Athens CVB Newsletter May 2013

Athens Now:

The monthly newsletter of the Athens Convention & Visitors Bureau

In This Issue...

Sales Updates

Advertising & PR Updates

State Updates

Hospitality Newsmakers

CRM Updates

Small Business Summit

Sales Updates

For April, the CVB booked 20 future meetings/conventions with:

17,804 anticipated room nights
Expected attendance of 19,220
Projected direct spending of $11,148,524

Among many sales activities during April, the CVB hosted a site inspection for a potential major group that would bring 6,000 attendees to Athens in January, 2015.

Sales Director Tripp McKenney is continuing to pursue the sports market. He attended the National Association of Sports Commissions Sports Event Symposium in Louisville, KY, April 22-25, in partnership with Georgia Sports. Tripp has held recent site inspections for prospective sports events. Tripp reports that the event provided a tremendous networking opportunity and generated lots of interest in Athens from sports event producers and requests that Athens bid on these events.

Tripp, Kelli, and Christina attended the Georgia Society of Association Executives (GSAE) monthly luncheon in Atlanta on April 17. GSAE is a key target for the CVB, which will be advertising in the next 12 monthly enewsletters sent to these association executives. The CVB will be represented at the GSAE Annual Meeting May 29-31 in Augusta.

Advertising & PR Updates

The CVB has launched its summer advertising campaign, which includes placements on:

www.Atlanta.net
www.AJC.com
Athens-branded coffee sleeves, distributed at coffee shops throughout metro Atlanta
South Carolina Living magazine
Network of travel/cultural websites placed through Colllinson Media.

Total ad impressions between May and July: 4.6 million!

Hannah Smith, Director of Marketing and Communications, will represent Athens and the Historic Heartland travel region at the state's Travel Media Marketplace, taking place May 17-18 in Georgia's Lake Country (Eatonton-Madison-Lake Oconee). There will be informal networking opportunities in addition to meetings with up to 30 travel journalists.

State Updates

Georgia Tourism, a division of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, has announced that tourism demand generated $51.2 billion in business sales including direct, indirect and induced impact in 2012, up 4.6 percent, according to the U.S. Travel Association and Tourism Economics. This visitor spending generated $2.8 billion in state and local tax revenue to Georgia. Every Georgia household benefited from state and local tax savings of $767 as a result of the tourism industry's tax contribution.

"Georgia Tourism had its best year ever," said Kevin Langston, deputy commissioner for tourism for the Georgia Department of Economic Development. "With more than 405,000 jobs directly or indirectly sustained by tourism activities, our industry is responsible for 10.2 percent of all jobs in the state."

According to the U.S. Travel Association and Tourism Economics, Georgia's visitor impact now stands 12 percent higher than its pre-recession level in 2007.

Georgia continues to move forward with investing in our industry, as Governor Deal has signed into law House Bill 318, legislation that changes the procedures of the Georgia Tourism Development Act. The bill allows sales tax exemptions for certain approved projects in order to stimulate the creation of tourism attractions or the expansion of existing attractions.

"This legislation bolsters one of Georgia's most important industries," said Deal. "With these new incentives, we hope to grow the industry even more by encouraging the construction of new attractions."

Under the new law, each project is required to meet the follow criteria:

Must cost a minimum of $1 million
Must attract at least 25 percent of its visitors from out of state by its third year.
Must not directly compete with existing Georgia businesses.

The state's Tourism Division and the Athens CVB will stay on top of developments as the impact of the Tourism Development Act becomes clear, to ensure that existing and prospective Athens attractions can fully benefit from the new incentive.

Hospitality Newsmakers

Kelli McCain

Kelli McCain, CVB Sales Manager, has been named Event Coordinator of the Athens Area Chamber Ambassadors.

The Classic Center is pleased to introduce Valerie Duvall, new Assistant Theatre Manager.Valerie is from Greensboro, GA, and previously held marketing, public relations, and management roles at the Ritz-Carlton Lodge and Piedmont Financial Partners. Valerie will begin work in Athens at the end of May.

CRM Updates

The CVB is excited to be working with current website vendor Simpleview to implement a comprehensive Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM) system designed specifically for destination marketing organizations and used by about 200 CVBs. The CRM will launch for FY 14 and will be implemented for all markets and areas of CVB activities.

An Extranet feature allows local partners to update website listings, submit images and special offers, as well as to review and respond to meeting and convention leads. Additionally, a convention calendar and other live-time meeting and convention reports will be available via the Extranet. Look for more information and a training session this June or July.

Small Business Summit

Join us at the Small Business Summit, an all-day event for businesses on May 31st at The Classic Center. The Summit will provide businesses the opportunity to learn, connect, and be inspired through a range of breakout sessions, exhibits, roundtable discussions, networking events and more.

Steve Baker, VP of The Great Game of Business, will be the keynote speaker and will demonstrate "The Only Sensible Way to Run a Company."

For more information on the 2013 Small Business Summit or register for the event, please visit www.smallbizathens.com.

Exhibit space and a limited number of sponsorships are still available for those interested in the Small Business Resource Fair.

May 2013