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TomNoonan President and CEO Visit Baltimore
As the group travel market continues its slow but steady return to health, what will your destination be doing to remain competitive? One of the first things we’re doing, which we’re very excited about, is hostingAIBTM. It’s an opportunity for Baltimore to show 3,000 meetingplanners this summer how much this city has changed. I’ll give you an example: Sherman’s Travel mag- azine listed Baltimore in 2007 and 2010 as the No. 1 most underrated destination in America.We’ve had about $11 bil- lion in development in our downtown in the last 10 to 15 years. Oneof our greatest challenges is letting peopleknowhowmuch we’ve changed. We’re very compact.Froma competitive standpoint, a 5,000-
to 5,500-room citywide in downtown won’t require one shuttle bus. And a lot of our competitors on the East Coast can’t say that. From an infrastructure standpoint,
there’s active conversation going on right nowabout a convention-center expansion aswell asanarenaproject,whichwouldbe built as part of the center. There’s a lot of support for this project in the community.
What valuable lessons or good habits with respect to the meetings business have you learned over the past two years? We’ve had some short-term problems like everyone else because the economy’s dropped and business travel is down, but if you look at Baltimore for the last five years— from a group-booking perspective—we’ve doubled our sales funnel.AndI don’t thinkmany cities in America can say they’ve done that.We’ve created a new joint board overVisit Baltimore and the convention center, and we’ve added more hoteliers to that board.We’ve developed a better business model and a bet- ter teamapproach.We’ve learned howto work better with our partners.We’re tryingto deliver a better meeting experience and value formeetingplanners. The CertifiedTourismAmbassador program is just one example of the investment we’ve made to give our meeting attendees a better experience in Baltimore. We’ve hired a full-time marketing managerwhoworks in our
sales department. Her job is to call on those customerswho have committed to Baltimore to help them market their show and increase their number of attendees.
68 pcma convene January 2011
LEADERSHIP PROFILE
Getting the word out about the ‘No. 1 most underrated destination inAmerica’
What innovations in the realm of social media/ networking and technology in general will your destination be pursuing in 2011? We have two websites: www.baltimore.org and www.visit mybaltimore.com—which is Facebook, YouTube, and Twit- ter, all bundled together. And we have what we call “The Bal- timore Buzz Brigade”—about 20 people here in the city who are really involved in social media.We feed content to those peo- ple and they feed it out to their networks.We already have an iPhone and BlackBerry app, and we’ve added augmented real- ity for those apps so you can point your phone in a direction and it will showyou our members; say, a restaurant, so you can look at the menu and make reservations.We’re doingQR codes as well.We’ve also got a five-kiosk program in the works around town. The kiosk in the convention center will also be a cell- phone charging station.
What is your destination doing to help planners meet their goals for sustainability and corporate social responsibility? Our convention center is becoming LEED-certified, we have a new, 18,000- square-foot green roof for outdoor events, and the Hilton also has a green roof.We have new, free hybrid buses in down- town.We’ve also developed a program for corporate voluntourism. If you’re an
association meetingin Baltimore, we’ll hook you up with our partners and they’ll help design a program for your group.
What will be the top destination-selection criteria for meeting planners in 2011? Value and the experience.We’re still in a buyer’s market right now, so if you need to find a destination at discounted rates, you’ll be able to find that.But it’s really about giving your atten- dees a great experience.
CHARMED LIFE: Downtown Baltimore, Tom Noonan said, has had “about $11 billion in development in the last 10 to 15 years.”