CLEVELAND (March 12, 2019) –
Destination Cleveland, the destination marketing and management organization for Cuyahoga County, announced today at its annual meeting the organization’s vision to
Harness the Power of the Visitor to help accelerate the community’s growth. By leveraging its expertise in attracting people to the city and collaborating with other organizations, Destination Cleveland will work to ultimately convert visitors into residents and business investors for the region.
“When people come to Cleveland as a leisure or business visitor, their perceptions often change dramatically while they are here,” said David Gilbert, Destination Cleveland’s president and CEO. “For years, the success of destination promotion has been judged primarily – if not exclusively – on dollars spent and jobs supported by visitors. It’s time to elevate that thinking if we’re going to advance as a community. We need to transform short-term visitor investments into long-term business and resident investments – convincing visitors to choose Cleveland as a place to live, work, study or retire.”
To realize this vision, Destination Cleveland is pursuing new initiatives that will use business and leisure visits as a platform to introduce the concept of Cleveland as a destination for long-term investment. For example, the organization is developing an aggressive and targeted approach to attracting meetings, conventions and business events that align with the region’s primary industries. Destination Cleveland is also determining how to most effectively reach special event visitors with messages about Cleveland’s livability when they are here.
“By communicating with business and leisure visitors while they are in town, there is a greater chance that they might consider visiting again or may be more open to thinking of Cleveland as a place to live or invest,” continued Gilbert. “We’ve studied models in other cities around the world and are leveraging our learnings from a number of pilot projects we’ve pursued over the last 12 months. But, it’s going to take a community-wide effort to achieve this vision – from hospitality partners continually providing a world-class visitor experience to companies, organizations and individuals working together to advance the community’s agenda.”
2018 ORGANIZATION SUCCESS
Prior to announcing the vision, Destination Cleveland Board of Directors Chairman Dan Walsh shared key results from the organization’s work in 2018 and emphasized the organization’s commitment to doing more to help ensure a positive future for the community.
Convention Sales
Destination Cleveland’s convention sales team continued to generate increases resulting from ongoing efforts to attract conventions and business-related events to Cleveland. The sales team achieved an 18 percent increase in definite room night bookings, representing nearly 300,000 definite room nights for events in future years. The organization also reported that lead volume for meetings in future years remains strong.
Marketing and Communications
In 2018, marketing and communications efforts to support the Cleveland brand were bolstered to further change Cleveland’s narrative as a place to visit. The integrated efforts reached nearly
1.4 billion people nationally, internationally and in the target cites of Pittsburgh, Columbus, Cincinnati, Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia through paid advertising, social media and earned media stories.
Destination Development & Community Affairs
Destination Cleveland’s Destination Development and Community Affairs team launched the Cleveland Experiences program to assist residents in identifying and leveraging their own assets to create authentic Cleveland experiences. This team also organized and helped conduct a listening and learning tour with more than 400 individuals representing more than 250 organizations.
Blockland Solutions Conference
Team members from all Destination Cleveland departments worked to make the first Blockland Solutions Conference last December a success. The conference had a 98 percent positive experience rating from more than 1,400 attendees.
Walsh also presented three area residents with awards and introduced new members of Destination Cleveland’s Board of Directors.
Held at the Agora Theatre & Ballroom, guests enjoyed live entertainment and a cocktail reception following the meeting. The organization is appreciative of the support of all its partners, particularly those that worked together to put on today’s event. Destination Cleveland would like to thank
Fox Sports Ohio/ Fox SportsTime Ohio for serving as the presenting sponsor of the annual meeting as well as the other event sponsors:
Angstrom Graphics,
Dominion Energy Ohio,
Enterprise Rent-A-Car,
iHeartMedia,
Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District,
United Airlines and
Watershed Distillery.
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ABOUT DESTINATION CLEVELAND: Destination Cleveland is Cleveland’s destination marketing and management organization. This private, non-profit organization’s mission is to drive economic impact and stimulate community vitality for Greater Cleveland through leisure and business travel. Cleveland welcomes 18.5 million visitors annually. For more information, visit www.thisiscleveland.com.