Destination Cleveland, a private, non-profit convention and visitors bureau, has one of the best jobs in the city: we get to spend every day helping more people discover the real Cleveland. As unapologetic promoters of Cleveland, we work to fulfill our mission to stimulate economic growth by attracting people and connecting them to experiences that illustrate Cleveland’s diversity, creativity, and contagious passion.
Destination Cleveland: What We Do
It's our job to get travelers to choose Cleveland. Then we help them figure out what to see, do and eat. This is the story of how we do it.
So, how do you define a visitor?
Good question – we get pretty specific about how to define a visitor because we hold ourselves accountable to our hotel and hospitality partners.
Visitors are anyone who comes to Cleveland to stay at one of our hotels or drives more than 50 miles for a day trip – that means anyone who comes to Cleveland on a temporary basis for business or leisure. This includes everyone from a group of friends on vacation, an executive on business, an attendee of a convention, a family going to a reunion or even your Aunt Mary in town to celebrate Dyngus Day. We could go on forever.
How Does Destination Cleveland Get Visitors to Come to Cleveland?
Destination Cleveland markets and advertises in cities where we attract the most leisure visitors including places like Pittsburgh, Columbus, Chicago, Detroit and Cincinnati. We do this through a variety of advertising efforts (online, print, TV, radio, etc.), promotional activities (contests, giveaways, newsletters, etc.) public relations and social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.).
The meetings and conventions market is our other main way to get visitors to come to Cleveland. By working with meeting planners and our hotel partners we can attract a meeting or convention that ranges in size from 150 to 10,000 people.
We bring in meetings, tradeshows and conferences to the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland, as well as alternate venues. We have a dedicated sales force that has long-standing relationships with meeting planners from all over the country.
And, in case you didn’t know, for every $1 Destination Cleveland spends advertising Cleveland, leisure and business travelers return $195 to the community in spending during their visits.
What Else Does Destination Cleveland Do?
We’re glad you asked.
Advocacy
Destination Cleveland also is the primary advocate for the travel, tourism and hospitality industries here in Cleveland. We support the 65,000+ small business jobs and $8.1 billion of economic impact from the tourism industry in Cuyahoga County.
Support
We support major citywide initiatives and events like the USA Triathlon, FRONT International Triennial for Contemporary Art, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, NCAA Women’s Final Four, the RNC bid, the US Figure Skating Championships, etc.