What
is the Austin Convention & Visitor Bureau?
Convention and Visitor Bureaus are not-for-profit
organizations charged with representing a specific destination
and helping the long-term development of communities through
a travel and tourism strategy. Convention and Visitor Bureaus
bring together businesses that rely on tourism and meetings
for revenue.
For visitors, CVBs are like a key to the city.
As an unbiased resource, CVBs can serve as a broker or an
official point of contact for convention and meeting planners,
tour operators and visitors.
They assist planners with meeting preparation
and encourage business travelers and visitors alike to visit
local historic, cultural and recreational sites.
Funding for the CVBs, including the Austin Convention
& Visitors Bureau (ACVB), comes from a local lodging tax
that is collected from visitors staying in local hotels. The
current lodging tax in Austin is 3% and provides an estimated
$110, 000 in funding to the ACVB for its marketing efforts.
The ACVB has other methods of funding: the ACVB applies
for up to $10,000 in grants from the Minnesota Office of Tourism
to go towards marketing efforts each year as well as a small
amount of income from Group Tour Services.
The mission of the ACVB is as follows: "The
Convention and Visitors Bureau is organized as a 501.6 Non-Profit
corporation operating for the purpose of attracting overnight
visitors and conventions to the community and therefore advancing
the economic impact such visitors and conventions have upon
the entire community."
Why are meetings, sports and tourism important?
Travel and tourism enhances the quality of life
for a local community by providing jobs, bringing in tax dollars
for improvement of services and infrastructure, and attracting
facilities like restaurants, shops, festivals, and cultural
and sporting venues that cater to both visitors and locals.
Travel and tourism is one of the world's largest
service exports and largest employers. In the United States,
for example, travel and tourism is the third biggest retail
sales sector. The industry contributes more than $600 billion
annually to the nation's economy and generates $100 billion
in tax revenues (2005 figures). Indeed, travel and tourism
is an economic engine and CVB's are the key drivers.
What is the impact of Austin tourism?
In 2005, Austin hosted over 200,000 visitors
who are attending conventions, sporting events, leisure travelers,
group tour participants and Festival goers. These visitors
have been attracted to the city and state through the efforts
of the Austin Convention & Visitors Bureau and their tourism
partners in Austin and across the state. These visitors spent
an estimated $23,000,000 in Austin during their 2005 stay.
Looking ahead at 2006, these numbers are set
to increase. The business travel, group travel and leisure
travel are all estimated to increase between 5-10%.
