The Importance of Tourism in AZ

On Friday I went to a meeting that was called "Get to Know Your CVB". This meeting was actually for the members, which I explained about in a previous blog, but the interns were invited so that we could learn about Visitor and Member Services Department. Some of the members who attended the meeting were from various resorts, Arizona Food Tours, Dodge Theater, Alpha Graphics, and a photography company.

Part of the reason for the meeting was to show the members how to update their information on the GPCVB website. This is a new feature that can be done now to ensure that the business's information is always current and correct. However, it brings more responsibility to the company to be sure that they are on top of checking the site. The importance of having a hotel's, venue's, etc. information online is huge, yet alone the accurate information. In fact, 89-92% of meeting planners use websites for research and 41% of group revenue comes from online interactions. In addition, it is estimated that by the end of this year, 2010, that 50% of leisure bookings will be done online.

The most interesting part of the meeting was when they talked about "The Big Picture" of tourism in Arizona and stated some facts, which include the following:

• In 2009 Arizona's travel industry generated 35.3 million domestic and international travelers, which equates to approximately 98,000 visitors per day,
• These travelers contributed $16.6 billion in spending. The visitor industry is pumping $45.5 million directly into Arizona's economy daily.
• Greater Phoenix with $10.3 billion in direct travel spending.
• Direct travel spending in Arizona generated $2.4 billion in local, state, and federal tax revenues annually, which equates to approximately $1,080 per Arizona household.
• Taxes generated by the travel industry are paid primarily by visitors rather than local residents.
• For each dollar dedicated for tourism promotion it returns up to $8.08 to the state's general fund.
• Travel spending in Arizona generated a direct impact of 157,200 jobs with earnings of $4.7 billion in 2009.
• More than one-half 52.9% of all spending by visitors was for leisure and hospitality services (arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodations, food service). Retail spending amounted to 23.5%. Transportation comprised them remaining 23.6%.
• More than three-fourths of the visitor impacts in Arizona are generated by out of sate travelers. Visitors from other states are the largest segment (60% of spending), while international travel comprises approximately 15% of visitor impacts.
  
• Arizona's Domestic Overnight Visitors Profile: 30.5 million visitors with an average length of stay of 3.5 nights. The average travel party size is 2.6 persons averaging 46.8 years old with an average household income of $76,000.

Another piece of information that they shared with us was that Phoenix gets $13 million per year as their marketing budget at the GPCVB. That sounded like a lot of money to me until she said that in comparison to other cities, such as Las Vegas, they have a $100 million marketing budget. The difference in those amounts just blew my mind! It says a lot though about the GPCVB marketing team though because, as we can tell from the above statistics, Phoenix has done quite well for itself as a popular tourism destination.

Downtown Hotels

There are three main downtown hotels that the GPCVB Housing Department deals with. What I mean by this is that when a company is having a conference and we are doing the housing for them, the three most convenient hotels are the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown, the Hyatt Regency Phoenix, and the Wyndham Phoenix because they are all in walking distance of the Phoenix Convention Center, which is where the conferences are held. I also occasionally assist the GPCVB Services Department by delivering amenities to those three hotels when needed.

The 31 story Sheraton Phoenix Downtown is a newly opened, concept of an urban hotel, hotel with 1,000 guest rooms and 80,000 square feet of meeting space. This is not just an average run of the mill Sheraton though. The Housing and Services Departments at the GPCVB have had feedback from guests and meeting planners that it is an extremely nice hotel for a Sheraton. The hotel offers a variety of amenities, such as cable, bath robes, internet access (for a fee), the Sheraton Sweet Sleeper Bed, and a coffee maker in the room. Beyond those features, the hotel also has a pool, a gym, a restaurant called the District, a sundry shop, a cafe called Link where guests can sip on a mocha and surf the web (a complimentary service at the cafe), and has a new modern, funky feel to it.

With all of its 693 newly modernized renovated rooms and 48,000 square feet of meeting space, the Hyatt Regency Phoenix is another one of the popular downtown hotels. Not only were the rooms renovated, but the entire hotel went through a $15 million renovation. One of the most highlighted items of the hotel is its Compass Arizona Grill fine dining restaurant. The restaurant is doughnut shaped, sits at the top of the hotel, and revolves 360 degrees around showing a spectacular view of the city. Amongst other aspects, the Hyatt also has several other restaurants, concierge, Hyatt Grand Beds, internet access (for a fee), a pool, a gym, a business lounge, and more.

