Smart Meetings

NOVEMBER 8, 2024

Lauren Shoaf Pace Lauren Shoaf Pace, Destinations International Pace is appointed vice president of marketing at Destinations International (DI). With nearly 20 years in the travel and tourism industry, Pace has held positions at numerous destination organizations at both the state and local levels and spent over a decade with Visit Florida.

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Smart Meetings

MARCH 25, 2025

To find out what the university is teaching future meetings and event professionals and what they gleaned from the two days of sessions and networking, we asked Ryan Becker, senior vice president of communications and strategy with Visit California. Those values are encapsulated in the vision statement: Live, protect, explore.

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Smart Meetings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2022

Meeting Planners’ Takeaway: United’s hub is at Newark, which is easily accessible to the entire New York City metro area. Maintains Title as Most Powerful Travel and Tourism Market. In its latest Economic Trends Report, the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has ranked the U.S. ride for most travelers.

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Smart Meetings

NOVEMBER 19, 2024

Sabre and Internova Travel have released a new offering to the market that is worth looking over. So are the tourism ministers of the G7, who are meeting for the first time ever right now in Italy. Worried about whether Florida is prepared to host a meeting post-hurricane season? The tourist turnout marks a 1.8%

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Smart Meetings

APRIL 18, 2023

With cannabis gaining momentum in state legislations and shedding its stigma to be more visible in mainstream culture, cannabis travel and tourism is a fast-rising market. Some people consider me a subject matter expert in cannabis and hemp travel and tourism. Most of my work focuses around destination marketing organizations.

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Smart Meetings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2022

Meeting Planners’ Takeaway: United’s hub is at Newark, which is easily accessible to the entire New York City metro area. Maintains Title as Most Powerful Travel and Tourism Market. In its latest Economic Trends Report, the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has ranked the U.S. ride for most travelers.

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Smart Meetings

JANUARY 24, 2025

In search of comfortable-yet-affordable accommodations for your next meeting or event? City Express by Marriott is gearing up to offer options in four new markets. Planning a meeting in the UK or Ireland? As always, Smart Travel is here to bring you the latest must-read travel and tourism news. just became easier.

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Smart Meetings

AUGUST 8, 2022

Thinking about integrating marijuana in your meeting? A Northern California destination is helping meeting professionals harness this fast-budding trend. While cannabis-related tourism is on the rise, Visit Mendocino County is looking to further tap into this growing market. Forbes estimates cannabis tourism is a $1.7

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Prestige Events Magazine

MARCH 25, 2025

The business events, accommodation and meetings industry contributes more than 61 billion to the UK economy each year, yet it remains particularly vulnerable to inflationary pressures, talent shortages and inconsistent government support.

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Smart Meetings

JULY 6, 2023

Suffice it to say, the general public in both North America and Canada are eager to travel while also welcoming tourism and events back to their respective communities much in the vein of the storied “before times.” with two-thirds of Canadian sentiment pointing to the approval of boosting tourism, regardless of resident age.

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Smart Meetings

AUGUST 8, 2022

Thinking about integrating marijuana in your meeting? A Northern California destination is helping meeting professionals harness this fast-budding trend. While cannabis-related tourism is on the rise, Visit Mendocino County is looking to further tap into this growing market. Forbes estimates cannabis tourism is a $1.7

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Smart Meetings

MARCH 9, 2022

“They need to be included in the conversation and engaged with the tourism industry to develop an understanding of the value of travel and tourism,” according to a recent Destinations International (DI) and Longwoods International survey, National Resident Sentiment Towards Tourism. They have a role to play in our community.

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Smart Meetings

JANUARY 10, 2025

Global meeting planners are exceeding expectations. is on track to welcome 90 million visitors one year ahead of the goal outlined by the National Travel and Tourism Strategy report. tourism ecosystem. Read More: Celebrate World Tourism Day What is the biggest challenge to growing incoming global travel?

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Smart Meetings

NOVEMBER 19, 2024

Sabre and Internova Travel have released a new offering to the market that is worth looking over. So are the tourism ministers of the G7, who are meeting for the first time ever right now in Italy. Worried about whether Florida is prepared to host a meeting post-hurricane season? The tourist turnout marks a 1.8%

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SmartMeetings

NOVEMBER 8, 2024

The role corporate social responsibility plays in real-world impact The meetings industry is grounded in impact—and not just for attendees. As such, many meeting profs are finding CSR approaches to be more and more essential to their events.

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Smart Meetings

AUGUST 30, 2024

Vincent, launches November 5 Read More : New and Renovated: Meetings in International Cities The Top 3 Travel Startups Breaking the Charts With global travel making impressive gains since the height of the Covid pandemic in 2020, some startups in the industry are seeing a boom in funding and sales. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka documented 1.2

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Smart Meetings

MARCH 21, 2025

Avoid pitfalls and protect your event Contracts are the lifeblood and backbone of the meetings industry. F&B Prep Typically, the cost of F&B is based on whats happening in the market. The post Mastering Event Contracts: Essential Negotiation Strategies for Meeting Planners in 2025 appeared first on Smart Meetings.

