Baltimore is going to help put Fort Worth on the map ? and vice versa.
As part of a groundbreaking deal with the Fort Worth Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association has signed a deal to create two dual-sales positions. This pair of new jobs, equally paid for by BACVA and the Fort Worth CVB, will market both Baltimore and Fort Worth simultaneously.
The rationale behind the deal is to create two jobs for the price of one.
“The partnership is an extremely efficient and strategic approach to attract meetings and conventions in this competitive environment,” said Hannah Byron, assistant secretary for tourism, film and the arts for the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development. “It has been effective in other cities.”
Through the deal, the two new sales representatives will market both Baltimore and Fort Worth equally, with the hope being that they can bring a convention to one city one year, and then have it switch the next. One of the positions, which has already been filled by BACVA, will focus on East Coast groups, pharmaceutical companies and corporate events, while the other open position will work on incentive deals for Midwest businesses.
By having similar hotel chains in each city, and a similar nearby convention-booking competitor in Gaylord Hotels, the bureaus are banking on their physical similarities complementing their cultural diversity.
“What they are doing [in Fort Worth] is building a lot of hotel product like we are,” said Tom Noonan, president and chief executive officer of BACVA. “Other cities have events together, like a dinner between Seattle, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh to get more clients, but I don?t think they have ever shared sales like how we are going to take it to another level.”
Aside from the new partnership, BACVA also announced that it had exceeded its goal of 360,000 total room bookings during fiscal 2006, which ended Saturday. In the spring, Noonan increased his goal to 370,000 and on Monday said BACVA has exceeded its goal with 381,000 bookings.
He added that by 2008, when the new Hilton is set to open, BACVA?s goal would be 425,000 bookings throughout the year.
