Last Thursday, the Buffalo Niagara Convention & Visitors Bureau and Erie County Executive Chris Collins announced that it has begun the implementation of its five-year strategic plan. Drafted in partnership with the hospitality industry, County of Erie and an array of community volunteers, the plan will serve as a blueprint for successfully marketing Buffalo and Erie County as a compelling visitor destination.
"The diverse collection of tools and tactics contained in the plan will allow the CVB to focus our efforts on the markets and opportunities that demonstrate the greatest potential return on the investment the community is making in attractions, infrastructure and marketing," said CVB Board Chair Jennifer Parker. "In drafting this plan we have made every effort to enhance the sales and marketing strategies of the Convention & Visitor Bureau."
The Buffalo Niagara Convention & Visitors Bureau sells and markets our assets and attractions to visitors outside of the Buffalo Niagara region as a convention, tourism and leisure destination for the economic benefit of the community. In 2008 the CVB booked over 130,000 hotel room nights and 286 conventions, meetings and events, which resulted in $70 million dollars in purchases in Buffalo-area restaurants, shops, and attractions.
The strategic plan clarifies the CVB's role in the community as an external marketing organization, and focuses on helping bureau staff to establish priorities, solve organizational issues, define metrics and build teamwork and expertise. The planning process included the solicitation of input and analysis from visitor industry partners, private and public stakeholders and the community at large. Focus groups, surveys and interviews were used to ensure that the information gathering process was reflective of the community's diversity.
Several key action steps were identified as priorities by the CVB Board during the strategic planning process. These include:
•
Creation a Convention Concierge Program to better promote our attractions and
cultural venues to visitors and convention delegates.
•
Establishment of an Amateur Sports Foundation to further develop our sports
marketing and to allow for the development of sponsorship programs to increase
revenue opportunities.
•
Determination and implementation of the best and most effective sites in the
region for Visitor Center operations to maximize visibility and customer
contact.
•
Exploration of creative marketing approaches that utilize new types of
research, technology, media and innovative marketing concepts.
"We take our role as Buffalo and Erie County's destination marketing organization very seriously," said Richard Geiger, President of the Buffalo Niagara CVB. "Tourism is a very big business and we intend to grab as big a piece of that pie as we can. This plan will help us to reach our goals."
Geiger noted that "Green" meetings, amateur sporting events, Canadian visitors, cultural and heritage tourism, fishing tourism and multicultural travel are a few of the targets that the CVB intends to hit in coming years.
"In
a world that is being transformed nearly every day by new media and social
technologies, the Buffalo Niagara CVB is committed to being an active, aggressive
participant in listening to, talking with and energizing potential customers,"
he added. "We're thrilled to have this road map that will help to revitalize
the Erie County economy."
During the tours does Tim Tielman also point out all of the run down buildings that he obstructed for redevelopment and the quantify all of the money and tourist dollars that Buffalo has lost because of it....
No, I took the tour, he pointed out a palladium style window, then a palladium style window, then he stopped the bus and pointed out a ...palladium style window, from there we went through some streets in the Elmwood Village, stopped in front of a very nice house and he told us how the railings on the porch where bastardized and do not match the style or history [while the windows were open mind you, poor owners]. Then we had to hear how much he hated the Blue Delaware towers. The tour was a joke and I believe most of us were ready to jump off the damn thing, but we could'nt due to the fumes from the tail pipe.
That's "Palladian" and "Tielman" (no H).