In an effort to support local tourism businesses, the Visit Omaha team is shutting its office doors and will make its home in various meeting spaces throughout the city instead.
The official tourism authority for the City of Omaha and Douglas County in Nebraska announced the initiative in May, called “Rent for Recovery,” with hopes to assist local businesses in the hospitality industry that have been challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Visit Omaha plans to give up its current office space for the next 12-24 months, saving approximately $250,000. During that time, Visit Omaha will use a portion of that savings to rent meeting space in town. Each week, Visit Omaha will book meeting rooms at different hotels, attractions and restaurants to host the organization’s staff meetings.
“Essentially, this initiative means we will rent space for 52 meetings in the next year to support businesses hit hardest by the pandemic,” said Visit Omaha Interim Executive Director Deborah Ward in a press release. “By giving up our office and utilizing our partners’ available meeting space, we hope to provide support to an industry that employs nearly 18,000 local residents. In addition, this initiative will allow us to forge more personal relationships with our tourism partners after a year of such upheaval and change.”
During the Rent for Recovery Initiative, Visit Omaha will utilize the Omaha Visitor Center, 306 S. 10th St., as its administrative headquarters while searching for new office space.
The move comes as the meetings and events industry begins to restart after over a year of shutdowns and restrictions due to the global spread of COVID-19.
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