Move over wow factor. Greater Palm Springs has that in spades, and something a lot more “grounded.” This celebrity hot spot of yesteryear has come full circle once again, and this time it’s all about finding your oasis—as an individual and together as a group—and striking a perfect balance between personal enrichment and productivity.
One thing is for sure: The “ahh” moments begin the minute your eyes savor the bright, palm-studded landscape from your window seat on the flight in.
“It starts with the backdrop here,” said Scott White, president and CEO of the Greater Palm Springs CVB, which represents the nine communities that stretch throughout the Coachella Valley. “There are no high rises and there’s a lot of sunshine. The minute you land you feel relaxed, the airport is small and it’s a real easy experience. There’s abundant outdoor space and there’s no traffic, so it’s very easy to get to your hotel.”
Throw in a diverse selection of meetings-ready hotels and resorts, as well as the Palm Springs Convention Center’s impressive design, flexibility and capacity, and the destination is an ideal choice for a variety of get-togethers.
Some of the trends White sees for 2017 are customization, personalization and experiential opportunities.
“They don’t want the traditional half-day meeting and afternoon activities. They want more integration,” White said. “What we’re hearing is that attendees leave conferences and they don’t feel personally fulfilled, and so just going on a Jeep tour is not going to do it. We need to think of bringing some of the speakers and educational content to that particular tour and activity, and make it fun, more engaging, and personally and professionally enriching for the individual.”
White also said planners are increasingly looking for unique locations beyond the ballroom, the traditional meeting space and even the poolside or the great lawn.
“In our case, we have the Frank Sinatra Estate and other celebrity homes, which you can rent for events,” White said.
That type of event keys into the personal enrichment aspect of satisfying attendees as well.
“Say you have a group of 100,” White said. “Maybe 20 people are going to have a breakout site at a Mid-Century Modern location, get the content that the company’s trying to deliver, but at the same time learn personally about the Mid-Century Modern architecture in Palm Springs. Other people may be more into wellness or they may be into outdoor adventure, and then they get their break on a guided hike and bring the speaker with them.
“So you’re combining both the content that the company wants to deliver to educate them, but at the same time customizing it to the person’s interests,” he added. “When you have that, what we find and what we hear is that people will retain that information a lot longer and become much more motivated and productive for their company.”
Events centered on its many marketing pillars are what is making the destination so attractive nowadays for both leisure travelers and groups, which often combine a meeting with one of the festivals. From the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Stagecoach Festival and the recent Desert Trip, which lured The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and other music legends, to Modernism Week, the Palm Springs Film Festival, BNP Paribas tennis tournament and other mega happenings, the region is a mecca for culture and sports buffs.
“The renaissance is happening and it’s making it hot again, and the events have really dictated product development in the destination,” White said. “As an example, our music festivals have really garnered a lot of interest globally about the destination. No matter what the event, it’s reinvigorating the history, the interest in the destination, which has also now reinvigorated development (see Latest & Greatest sidebar). The Kimpton hotel is under construction. All of the major resorts have kind of reinvented themselves. And with that you also started attracting other types of activities like the BMW Performance Center, a great place for a group event.”
The demand and development is also drawing additional airlift from carriers like JetBlue, which now offers nonstop service from New York’s JFK International Airport.
With events and activities fueling demand, White added that Greater Palm Springs is growing in popularity globally.
“Ten percent of our visitation now is international,” he said. “For the recent Desert Trip concert, they had a 757 from Switzerland fly into the regional airport in Thermal because they wanted to see The Rolling Stones. So you start to attract a much different type of crowd and a more global crowd, which is enhancing our destination and really giving us more product.”
