Eleven months ago, I was fortunate to be offered the opportunity to return to Rhode Island to join the CVB. I joined this organization at one of the most exciting times in its history. And together with the CVB’s dedicated travel industry professionals, we are looking forward to making this wonderful organization even stronger.

The past few years have presented the national travel and tourism industry and our local travel industry with challenges we had forgotten – or never could have imagined. Hotels nationwide struggled to maintain occupancy as all types of travel waned. Airlines saw decreases in passenger volume and made significant cutbacks in their routes and flight frequencies. Convention and trade show planners saw reduced participation in their events, thereby resulting in decreased exhibit space needs and attendance. While the Providence/Warwick destination has not been immune to these challenges, we have been fortunate in that our local travel and tourism industry weathered this trying period better than did many others throughout the nation. Our hotel occupancy rates have hovered nearly 10 points above the national average, and our visitation volume has not been as affected as that of other destinations due to our regional drive market accessibility. Furthermore, our convention center occupancy rate has remained above the national average for facilities and destinations of similar size.

Despite our strong history of accomplishment, we cannot sit back passively, expecting that future success will come easily. While recovery throughout the travel and tourism industry is well underway and performance outlooks for nearly all sectors of the industry are optimistic, our destination – along with many others throughout the country – now faces a new set of unprecedented challenges that we must rise up to meet. Among the most significant of these is the increased competitiveness and pricing pressures among meeting and convention destinations resulting from supply growth that outpaced demand growth in recent years. We have seen, and are still seeing, a great deal of expansion and new construction of convention and exhibition facilities in first-tier convention cities and other destinations throughout the nation. Close to home, we’ve seen the recent development of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, Hartford’s Connecticut Convention Center, the new Washington Convention Center, and the new David Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh. Many of these destinations are specifically and aggressively targeting our current and prospective customers. Meanwhile, expansions of facilities in the country’s top convention destinations, like Orlando, Chicago, and Las Vegas – and, therefore, increased availability of space and dates at these facilities – are causing organizers of national conventions and trade shows to consider what they call “second- or third-tier destinations” less frequently.

Recognizing that rising to these challenges means we need to have a better understanding than ever before of who we are as a destination, where we want to go, and crystal clear strategies in regard to how we will get there, we have identified and begun undertaking a series of research initiatives and tracking programs. To this end, we have developed a comprehensive research initiative and have acquired the capability to conduct a broad array of analyses in-house that no organization of our size and budgetary limitations could afford to conduct. Our new research and tracking initiatives will both lay the groundwork for strategy development and ensure that accountability mechanisms are in place.

Among our first research endeavors, completed two months ago, was an Image and Positioning Study, which aimed to improve our understanding of leisure visitors’ perceptions and images of Providence, Warwick, and Rhode Island. It also sought to identify those characteristics that differentiate our destination from our competitive destinations in the minds of visitors and event organizers alike.

We also undertook a Competitive Analysis comparing our destination to its top competitors in terms of those characteristics that are most influential in event planners’ - and individual planners’ - destination selection decisions. Additionally, we are in the process of wrapping up a Target Market Analysis, which looks at those industries and event types that have historically provided the best return on investment for our destination and are most compatible with our destination’s offerings.

These studies have helped us to identify our inherent assets and are intended to provide insight that will enable us to better focus our efforts in the future to ensure that you, our stakeholders, achieve the greatest return on your investment in our organization. These studies will also lay the groundwork for the development of a unified, articulate brand identity for the Providence/Warwick region, while complimenting the efforts of the state.

Though we are still in the process of identifying the strategy implications of all of our research findings, one thing is resoundingly clear: Although the destination “product” we have to offer visitors is competitive with that of many other visitor destinations and perceptions are generally favorable, no one organization or business can ensure the desirability and reputation of our destination on its own. Rather, it will require collaboration on all of our parts to keep our destination strong and vibrant and to make strides to increase our market share over our competitors. Therefore, our organization is committed to ensuring that we all remain bound together by our desire to maintain our destination’s competitive strength, and therefore, strong local travel and tourism industry performance and the prosperity of our economy.

To that end, we are working more closely than ever before with the Rhode Island Convention Center Authority, the Rhode Island Division of Tourism and all regional tourism organizations throughout state to ensure that we are effectively leveraging our marketing dollars, eliminating unnecessary duplication of efforts, and promoting the resources of the entire state beyond our own regional boundaries. Additionally, we have joined forces with the Providence Tourism Council and are now operating under a joint marketing agreement. A house that was once divided is now whole again in part to the vision of Mayor Cicilline and our Board of Directors. We are also collaborating with the Department of Arts and Culture, a new agency that has created new synergies within the City of Providence and is working with us to leverage the power of the arts as a mechanism for building tourism.

