community, no doubt. Every municipality wants to attract as many bodies as possible. Conventions, tour groups and leisure travelers are the bread and butter for the state's convention and visitors bureaus (CVBs).
But communities can't simply sit back and wait for the throngs to arrive; they must work, and work hard, to attract individuals and groups. A sound, broad-based marketing program has to be developed, and then implemented.
The first step in attracting visitors, regardless of whether they're business travelers or tourists, is to identify what resources are available. Visitors bureaus may then elect to focus effort on one or more visitor segments without leaving out others all together.
Conventions are always high on the preference list for cities with facilities for large groups. One way to attract conventions is for CVBs to themselves produce conventions. But what kind of convention? Develop ideas by getting impute from constituents - business people in your own community. What do they need to improve their own business prospects?
Conventions don't need to be aimed at huge industries. One example is the Greater Waterbury Convention & Visitors Bureau, which recently produced a bed-and-breakfast convention based on input from local businesses. If your area has a surfeit of antiques dealers, explore staging an antiques exhibition or appraisers show. Whatever the event, it should be appropriate for businesses in your area.
Once a concept has been established, identify and then create a vehicle that satisfies the need. Identify your capabilities: What are you realistically able to do? Can you do it yourself or should you hand the project off to another organization? If you are producing a convention yourself, what are you committing in terms of staff and budget?
Weigh the advantages versus the inevitable challenges it presents. Don't be afraid to operate outside the envelope, because that is will identify you as creative, and differentiate you from the pack.
Attracting motor coach (known outside of the tourism industry as “bus”) tours presents its own discrete challenges. Motor coach tour companies need to be identified and studied. What is their specialty? Do they concentrate on senior citizens, historic tours? Do your homework.
The next step is to develop a clear-cut proposal that addresses all issues. What do you have available in your community that will appeal to that company? Have you worked out time frames, restaurants, overnight accommodations if needed? Or perhaps you want to set up a tour that can be done in a few hours by a tour company that will be passing through your area on its way to another destination.
Because tours are planned with long lead times, it typically takes a number of years to attract a tour company to your area - and you are going to have to work at it. It's personal contact; it's politics. You have to build a relationship with the tour company.
Another area that is addressed by CVBs is the individual traveler or families who may take long weekends rather than the long vacations that were popular. Create packages that are convenient for families - with family pricing. Discounts are usually available for these tours, which can have a powerful appeal to a family trying to have a good time on a budget. Families want to know where they can eat, shop, park their car.
Don't forget the business traveler. What would you want available if you were in a new city on business? Providing local hotels with menus for area restaurants, maps to help the visitor get around the city, entertainment options, phone numbers - the list can be lengthy. If you can't handle putting this information in each hotel room, think about setting up displays in hotel lobbies. Most hotels want to be cooperative; it's good for their business, too.
No event or tour can be flawless. Problems arise. Don't get defensive when presented with a problem - apologize, and then fix it. After all, no one is perfect. Problems need to be dealt with immediately and efficiently. To help avoid most problems, pay attention to detail. It's often the little problems that get visitors upset.
Find your niche, meet the need - and you'll earn success.
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