A Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) has always played a crucial role, serving as a bridge between local tourism assets and potential visitors. Traditionally, their focus has been on increasing visitor numbers, generating hotel bookings, and supporting local businesses. However, the current tourism trends indicate that CVBs have an opportunity to evolve and contribute to the local economy.
Evolution of CVBs and Benefits that Follow
CVBs have long played a pivotal role in supporting local economic development. They have been promoting tourism and travel, forging the right connections, and building the networks that keep business running smoothly.
When the CVBs become directly involved in the local economy, its world of economic possibilities becomes endless. The local tourism and hospitality industries can actively seek their expertise while finding different ways to support them. Greater revenue and visibility, in turn, help:
Have a Positive Economic Impact
On multiple levels, CVBs are the money makers of a destination, bringing meetings and events to a region. First, they generate revenue from everything required for the event itself, such as hotel rooms, convention center rental fees, and food and beverage. Additionally, attendees at these events engage in activities during their free time that are not directly related to the event, such as eating at a restaurant, shopping, or visiting tourist attractions.
Support Local Business
Even though a chosen venue is the focal point and direct benefactor for a given event, other businesses also benefit from conferences and events. Hotels, transportation companies, nearby restaurants, retail outlets, and entertainment centers can experience increased business due to an event nearby.
CVBs further support local businesses by marketing and recommending those businesses to visitors, event planners, and attendees. This can encourage businesses, such as hotels and restaurants, to collaborate and develop enticing room/dining packages for attendees, to increase revenue for both.
Learn more about how CVB supports hotels and venues.
Bring New Visitors to the City
Every positive experience and customer satisfaction from a successful event can turn attendees into a return visitor to the city. This time as a tourist! As tourists, they will bring a different energy, with a heightened sense of curiosity and discovery.
And a great tourist experience can percolate through word of mouth/social media sharing, leading to even more new visitors. These new visitors will then spend their money and support local businesses. This loop can create a harmonious cycle in which every successful event in the city benefits local businesses and attracts new people to the city.
Mobilize Event Planners
Integrating event planners into a CVB’s development strategy is crucial for enhancing visibility and promoting local attractions. This way, organizers gain insights into industry trends, identify potential partnerships, and leverage their networks to attract more events to their destination.
That’s not all. CVBs provide additional insights for a region’s economic development. Their repository of information over the years can be actively harnessed to benefit the region.
Learn more about how CVBs support event planners.
Other Ways CVBs Contribute to Economic Development
There are two ways that CVBs can further contribute to the development of the region:
First, they are the local know-it-all. CVBs track tourism trends and have all the information about the most popular destinations, best restaurants, modes of transport, and more. Their omniscience is central to economic development as such data is readily available and analyzed.
Second, CVBs can incorporate their unique selling proposition into their marketing strategy. Their level of local expertise is unquestionable, providing insights into all aspects of travel, hosting, and organizing unforgettable trips or events.
1. Tourism Trends And Travel Metrics
CVBs receive government or public funding, so they must demonstrate the positive impact of their work through revenue and the success of their marketing strategy. By highlighting a few key metrics, listed below, they can demonstrate how their destination marketing efforts are working:
Data on Travelers and Reservations
The number of travelers and bookings includes both new and returning visitors. The year-over-year and month-over-month tourism trends track how room night numbers have swayed. Gathering this kind of data makes it easier for CVBs to develop their marketing and communications strategies, as it reveals patterns in bookings and opportunities for growth.
Different Sources of Revenue: Tourism and Travel
As mentioned earlier, when business groups visit a region, it leads to increased revenue for hotels, venues, restaurants, and other attractions that attendees frequent. Gathering spending data reveals how much people spend and where they spend.
Visitor and Business Feedback
After any major event, gathering feedback is essential. The CVB draws from two key sources, event planners and local businesses, each offering a distinct perspective.
From event planners, the CVB can gauge how well the event was received, along with any feedback collected directly from attendees. This helps measure success and identify areas for improvement.
Local businesses, on the other hand, experience events differently. For them, the primary benefit is the foot traffic an event drives through their doors. Understanding that impact allows the CVB to factor business outcomes into its future planning and promotional strategies.
Referrals
A successful event tends to be its own advertisement. As planners share their experiences and recommend the CVB to peers, demand grows organically, driven by word of mouth and the proven value of a strong local partnership.
2. Make USP an Economic Strategy
What makes a CVB unique for this new role? Expertise. Nobody else knows a place better than a local CVB, which can provide specific information that event planners and the tourism industry need for a successful event. This information includes:
Local-level Awareness of a Destination
CVBs are the unsung heroes when it comes to sharing detailed local knowledge. This in-depth know-how comes in handy at every stage of event planning. When event planners seek answers to specific questions, such as which venue is best for an event or which restaurants are open or closed due to renovations, CVBs can provide an unbiased recommendation because they know the city inside and out.
Guidance and Support with Site Visits
CVBs serve as the eyes and ears of event planners, particularly when those planners are working remotely. While technologies like digital imaging, 3D modeling, and virtual tours offer a useful sense of a destination, a CVB can go further by physically assessing spaces and answering planners' questions in real time.
