Visit Baltimore President and CEO Tom Noonan revealed he is resigning from the CVB to accept the same title with the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau, effective May 6, 2016.
Noonan joined Visit Baltimore as president and CEO in January 2007. Under his leadership, the organization generated historic room night bookings, including six consecutive years of record-setting sales, booking between 450,000 to 525,000 future room nights annually in each fiscal year 2009–2014.
Noonan was instrumental in the formation of Synchronicities, a three-city sales and marketing partnership that joins Visit Baltimore with the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau and the San Antonio Convention & Visitors Bureau to assist meeting professionals in maximizing return on investment. He also played a key role in securing key conventions for the City, including IAEE’s Expo! Expo!, while also expanding the city’s diversity meetings—securing key conferences including the 2016 National Urban League Annual Conference and the NAACP National Convention in 2017.
In calendar year 2015 Visit Baltimore set a record for citywide conventions, or groups with more than 1,200 rooms on peak night, welcoming 30 citywide conventions to the city.
Most recently, Noonan oversaw the creation of the Visit Baltimore Education & Training Foundation, an independent 501 (c)(3) public charitable foundation which awards scholarship dollars to those pursuing careers in hospitality as well as offers hands-on workforce training for Baltimore City high school and college students that leverages Visit Baltimore’s Convention Registration Staffing team.
“Tom has championed Baltimore as the ideal destination for conventions, meetings, group tours, reunions and leisure tourism in an effort to drive economic impact to our city,” said John Frisch, chairman of the Baltimore Convention and Tourism board of directors.
Before joining Visit Baltimore, Noonan spent 18 years with the Dallas CVB as a sales, services and convention marketing executive, and for part of that time, led the D.C. Bureau for Dallas.
“It is a bittersweet moment for me and my family as we leave Baltimore to return home to Texas,” Noonan said. “The Mid-Atlantic has become a second home for me and I am proud of what the team at Visit Baltimore has accomplished, especially in this last year. I am confident that the team will continue in their efforts to make Baltimore a premier leisure and meetings destination.”
Ron Melton, Visit Baltimore’s COO, will serve as interim president and CEO while the search begins for Noonan’s replacement. Melton has more than 25 years of experience in the hospitality industry.
