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Naples, Marco Island, Everglades CVB Kicks Off New Campaign Encouraging Locals to —Bring Your Meetings Home”
July 16, 2009

New Campaign to Stimulate Meetings Business

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Media Contacts:

Jack Wert, jackwert@colliergov.net, 239-252-2402


Naples, Marco Island, Everglades CVB Kicks Off New Campaign Encouraging Locals to —Bring Your Meetings Home”

New Campaign to Stimulate Meetings Business


Naples, Fla. (July 16, 2009) – The challenges of today’s economy and changing attitudes toward business travel have taken a toll on the meetings industry worldwide. Here in Collier County, meetings and conferences represent a vital part of the tourism industry mix. With corporate, association and other group meetings representing approximately 35% of the annual visitor impact locally, the Naples, Marco Island, Everglades Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) has launched a new grassroots campaign called Bring Your Meetings Home with hopes of stimulating the meetings business and boosting the local economy.


—With Bring Your Meetings Home, we hope to encourage Collier County residents and business people to spread the word about the benefits and value of holding meetings in Collier County to all of their business and personal contacts through their own association memberships, corporate contacts and social affiliations,” said Jack Wert, executive director of the CVB. —Word of mouth is an effective means of selling in today’s marketplace, and we’d like to educate the local populace so that absolutely every opportunity is acted upon to suggest our destination for a meeting.”


According to Collier County’s May visitation research, meeting and business-related travel is down 23% compared to May 2008 with corporate group business hit the hardest. The trend is expected to continue for the next few years and the Bring Your Meetings Home campaign is an effort to galvanize the local community to proactively suggest our area as a meetings destination to all of their contacts, so that local hotels, restaurants, retail and other businesses can keep people employed and remain in business.


The Convention and Visitors Bureau has initiated a letter writing campaign with the assistance of area Chambers of Commerce and other organizations and has prepared educational materials to help local residents and business owners appreciate the positive economic impacts to the Collier County economy of meetings being held in the destination. To view a Bring Your Meetings Home www.paradisecoast.com/bymh. Representatives are also available to speak on the topic. The hope is that by educating the local population, opportunities to suggest Collier County as a meeting destination will not be overlooked. For assistance, please contact Debi DeBenedetto at the CVB for more information or for assistance with a Request for Meeting Proposal, at 239-252-2379 or debide@colliergov.net.


According o the U.S. Travel Association, each meeting and event traveler spends an average of $1,000 per trip and meetings and events are directly responsible for over one million jobs nationally. In Collier County, tourism has an annual economic impact of $1.25 billion and the tourism industry creates more than 31,000 jobs locally.


In addition to first-time meeting attendee visitation, the meetings business also generates repeat visitation through the introduction of new visitors to the destination and repeat annual meetings. Attendees at meetings and conferences are also increasingly likely to add on hotel stay nights before and after their meeting, often bringing family members along to enjoy a mini-vacation.


The Naples, Marco Island, Everglades Convention and Visitors Bureau is the official destination marketing organization for Collier County, funded entirely by the Collier County Tourist Development Tax paid by short-term visitors, which also funds beach renourishment and coastal projects, County museums and grants to area cultural organizations and special events. For more information on visiting the Paradise Coast – Naples, Marco Island and the Everglades, visit www.ParadiseCoast.com. Call 1-800-688-3600 to request a free visitor's guide.

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