Working with the Rhode Island Convention Center Authority, Mayor Cicilline’s and Mayor Avedisian’s offices, and a host of other partners, we have begun the difficult task of identifying and establishing a distinct identity for our destination and building destination brand awareness. Together with these partners and a group of very talented marketing professionals, we will surely develop a clear and exciting brand identity that will enhance perceptions of our destination and give us the competitive edge we are seeking in the marketplace. But we are not standing still while this process is underway. To guide us through this fiscal year and others to come, we have authored the most comprehensive visitor industry marketing plan that our organization has ever operated under. This plan is actionable, achievable, and based on fact garnered from our market research. Moreover, it incorporates input from dozens of tourism professionals.

We have also recently changed the structure and a number of other aspects of the PWCVB. This includes significant changes to our staff and the way we do business. Change is sometimes difficult, but I am convinced that we are now providing better value and service to our customers and constituents and that we now have one of the most qualified group of industry professionals of any convention and visitors bureau. These new changes include extended our office hours to better serve our customers and members. We have hired a number of outstanding individuals into key leadership positions and have also expanded our partnership with Johnson & Wales to help enhance our convention services program. Furthermore, as visitors respond to newly enhanced, targeted marketing efforts, they are being greeted at our Visitor Center as never before. Earlier this year, we implemented a partnership with Johnson & Wales University and improved the appearance of our Visitor Center to bring to it a new level of professionalism.

We have also begun to modify and improve the way in which we collect and disseminate information. New displays in the information center will help us to make a compelling case about the wonderful places to visit in our destination - not only in Providence and Warwick - but all of Rhode Island. A new data tracking program will help us to gather valuable information to be used in research and direct marketing initiatives. The Visitor Center is now better equipped than ever to serve our meeting/convention delegates, leisure visitors, and residents and to provide us with the information necessary to better understand and communicate with our customers. And the number of visitors we reach may soon be expanded, as we are in final negotiations to open a Visitor Information Center in the Providence Place Mall.

I’d like to acknowledge our Visitor Information Center volunteers, who work diligently on your behalf day in and day out and who give of themselves because of their love of and pride in our destination. If you would, volunteers, please stand up to be recognized.

We are also making changes to ensure that have better tools to help visitors explore everything our destination has to offer. To that end, we are working to develop what perhaps may be the best on-line map of our destination in existence. We are producing 100,000 new brochures that feature our members to serve as a visitor fulfillment piece to be distributed at the Visitor Center, sent by direct mail, and provided to convention delegates. Another 100,000 tear-off maps will soon be provided to area hotels to help them better serve our destination’s visitors. A single map – as opposed to five different maps – translates into fewer advertising expenses for area businesses. Ensuring that our members are seeing tangible benefits from their involvement in our organization is of utmost importance to us. That’s why, one of our new staff changes included the hiring of a Director of Partnership Development & Member Benefits, who is charged with ensuring that you realize tremendous benefit and value from your support of the PWCVB and with identifying less conventional revenue opportunities. In the few short weeks that our new Director of Partnership Development has been with us, we have already identified several key changes and additional member benefits that will help to improve our strength as a membership organization.

In addition to those I mentioned earlier, new changes and added benefits will include more frequent communications with our members through a new, electronic newsletter that will be launched this winter and distributed on a monthly basis, informing you of the CVB’s marketing and sales initiatives, cooperative marketing opportunities, and convention center activity. Soon, members will also enjoy electronic, “members only” access to the vast market research I have already discussed. These tools will allow our members to know exactly what the CVB knows about our customers and competitive environment, empowering you to develop programs that help expand your business and give our destination a competitive edge. Our members are our strength and I believe it is the work of the CVB to provide benefits to members that strengthen them.

The final aspect of our organization’s current outlook and operations that I would like to highlight is our renewed recognition of the importance of a thriving arts community and fabulous special events in attracting visitors to our destination and shaping their perceptions. The CVB will continue to support and promote the arts and special events and will do all that we can help bring them to new levels, recognizing the importance of these events in helping to shape our destination’s identity, highlight our distinguishing attributes, and create unique experiences that draw visitors to our destination time and time again.

It is in this spirit that we look forward to the Rhode Island Festival of Trees. Besides creating yet another reason to visit the region, the event will help to bring recognition to Providence City Arts, this year’s beneficiary. We are grateful that Governor and Mrs. Carcieri have offered to co-chair this event. Today is just a glimpse of what is to come.

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