As for the third major downtown hotel, the Wyndham Phoenix Downtown, it contains over 60,000 square feet of function space, 520 newly remodeled guest rooms, and 87 junior, deluxe, and hospitality suites. It is a business hotel with a hint of boutique hotel added due to its artful and urban appeal. One key element that this hotel offers that the other do not is complimentary Wi-Fi service. Furthermore, the hotel has two restaurants, Marston's Cafe and ICON. Like the other two downtown hotels, the Wyndham has a pool, a fitness center, a gift shop, and a concierge. However, the hotel does offer a unique item that differs from the Sheraton and the Hyatt; a sauna.

**This information was gathered from each hotel's main website, which is linked in each paragraph.**

Money, Money, Money

While I have been at my internship, I have noticed how complicated money aspects are. I realize that money is the reason for a company to even exist and for people to have jobs, but I would think that everyone would understand the importance of that and be more on top of financial aspects.

The first I noticed of the money problems was when my supervisor was going over reports and realized that on the Activity by Cancel Transaction Report it said "Requires Attention" for the amount of $2,350. This means that the money did not get charged due to an error or it was rejected. Therefore, we are missing out on that money, which is supposed to be for the CVB. She then checked another recent report for a different conference group and it was short $550. When she went into the computer system, Passkey, it would not allow her to recharge the credit cards that had an error or were rejected for whatever reason. So, she had me make a spread sheet for both groups that listed the person's name, the amount of money they owe, their acknowledgment number, their company name, type of credit card, the last four digits of the credit card, the name of the card holder, and whether the fee was rejected or there was an error. Once those were finished, she emailed them to Passkey in order to figure out the problem. We have yet to hear back from them regarding the situation.

Another thing I noticed that would seem to be more orderly are the housing invoices. My supervisor had me organize three binders and a stack of papers. The binders included information about invoices, revenue, rebates, refunds, copies of checks, Passkey bills, and deposits. The binders were supposed to be kept in order, consisting of the same type of things in them, but they were all mixed up. It was a challenge to even organize the stack of papers she gave me because the binders were so messed up, but in the end it worked out and my supervisor was happy with the result. It seems like they would want to keep the binders in order so that it is easier to keep track of who still owes them money and who does not.

The third major money problem is about commission that is supposed to be received by the event organizer's company and the CVB. WWE Wrestle Mania had an event in March and the hotels that the people stayed at were supposed to send a check to the event organizer for an agreed upon amount based on the total room nights. The amount owed to the company is $10, 008.70, but only a combined total of $2,759.40 has been sent out from six hotels. Furthermore, the GPCVB gets 10% of the $10,008.70, which comes out to about $3,000. When only six of the 33 hotels have paid their commission, that is a huge issue, which I find unacceptable when it has been nearly four months since the event was held. My supervisor had her assistant send an email blast out to all the hotels that have not paid, but, in the email the assistant told everyone to contact me about it. At first I was really worried, especially when I was getting emails from the hotels saying that they had paid or that they were never told the amount that they owe, but now I am loving this task. I am having to sort out everything to be sure that we received the proper amount of money from each hotel. I created an Excel spreadsheet to help keep track of everything, along with a binder that separates who has paid, who has been sent an invoice, and who we are waiting to hear back from regarding a copy of the already paid check or a list of reservation cancellations or no shows to have back up information to match the adjusted room night totals and invoice amounts. It is a very tedious and important task and I am not even sure if I will be there long enough to complete the process because there is no telling how long it is going to take to hear back from all the hotels. However, I would be delighted if I did get to experience the end of it!

The Calm Before the Storm

These past few weeks have been very quiet for me as the Housing Intern. As I had mentioned in a previous post, AANP's conference closed and has now been over for a couple weeks and it was the only conference making reservations through us. In fact, over the Independence Day holiday a majority of the GPCVB employees, including two of my supervisors, took off Thursday, Friday, and Tuesday (the holiday was observed on Monday).

I was also able to take off Friday and go on vacation over the weekend due to the slow couple of weeks. I went to Denver, Colorado to visit my aunt, uncle, and cousin. It was definitely a well needed trip! It was interesting though because my aunt and uncle were trying to convince me to apply for jobs in the Denver area. They also kept saying that Colorado has better tourism than Arizona, which I completely disagree with, even though both states are spectacular destinations. If anything, they are about even. They both specialize in outdoor adventures, they are both great places to hold conventions, and they both have numerous attractions to visit, including nightlife and culture. The one, obvious, difference is the weather; however, if a person visits Northern Arizona they will experience the same temperatures as they would in Colorado.