For planners already on the ground, a CVB can help cut through logistical hurdles and secure venue access more efficiently. Their local knowledge is equally valuable, often surfacing hidden gems that don't appear in standard destination guides or online summaries. The CVBs can also share logistical event details, such as how far the convention center is from the hotel, what transportation options are available from the airport, and great spots for after-hours meetings or drinks.
A Negotiation Partner
As an insider, CVB’s local status makes it a great negotiating partner. They can mediate the connections between venues, hotels, and event planners to keep event planning moving smoothly.
CVBs can make it easy for event planners to secure the amenities or vendors needed for the event, even when a hotel or venue isn’t willing to discount its rates. In cases like these, they can find a workable solution for everyone. They also provide reliable, honest information about other events happening at the same time or about venues planning remodels and suggest alternatives that could make both the local businesses and outside visitors happy.
CVBs can also negotiate special rates with hotels and venues, as they have an active, engaged cohort of local businesses eager to offer discounts to attract new guests. The Istanbul CVB (ICVB) in Turkey is a great example, with a broad network that includes Turkish Airlines, the Governorship of Istanbul, the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, TURSAB (the Association of Turkish Travel Agents), TUROB (The Hotel Association of Türkiye), and the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce. Event organizers can access unique incentives, such as discounted flights, accommodation support, and local transportation solutions, through a single point of contact.
Logistics Planning
Venue sourcing, scheduling site visits, and managing communications can quickly become overwhelming. When a CVB serves as the sole point of contact for event planners, all three are streamlined. The logistics of scheduling site visits and coordinating communications across all parties are managed from a central hub.
CVBs also help develop expedient installation or takedown schedules for presenters and vendors. They note factors such as location and number of loading docks, ceiling heights, availability of moving equipment, etc. Planners working with a local convention center can tap into their firsthand knowledge of the facility, including equipment load-ins, vendor scheduling, entrance security, and food, beverage, and entertainment coordination.
Transportation Tips
Only a local knows how to coordinate the movement of hundreds of people through a town. CVBs bring their local flair by sharing the fastest or most efficient ways to get around a city. With their expertise, details like – does the destination have a train or subway? Is there a bus line that travels between hotels and the venue? – become easily available. With these insights, planners and attendees can quickly determine the best modes of travel to and from the event venue and lodgings, the airport, and other points of interest.
Marketing Tools
CVBs have a vested interest in seeing every event in their city succeed. That commitment shows in how actively they promote them. Their marketing team has a range of destination tools and assets that can be shared with stakeholders and event attendees.
From highlighting what makes the destination special to showcasing local attractions, transport options, and practical visitor information, they ensure attendees arrive informed and excited. CVBs can also utilize their regular marketing channels (social media, email, etc.) to help spread the word among local businesses and the broader community.
Learn more about: Hospitality Marketing
Vendor Connections
CVBs bring in knowledgeable, reliable vendor sources for event planners. 95% of planners use on-site support vendors for at least some of their events. When event planners are looking for AV, translation, attendee engagement, entertainment, or gifts, CVBs can point teams in the right direction.
Conclusion
CVBs now serve as vital strategic partners in a city's economic development. By engaging event planners, integrating tourism trends, and applying their deep regional expertise, they drive the travel and tourism economy in meaningful ways.
The events they help bring to a city stimulate local businesses and leave attendees with a strong, lasting impression of the destination, often compelling them to return as leisure tourists long after the event ends. This virtuous cycle benefits everyone: local economies grow, visitor experiences improve, and CVBs themselves earn greater visibility and influence as indispensable players in the process.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is a CVB?
CVB stands for Convention and Visitors Bureau, usually a nonprofit, publicly funded organization whose job is attracting conferences, trade shows, and group travel to a destination.
2. How does a CVB impact local economic development?
The immediate impact is straightforward. A conference lands, hotels fill up, and restaurants near the convention centre stay busy for days. Transport companies, shops, and local attractions all benefit from it.
What happens after is less obvious. Attendees who liked the city come back as tourists and tell people. That chain reaction from a single well-run event can take months to fully play out.
Then there's the data side. CVBs accumulate a lot of it over time including where visitors come from, what they spend, and what brought them back. Local governments and city planners use that information when making decisions about infrastructure and investment.
3. Are CVB services free for event planners?
Yes, CVBs are funded through lodging taxes, government money, and sometimes local business memberships, so they're not billing planners for their time. Services like venue sourcing, vendor connections, site visit logistics, and RFP coordination are not the costs that event planners incur.
4. What's the difference between a CVB and a tourism board?
In smaller cities, not much. The same team often handles both, with different branding depending on the audience. Where a distinction exists, tourism boards target leisure travellers, such as holidays and weekend breaks. CVBs have traditionally focused on the business side, conferences, trade shows, and corporate groups. That said, the line has been shifting. Many CVBs now touch destination branding, sustainability, and community development, things that would have seemed outside their remit a decade ago.
5. How do I start working with a CVB?
Get in touch before you've made any decisions. Most planners arrive at a CVB after weeks of independent research, at which point the bureau is largely confirming what you’ve already found. The real value is earlier, when you're still weighing destinations, and nothing is shortlisted yet. Bring what you know: event size, rough dates, room night requirements, any hard constraints. A polished brief isn't necessary. CVBs are good at taking incomplete information and turning it into workable options.
