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Black Meetings & Tourism December 2009: www.blackmeetingsandtourism.com 44 every M&C destination in the county and Orlando was no exception. We had a number of cancellations earlier in the year, especially in the financial sector. Attrition has also played a role due to the economy. However, since we are the nation's top medical destination for meet- ings, conventions and tradeshows, this particular sector was relatively solid and in some cases, we saw attendance growth. The corporate market for the most part has been deeply hampered by corporate travel cutbacks. We hope as the economy and consumer confi- dence improve in 2010 and beyond, we will see improvements within all segments of our business. There is, in fact, no better time to travel. This is true both from a leisure and a meetings stand- point. As the economy improves, so will the decline in promo- tions, special offers and deals. The key message to meeting planners and leisure travelers in 2010 is to take advantage of the terrific cost savings being offered now for they may not be around for much longer. Orlando in particular offers great pro- grams for travel agents, meeting planners and leisure travelers. The best way to become informed is to go to www.visitorlan- do.com or www.orlandomeet-ing.com. Our new meetings site, www.orlandomeeting.com, has many tools for meeting plan- ners to be successful in their event planning. Orlando was built on affordability. It's part of our DNA. Value has always been the mantra for our destination in the eyes of the meeting planner and the leisure traveler. The infra- structure Orlando offers is impressive from a purely a numbers game: 115,000 hotel/resort guest rooms to meet any price point or need from budget to luxury, standard hotel to condo hotel, large mega hotel/convention offerings to world class resorts. What may be equally or more important is our ability to deliv- er on our brand promise – hospitality is a key pillar of who we are. We are the #1 industry in Central Florida employing some 400,000 pp. We take the business of welcoming and servicing our visitors very seriously. GREG ORTALE, PRESIDENT & CEO, GREATER HOUSTON CVB Certain types of meetings held in Houston have been affect- ed more than others. For example, education groups have been hit hard because budgets have been cut across the board. However, the Society of Geophysicists met their attendance expectations, and Halloween Party and Expo exceeded their attendance goals. It just depends on the nature of the group. We have been aggressive in partnering with our clients to help them maximize attendance. We think that may also have helped. We've recently launched a program called "You are Here. Why Isn't Your Meeting?" to encourage local corporations and local members of national associations to consider Houston for their meetings and conventions. To sweeten the pot, we've part- nered with the Hotel Lodging Association of Greater Houston and 24 hotels to offer a $5 per room night donation to the charity of the organization's choice. Charities and nonprofits have been hit as hard or harder than the hospitality industry – the nation's 400 largest charities expect giving to decline by a median of 9 percent this year – and this is a true win/win situation. Houston has always been a good value. A meal at our award-winning restaurants is $5 less than the nation- al average. Our average daily rate is consistently lower than other cities our size. We even have the least expensive CityPass of the 11 cities in North America that are part of the CityPass program. Our convention package has become tighter in recent years, allowing meeting planners to save money on shuttles and other transportation. The package is also much more attractive, with a 12-acre park serving as the "front yard" of the convention center and a brand-new entertainment complex three blocks away. Houston is on an upswing, and now is the time to see what we're all about. JOE TERZI, PRESIDENT & CEO, SAN DIEGO CVB San Diego has certainly been impacted by the current economy, but it is by no means a doom and gloom scenario. During the summer, our transient occupancy posted flat to positive growth with an increase in market share against our western region competitive set. This is due to our desir- ability as one of the nation's top vacation destinations, with our beautiful beaches, world-class family attractions and diverse things to see and do, along with our increased mar- keting efforts to keep San Diego top of mind. Unfortunately, our group busi- ness continues to face challenges, which we're addressing with new and innovative programs to bol- ster our sales efforts and the con- fidence of meeting clients to book San Diego. These include our upgraded iLead program and new site inspection process that are receiving accolades from meeting planners around the country. We're also launching a "Keep It Local" San Diego meet- ings initiative and an aggressive 2010 San Diego (Sun)damental Savings and Service Offer that will include considerable savings and unique services when clients book a San Diego hotel for a meeting held through March 2011. Today's tough economy just fuels our Bureau and local tourism community to be more creative and innovative in our efforts; it also tasks us to better communicate the great value that visitors and meeting groups can experi-