Visit Baltimore Annual Report FY 2019-2020 2019 | Page 11

SPOTLIGHT ON: THE CONVENTION SALES DEVELOPMENT PROJECT During FY19, Visit Baltimore partnered with a third party to create a more tactical booking strategy, called the “Convention Sales Development Project.” We worked in partnership with the local hotel community to analyze historical performance and clearly define what success looks like. Dustin Arnheim, Visit Baltimore’s new VP of Convention Sales and Services will be leading this initiative moving forward. As a next step in this process, the Visit Baltimore sales team will rate all future business based on the factors we heard to be most important BIG WIN Baltimore Tourism Improvement District to local hotels: pattern, rate, pickup and time of year. With these ratings in hand, we can and will be more strategic with our sales outreach and incentives and drive the most impact for you. It also allows us to maximize any holes in our calendar. In May 2019, Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young signed the Baltimore Tourism Improvement District (BTID) ordinance into law as part of an event at City Hall celebrating the economic impact of tourism and the start of National Travel & Tourism Week. The signing marked another significant step forward for Visit Baltimore and the City’s hotel community in its collaborative efforts to increase supplemental funding for destination sales and marketing initiatives. Forming a BTID allows Baltimore to be more effective in selling and promoting our destination and will help Visit Baltimore receive funding up to $7M per fiscal year. Visit Baltimore hopes to begin collecting funds before the end of 2019. 9