Anyway, back to my internship. My supervisors have been working hard to open six conferences so that we can resume making reservations for attendees. As of now, I believe that three are open and within the next several weeks or so the other three will be open as well if everything goes smoothly. Having six groups open at once will be insanity; so much so that my supervisors are already searching for, not one, but two interns for the fall semester. There is not much I can assist with in the set up process because it involves extensive training which is not made available to interns.

In the mean time, I was able to make a spread sheet for my supervisor that listed different sub blocks and room types needed for about 100 different people as well as how many room nights were needed for each individual person, for each sub block, and for the total of everyone. She needed me to do this so that she could make sure that she had the appropriate room nights available from the hotels. This is crucial because if we do not receive the correct amount of room nights from the hotel, then an attendee will end up without a hotel room and that is the last thing that should happen! Furthermore, I organized all of the collateral that has been collected from the GPCVB's members. This was a very fun and interesting task because this gave me the opportunity to learn about and see neat pictures of hotels/resorts, venues, convention and event services, and much more.

It should not be too long now before the insanity begins, but I am looking forward to it! For now, during the calmness, I will continue to clear off my supervisor's desk and organize her papers so that she has space for the incoming storm.

The Phoenix Convention Center

One of the main goals of a CVB is to sell their city as an ideal location to hold conference, exhibition, event, etc. A major deciding factor for a meeting planner in the choice of a destination for their conference is the venues that are available. Phoenix has a wide variety of unique venues to choose from, such as sporting arenas, theaters, hotels/resorts, and cowboy cookouts. However, the main star among the venues in Phoenix is the Phoenix Convention Center. The Housing Department at the GPCVB primarily deals with all the conferences that will be held at this venue. Meaning, I make reservations for attendees and such who will be going to the convention center for their conference. I have occasionally been asked questions about the venue, such as, "Where is the West Building?" and "Does the Convention Center have food available for purchase?".

Two years ago, the $600 million expansion of the Phoenix Convention Center was completed. The venue contains over 900,000 square feet of meeting and event space, and covers a total of more than two million square feet. It is located in the center of Downtown Phoenix. One of the breathtaking things about the convention center is the way in which it is intertwined with thousands of Arizona's Sonoran Desert, culture, and history inspired images, from the architecture, to the colors, to the textures, to the art pieces and pictures. These aspects, along with its cutting edge AZ, telecommunications, and information technology services, and a variety of other helpful services, make it one of the top 20 convention venues in the United States.


The convention center is made up of three main buildings. The North Building occupies an entire city block of 635,000 square feet of meeting and event space with four levels. It contains 11 exhibit halls, 56 meeting rooms, and 20 loading docks. Also, the North Building is home to the food court that has five main restaurants as well as outdoor meeting and event space. Another great piece of this building is that it is linked to the West Building across the street by a glass encased sky bridge.

The West Building occupies 157,000 square feet of meeting and event space and includes a lecture hall and a grand ballroom. Additionally, the lobby of the West Building is encased by a 90-foot tall glass atrium and the large glass door can be raised to let in the fresh desert air. The lobby of this building conveniently adjoins to the grand entrance of the Symphony Hall.


The South Building occupies over 33,000 square feet of meeting and event space, with 23 meeting rooms, 28,000 square fee of ballroom space, and a chunk of the exhibition space. This building alone was the original Phoenix Convention Center and recently underwent an $18.5 million makeover.

The website for the Phoenix Convention Center is just as wonderful as the venue itself. It is loaded with helpful information and even breaks it down for planners, exhibitors, and attendees so that it is easier to navigate through the site.

**This information was collected from the GPCVB website and the Phoenix Convention Center website.**

GPCVB Mission Statement

Every company has a mission statement, which is essentially a few sentences that explain the company's or organization's purpose. It usually involves a goal and is used as a guideline for decision making and provides a sense of direction of the company/organization. The Greater Phoenix Convention and Visitors Bureau's mission statement is as follows:

"As a private, non-profit corporation, the Greater Phoenix Convention and Visitors Bureau (GPCVB) is to market the metropolitan Phoenix area as a year-round convention and visitor destination. The GPCVB concentrates its efforts and resources on convention groups and group sales, tourism sales, services and market research, all for the benefits of its members and the metropolitan community.

