Black Meetings and Tourism

Black Meetings & Tourism June/July 2009: www.blackmeetingsandtourism.com 52 Wisconsin, is docked right next to Nauticus, the hands-on maritime museum that is one of the city's most popular attrac- tions. Other places of interest include the Moses Myers House, Virginia Zoological Park and the Chrysler Museum of Art. The CVB's current "Sail Into Savings" promotion provides credits of up to $10,000 (depending the number of peak rooms) on meetings booked in 2009 and held through March 2010. Meetings held later in 2010 can receive smaller credits. Convention services include help with vendor contacts, site inspections, promo- tional materials and event planning. The CVB provides housing assistance for groups using two or more hotels and mini- mum of 400 rooms on peak night, with a small fee per reservation. Planners can also take advantage of the Norfolk's convenient Waterside Convention Connection. The Alliance, which includes the Waterside Convention Center, the Norfolk Waterside Marriott, the Sheraton Norfolk Waterside Hotel, the Radisson Hotel Norfolk, the Waterside Festival Marketplace and the 85,000-sq. ft. Norfork Scope arena, facilitates access to a combined 216,000 sq. ft. of convention space. For more information call (800) 368- 3097. PHOENIX, AZ Largest meeting venue: Phoenix Convention Center — 2 million + sq. ft., including 900,000+ sq. ft. of meeting and event space Number of area guestrooms: 55,000 According to Douglas MacKenzie, spokesperson for the Greater Phoenix Convention & Visitors Bureau, the afford- ability factor for Arizona's largest city starts with transportation. "Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is a hub for two low-cost carriers (US Airways and Southwest), and healthy competition between those two helps keep the cost of flying here down," MacKenzie says. "According to the U.S. Norfolk City Sky and Shore line Photo Credit: Norflok CVB

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