Research shows that 81% of local Northeast Ohio respondents felt it was very important for the arts and cultural community to engage with other businesses to support economic development. This is according to a report released by The Community Partnership for Arts and Culture (CPAC). The Fund for Economic Future's, "Voices and Choices" identified our arts and cultural resources as a leading resource for the region.
Yet we continue to languish in our efforts to leverage these assets to build a potent tourism business (for leisure and business visitors). While not the answer to all of our woes - it is a powerful and rich economic development resources is overlooked and underutilized.
Tourism - a collective effort:
This blog is intended to call forward an important and positive business opportunity that could impact us all. Our success and failures are collective. To that end we need to look at all of the elements that effect tourism in our market. We need to look objectively at how we are currently handling tourism and explore how we can, together, improve it. We can be bold in pointing out those areas that are working and not be afraid or ashamed at pointing out those that are not. Without this kind of objective evaluation, we cannot make positive, progressive decisions.
How would we do things differently if we valued these resources as important tools for economic development? What would we do differently if we viewed our city/region as "the Orlando of Cultural Arts". With the prospect of a future Medical Mart and new Convention Center would we be more aggressive at developing the entire industry infrastructure to support and leverage this industry. Or do we yet again, build a new big project without thinking about the extended opportunity and requirements to make it a success.
We have the visitor resources:
We have one of the largest assortment of top-tier visitor assets in the country but aside from the Medical Mart there is virtually no discussion of tourism's role as a possible economic development tool. We have world-renowned and unique visitor assets, great hotels, easy auto access, a hub airport, proximity to Canada and Europe etc....
In a city or region with a strong tourism economy we are able to impact a broad spectrum of jobs and services. Not only does tourism bring NEW dollars through jobs at hotels, cab companies, restaurants, arts and cultural venues, sporting and entertainment locations, but also with food vendors/warehouses/delivery services, linen companies, travel agents and meeting services, staging companies, car rental companies and so forth. It also provides a tremendous opportunity for entrepreneurs to develop businesses that provide services to a growing industry. Once here, if coordinated properly, we have an opportunity to showcase our growth industries, neighborhoods and rich life-style assets.
Positive efforts:
We have Positively Cleveland working to market and sell our city out of market. We have Cleveland Plus working to grow employee attraction and retention. We have Team NEO working to market the region to prospective companies and entrepreneurs.
However, combined their marketing budgets don't even come near to the CVB-marketing-only budgets of cities like Detroit, Columbus, Louisville and Pittsburgh. While our Positively Cleveland (PC) has an annual $8 million fund, only $600,000 was spent in 2007 on marketing. Their marketing budget was not stated in 2008. http://crainscleveland.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070515/FREE/70515012/1005/TECH
We are not competitive:
Philadelphia: $6 million
Detroit: $5.2 million
Pittsburgh: $4 million
Louisville: $3.7 million
Cleveland: $700,000 (my 2005 budget when I worked as Chief Marketing Officer for the Convention and Visitors Bureau of Greater Cleveland)
In addition, all of our visitor resources are siloed। There is little to no communication and collaboration among the arts/entertainment/cultural assets and the hospitality businesses, city planning and transportation parties. There is no infrastructure that empowers all these organizations with information and collaboration. There is no substantive packaging of attractions with accommodations and transportation. We don't work to help people know how much we have to offer.
If we could convince just 10% of our EXISTING roomnights to stay just ONE-MORE-NIGHT, we would have 450,000 additional roomnights. This equates into up to $110 million dollars a year in added revenues and over $6 million in taxes. That $110 million will pay for jobs and products throughout our economy. This is something we can do right now. This is something our community could do without significant investment and no construction. It requires building a collaborative platform and a willingness to make it happen.
Share with me how you could see this happening। Let's get the thinking started.
Important terms/facts we need to know:
- Tourist: A Business or Leisure Visitor
- Tourism: The industry supported by the aggregate of all activities conducted with Business and Leisure Visitors in a market.
- Tourism Community: is comprised of every company, organization and individual that attracts, markets, services, supports, interacts or entertains visitors entering Cuyahoga County.
- Tourism in the US –
1. Generated $523 Billion Dollars in Domestic Expenditures in 2006
2. Is one of the Largest Employers in the nation
Source: Hotel and Lodging Association, 2007 - Cuyahoga County Roomnight potential: 8 Million roomnights (# of rooms/hotel X 365 nights)
- Average nights booked by hotels in Cuyahoga County annually: +/-$4.5 Million roomnights
- 2007 roomnights booked by Positively Cleveland: 125,000 roomnights - down 24% from the previous year http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20080609/FREE/616558739
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