Patrick Howard, 2010 Hospitality HEROES of the Year Winner

Mark your calendar and make plans to join us for our Annual Meeting and Hospitality Awards on Thursday, Sept. 22 at The Classic Center.  CVB Director Chuck Jones and staff will present the FY 11 annual tourism report and FY 12 program of work, as well as state updates from the Georgia Governor's Tourism Conference, to be held earlier in September.   In addition, the Annual Athens Hospitality Awards will be presented.  Nominate a deserving front-line employee or hospitality leader today!  Nominations are due by Friday, August 26.
 

Nomination form

The CVB Advisory Board will meet quarterly, with future meetings scheduled in December, March, and June.  As always, we strive to develop programming that is relevant to the local hospitality industry, and we welcome your feedback on the type of content and programs that would best serve you.  

We've already gotten great feedback on our relaunched VisitAthensGA.com website.  Have you taken a look yet? There are more opportunities for promoting local hospitality businesses, attractions, and hotels than ever before.  So, send us your  

• Photos,
• Events,
• Special offers,
• YouTube video links, and
• Meeting space schematics

to complete your listing.  FREE for Athens-Clarke County entities!
Use the online forms linked above, or send to hsmith@VisitAthensGA.com.

If you'd like to learn more about how to gain maximum exposure on VisitAthensGA.com, plan to attend a demo and Q&A session on Tuesday, Sept. 6 at 8 a.m., at The Classic Center.  RSVP to Hannah Smith.

The CVB's  meetings and conventions division exceeded its FY 11 goal of 45,000 booked future room nights, with year-end booking of 46,452. This accomplishment is particularly impressive in light of the recession.

For FY11, the CVB was able to track 143,502 actualized delegate days.  This is calculated by the number of attendees for a conference or convention times the number of days they will be in the community. 

M&C business continues to trend upward.  We are seeing more groups booking business in the year for the year and in some cases, they are booking less than six months out.

In July, Mark Adams and Jayne Tannenbaum visited six annual state conferences currently held in other locations in hopes of bringing them to Athens in the future. 

The CVB has also attended the GSAE and GaMPI summer luncheons in Atlanta.

Georgia Tourism and the Georgia Council for the Arts have combined resources to offer Tourism Product Development (TPD) Grants for the state's 2012 fiscal year. This year's TPD grants are worth up to $20,000 and will cover a broader range of brick and mortar plus arts projects than ever before.