Fort Worth
Date: 05/08/2008
“Sixty percent of our fiscal year is complete, and we’ve already exceeded
in future meetings bookings what we did in our best year to date, over a
12-month period,” said David DuBois, CMP, CAE, president and CEO of the
Fort Worth Convention & Visitors Bureau. “With the recent increase in our
sales and marketing budget, we have added five new salespersons to market
Previous to this fiscal year, the highest hotel bookings the Bureau reached
for a twelve month period totaled 152,000 definite room nights. The
2007-2008 goal for the Bureau is to secure 250,000 definite room nights.
Some of the new convention business driving the increased room nights
includes the Texas Medical Association and the Army Aviation Association in
2010, along with the Texas Apartment Association in 2011, just to name a
few.
Fort Worth City Mayor Mike Moncrief said, “
The Bureau is also producing impressive results in other areas, including:
• The tourism sales department has reached almost 50 percent of its annual
goal of 2,500 tour group room nights for this fiscal year.
• The marketing team has reached 89 percent of its media value goal of $1.6
million and has hosted more than 40 journalists this fiscal year. One of
the highlights for the Bureau was a special story featuring
• The services department’s fulfillment of visitor information is up
compared to last year. The team continues to receive positive client
feedback and consistently ranks as “very good to excellent” (based upon
survey results).
• The Fort Worth Convention Center, which completed a $75 million expansion
in 2003, comprises eight city blocks. The center has 253,226 square feet of
exhibit space (180,266 of it contiguous), 60,000 square feet of meeting
room space in 41 breakout rooms, 55,000 square feet for outdoor events,
45,000 square feet for storage and eight loading docks. The
28,160-square-foot Grand Ballroom is as elegant as it is flexible, with a
dramatic “field of stars” suspended from the ceiling. The convention center
also includes a 13,500-seat arena for large events.
• Ground was broken in August 2006 on the Omni Fort Worth Hotel, the new
convention center headquarters facility. Expected to open in January 2009,
this luxury property will feature 607 rooms and nearly 68,000 square feet
of meeting space.
• Opening in June 2008 less than a block from the convention center, the
Sheraton Fort Worth Hotel and Spa will offer 430 guest rooms and 22,000
square feet of meeting space.
• The 294-room Hilton Fort Worth, 504-room Renaissance Worthington Hotel
and 203-room Courtyard by Marriott Blackstone have completed extensive
renovations to their properties.
• The Embassy Suites Hotel
Legal Information
Kelly Campbell, Vice President of Marketing Communications
Fort Worth Convention & Visitors Bureau
Phone: 817-698-7841 (direct) or 800-433-5747, ext. 232
Email: kellycampbell@ fortworth.com
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