In a city already abundant with choices and opportunities, the always-ambitious Greater Houston CVB (GHCVB) continues to play a pivotal role in boosting Houston’s magnetism as a global business and meetings destination.
"With our convention package continuing to improve and development around the city showing no sign of slowing down, we are placing less emphasis on SMERF meetings and focusing more on groups that mirror our economic demographics, including energy, oil and gas and medical," says GHCVB president and CEO Greg Ortale.
One clear indicator of the CVB’s aspirations is its network of offices, with domestic outposts in New York and Washington, D.C., and international branches in Canada, Mexico, Germany, Venezuela and China. Mixing traditional marketing methods with an information-packed website loaded with interactive digital and social media tools, the bureau is also actively collaborating with local enterprises to attract group business.
"It’s amazing what can be accomplished when the entire community works together," Ortale says.
Even in a down economy, one key payoff is increased attendance, such as at the National Business Travel Association’s successful gathering in Houston last summer.
Complementing the CVB’s dynamic marketing model, the city of Houston continues to garner top business and lifestyle rankings while expanding its group-ready capacity and capabilities.
"Houston’s brand is growing, and our clients are very receptive to everything the city has to offer," Ortale says.
With an array of new hotels and amenities continuing to enrich Houston’s world-class cultural offerings and inventive scene, the "Energy Capital of the World" shines as one of the brightest stars in Texas.
Plugged In
Never one to sit back or sit still, the GHCVB, with more than 1,000 members in its network of hospitality, sales, marketing and tourism professionals, is investing for future growth on several fronts.
"It’s back to the basics," says Nathan Tollett, director of sales for the GHCVB, describing the bureau’s return to the good old-fashioned sales blitz. With the participation of 18 Houston hotels, the three-day outreach saw 3,000 calls placed to prospective clients. Out of the 400 people reached, 70 percent expressed interest and requested information on Houston.
"It’s been about a decade since our last blitz, but we now plan to host them twice a year," Tollett says.
The bureau used another marketing staple, direct mail, to send planner testimonials from recent successful conventions in Houston to 50 top prospective clients.
Ongoing initiatives include a focus on reunion business to fill need periods such as weekends and holidays. Houston Reunions is one of the GHCVB’s six category-specific microsites, along with My Houston Meeting and My Gay Houston. Exemplifying its collaborative work, the bureau recently spearheaded a six-month effort in concert with Houston’s energy and economic development industries to win the prized 2014 World Petroleum Congress convention, only to narrowly lose to Moscow in the final round. According to Ortale, the bureau is evaluating a possible bid for the 2017 World Petroleum Congress, while continuing to establish partnerships in other areas of Houston’s economy.
"From frequent collaboration with doctors and administrators in the Texas Medical Center to partnering with renowned food writers and chefs to bring food conventions, a key strategic focus is in determining Houston’s strengths and utilizing community leaders to book group business," Tollett says.
Truly a rolling stone that gathers no moss, Houston’s energetic, synergetic development program reflects an attitude of winning that has elevated the city to national prominence in all categories of value to planners and delegates.
Switched On
At 634 square miles, Houston’s footprint could hold the cities of New York, Washington, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis and Miami--together. The city is also a major leaguer on the meetings front, with close to 4 million square feet of meeting and exhibit space supported by some 60,000 hotel rooms. Two congressional venues alone account for over half of the available space: the amenity-flanked George R. Brown Convention Center, one of America’s 10 largest centers at 1.8 million gross square feet, and four-venue Reliant Park, one of North America’s largest and most versatile event complex, with over 1.6 million square feet of total net space. This April, Reliant Stadium hosted the 2011 NCAA Men’s Final Four basketball tournament, billed in advance as the largest in NCAA history.
It’s megalopolitan size could easily dilute any sense of personality or place, yet somehow the weave of neighborhoods, green space and growing transportation options in Houston’s core translates into a discernible brand imprint with a resonance all its own. How else to explain tastemakers’ continuing recognition of Houston as one of the nation’s best places to live, work, eat, play and meet? From Bloomberg BusinessWeek and Forbes to Vanity Fair and Vogue, the reviews continue to be as hot as Houston’s summers.
The city’s world-class cultural arts scene alone is an agenda-topper. All within walking distance of one another, the Houston Museum District’s 18 member institutions and 50-acre zoological park form one of the largest cultural districts in the country, with more than a half-million square feet of exhibition space. Anchored by the $100 million Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, Houston’s downtown Theater District includes nine renowned performing arts organizations, including that rare quartet of year-round resident companies for symphony, opera, drama and ballet.
No less acclaimed is Houston’s dining scene (see sidebar, page 20), where choice again is the operative word. Houston’s 8,000-plus area restaurants represent menus from more than 35 countries and American regions.
Spoiled with meetings-ready hotels, Houston offers meeting planners complete budgetary and category range. With boutique standouts like The Alden and Hotel Granduca, trusted brand flags like the 1,203-room Hilton Americas-Houston and the 947-room Hyatt Regency Houston, with its revolving Spindletop restaurant, and signature properties such as the Houstonian Hotel, Club & Spa, the choices, like Houston itself, are super abundant.
Houston Environs
Houston’s expansive orbit encompasses several appealing group destinations along the Interstate 45 corridor, including Galveston Island. Bay Area Houston, just 30 minutes from downtown and only 15 minutes from Houston’s Hobby Airport, is home to the iconic Space Center Houston, with flexible space for galactic gatherings. Supported by some 3,100 hotel rooms, the Bay Area’s other principal attractions include the Battleship USS Texas, veteran of both World Wars, and the San Jacinto Monument & Museum of History, commemorating the location where Texas won independence from Mexico in 1836 and a focal point of the state’s 175th anniversary celebrations in 2011.
In nearby historic League City, choice venues include the 240-room South Shore Harbour Resort and Conference Center, offering over 25,000 square feet of flexible conference space, and for special events, Butler’s Courtyard, a beautifully restored bank building from 1909.
Offering more than 1,500 hotel rooms in 10 properties and 200-plus restaurants, The Woodlands remains one of America’s premier master-planned communities. Nestled in 28,000 acres of forested land just 27 miles north of downtown Houston and featuring its signature canal-like Waterway, this relaxing locale beckons with premier properties, including the recently opened boutique AVIA, The Woodlands Hotel; the newly renovated Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel & Convention Center; the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion; and the internationally renowned, 440-room Woodlands Resort & Conference Center, a founding IACC property. Created in 2009 to capitalize on The Woodland’s range of attractive assets, The Woodlands Film Commission (www.thewoodlandsareafilmcommis
sion.com) launched its own website in 2011.
Located 40 minutes north of Houston and billed as an "urban jewel in the Piney Woods," the rural Conroe area draws delegates to the all-suite, family-friendly La Torretta Lake Resort & Spa in nearby Montgomery. Lapped by the waters of 22,000-acre Lake Conroe, the resort’s amenities include a spa, fine dining at its signature Chez Roux and other restaurants, and a 73,000-square-foot conference and events center featuring 19 meeting and event rooms with private terraces, walk-out balconies and lake views.
Frequent Meetings Focus South contributor Jeff Heilman begins work on his fourth consecutive annual Meetings Focus Texas supplement next month, as Texas celebrates the 175th anniversary of the Texas Revolution and Texas independence.
