On Tuesday, I had the honor of announcing that the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitor Association, with the support of the Baltimore Convention Center and our hotels, has booked a record 522,541 future room nights for Baltimore for Fiscal Year 2009. These future room nights are for group business meetings in Baltimore between 2009 and 2019. They are projected to generate over $725 million in future economic impact for the city. 
 
We are making tremendous progress in Baltimore. We've only just begun to reach our potential as a city and as a destination.  Despite the challenging economic times, BACVA's convention sales bookings have increased year-over-year for the past five years.  The greatest increases are Fiscal Year 2009 and Fiscal Year 2008.  In Fiscal Year 2008, the sales team booked 451,608 future room nights, 70,000 more room nights and an 18 percent increase over bookings in Fiscal Year 2007. 
 

A huge reason for this progress is a strategic move made last July to form the Baltimore Convention & Tourism Board, which is a joint board that oversees both BACVA and the Baltimore Convention Center. The Board is leading to better customer service and a seamless sales process.
 
We are also investing in our infrastructure, including the new 757 room Hilton Hotel which is connected to the Baltimore Convention Center via a pedestrian sky bridge.  Baltimore can now accommodate 75 percent of the large citywide tradeshow and convention business available in the marketplace, with 4,000 and 5,000 rooms available on peak nights.  This simply wasn't possible several years ago. 
 
We are taking advantage of this by hosting more sales events and hosting industry tradeshows and meetings such as the recent American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) healthcare conference, Center for Business Intelligence's Pharmaceutical Meeting Planners Forum, and the Delta Sigma Theta 2009 Eastern Regional Conference. These are events that bring convention planners from around the country to Baltimore to experience the city firsthand.

 

Congratulations BACVA!  This is just the beginning.