The GPCVB is committed to education relevant to the hospitality industry and plays a lead role in coordinating various convention and tourism sales activities in Greater Phoenix. We believe our performance and reputation is based upon and enhanced by the efforts of a highly qualified, competent and professional staff."

I really like their mission statement because I feel like it is detailed, but not overwhelming, yet it covers everything from sales, to services, to research. It also sounds like a very genuine mission statement, as in, the company truly cares about their members, the community, the employees, and any potential visitors that will be traveling to the Greater Phoenix area and the impact that is made on each of those categories. Beyond the mission statement simply being well written, it is plain to see that the employees follow through with it. For instance, a main part of the mission statement, and of any CVB in general, is the sales aspect; the goal is to bring people to the city. I am constantly hearing the staff talk about sending out and/or receiving leads, as well as them always being concerned about losing a group or, on the positive side, signing a new group that will be coming to Phoenix.

While I have been interning at the GPCVB, I have definitely continued to notice that people stay true to the mission statement. For example, let's look at the sentence, "We believe our performance and reputation is based upon and enhanced by the efforts of a highly qualified, competent and professional staff." The first Excel spread sheet that I was assigned to do on my own during the beginning of my internship was to input the departure numbers from each hotel and the dates of the departures for the AANP conference attendees. So, that is what I did. However, when I printed it out and gave it to my supervisor, she did not approve of it. She was not upset with me though because, like she said, she did not tell me to put a title on it, add up the totals, change the fonts and colors, or show me the proper way to print it. But, she explained to me that we need to set up spreadsheets in the most orderly and eye appealing manner so that the person we are sending the spread sheet to can simply print it out without being confused and without any troubles. Furthermore, she said "We don't want anything to pass by us that would not be worthy of God seeing." Meaning, she wants work done in the most professional way possible and of the highest quality, something that we would not be ashamed of if God saw. From then on she said that she expects this type of work from me and that is what I have given her.

Membership Mixer

A huge part of the Greater Phoenix Convention and Visitors Bureau, and actually any CVB, are its members. According to the GPCVB website, they "provide benefits that generate and enhance business opportunities for its members and organizations". The benefits include being listed in the Meeting and Travel Planner Guide for Greater Phoenix and in the Official Visitor's Guide to Greater Phoenix, they have access to a confidential convention calendar, they get sent leads, they receive the "Memberandum" (a quarterly news letter), and they are allowed to display their brochures at the Downtown Visitor Information Center. There are currently 1,305 members, but that amount is always growing. Member types range from accommodations, to dining, to venues, to convention and event services, and even to relocation (banks, churches, etc.), and much more. **If you are interested in viewing the full list of members, click here to see the Member Directory.**

About every month or two the Greater Phoenix Convention and Visitors Bureau holds a Membership Mixer. This event is held to provide an ideal opportunity for casual networking to make lasting business connections. This month, the mixer was held at the gorgeous Wrigley Mansion (featured in the picture above) that was built in the 1920's which is at the top of a hill above the Biltmore Hotel. It is now an event venue for weddings, proms, and any type of special event, and can hold up to 1,500 people. There is also a restaurant, Geordie's, there in which anyone who eats lunch there actually gets to choose the price they are going to pay for their meal; they pay what they feel is fair. I had never heard of this concept before, but it is very intriguing. People could either over pay for their food as to not embarrass themselves, which must happen since it is in business, or they could be frugal about it.
**For more information about the Wrigley Mansion, visit their website at http://www.wrigleymansionclub.com/welcome.php**

I went to the mixer and it was very fun! There were complimentary hors d'oeuvres and drinks available at the event, which were delicious. The hors d'oeuvres consisted of fruit, a variety of cheese and crackers, shrimp cocktail, and two small meat items. As the members entered the event, they placed their business card in a basket in order to get entered in the raffle. Unfortunately, I obviously do not have a business card so I could not be included. However, the prizes were great! They gave away stays at resorts, a golf package, a photo session, and more.

I did not do as well as I had hoped in the networking aspect of the mixer. As an intern and as this being the first type of thing I have been to like this, it was very intimidating. But, I did work up the courage to talk to a couple people. The only name I remember is Stephanie and she works at the Sheraton Downtown. I also met a couple photographers, a manager from the Phoenix Raceway, and a couple other people who I cannot even remember now where they work. I am very glad that I went though and it was a great experience that better prepared me for future events of that sort.