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Smart Meetings

MAY 2, 2024

In this episode of Meeting of the Minds, Smart Meetings sits down with Janette Roush, Executive Vice President of Marketing and Digital for New York City Tourism & Conventions, and Sindhu Srivastava, CEO of We Crush Events and MeaningfulData, to explore the potential of AI in the events industry.

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Smart Meetings

JULY 21, 2022

Diversity, sustainability and violent crime were on the agenda for Destinations International Annual Convention 2022 in Toronto, Canada, this week along with a host of other social issues destination marketing organizations are taking on as they emerge from Covid empowered to address a larger mission of getting heads in beds. Much Respect. “We

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Event Marketer

MARCH 24, 2025

FIVE THINGS TO KNOW THIS WEEK This weeks hot takes on hot topics in experiential marketing cover FBI raids, Corona Island and the resurrection of 29Rooms. Later this year, 17,000 square feet of meeting space will be added to the site. Photo: Courtesy of Ford Motor Co.

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Smart Meetings

NOVEMBER 9, 2021

Destinations International Large Market Roundtable outlined initiatives to establish Destination Booking Agreement Guidelines to create certainty for all parties. Caesars and Meet AC announced sustainability highlights from its newly released 2021 CSR Report —in a Leed-certified Augustus Tower villa suite—and the news (and views) are great.

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EventMB

DECEMBER 21, 2022

Skift Take: The Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau has a new name: Meet Boston. Andrea Doyle Read the Complete Story On Skift Meetings. Along with a the brand refresh comes a new campaign centered on diversity, while keeping the city's rich history in focus.

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Prestige Events Magazine

NOVEMBER 19, 2024

Additionally, while funding remains stable or grows for larger destinations, regions in Central and South America are reassessing funding models to align with changing market dynamics. This staffing concern could hinder the sector’s ability to meet demand and achieve long-term growth.

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Smart Meetings

NOVEMBER 1, 2023

And while predictions of a hybrid future don’t seem to reflect our current reality, a shift to virtual for some events can lead to a scramble for personnel who know how to manage the nuances of streaming meetings. Allowing meeting professionals to maintain their productivity and find balance helps the planner and companies reach their goals.

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Smart Meetings

FEBRUARY 28, 2022

Meeting professionals understand that travel brings people together. Destinations International , the association for Destination Marketing Organizations, is teaming up with research firms iolite group , Brand USA and Miles Partnership to determine the impact of cultural exchange on destination planning and travel.

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Smart Meetings

DECEMBER 30, 2023

The quest to design green meetings often feels like a greenhouse gas-cutting limbo game. This is more than a sustainability moment for meetings. Green meetings are here to stay. But when the phrase “ regenerative meetings ” started getting tossed around, we were curious if that was even possible.

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Smart Meetings

MARCH 4, 2024

A community of female leaders built on welcoming others emphasizes the power of belonging The announcement of the 2024 Smart Women in Meetings Award winners that went out Friday swelled the ranks of leaders honored to more than 1,000 strong. She loved everything about the business. As a female publisher 22 years ago, she was utterly alone.

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Smart Meetings

MAY 25, 2023

Cvent has just published its list of Top Meeting Destinations and Top Meeting Hotels for 2023: Nashville and San Diego moving up to the second and third spots after Orlando. 1 ranked meeting destination in the U.S. 1 ranked meeting destination in the U.S. 1 ranked meeting destination in the U.S. Orlando, Florida 2.

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Smart Meetings

FEBRUARY 25, 2025

Earlier this month, Melbourne played host to AIME (Asia Pacific Incentives and Meetings Event) 2025its been called the IMEX of APAC at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. Australia Is Back Robin Mack of Tourism Australia emphasized that, following the pandemic, the destination is rebounding robustly.

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Event Marketer

MARCH 27, 2023

As experiential marketing degree programs crop up, professors outline how the industry can better support students Florida International University recently added event-focused specializations and tracks. In the meantime, aspiring event marketers have turned to related established programs that offer transferable skills and experiences.

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Smart Meetings

JUNE 22, 2022

The 10th NYC Experience Wellness and Travel Media event presented by Organic Spa Media on June 17, 2022 highlighted five major wellness trends that meeting planners should be aware of in booking spa experiences or resorts with wellness-centered offerings. Read More : Simple Wellness Activities Can Go a Long Way at Your Next Meeting.

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Smart Meetings

MARCH 14, 2025

She joined Fidelity Hotel from Hotel Indigo, where she worked alongside Eric Conrad, who was recently appointed as Fidelity Hotels general manager, to implement various marketing strategies to attract business in new markets. She will focus on growing M&IWs business in enterprise accounts and large-scale events.

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Smart Meetings

MAY 10, 2022

Ferguson came together at Union Market for its annual Travel Rally, held during U.S. Travel Association’s National Travel and Tourism Week—which happened this past week—where they discussed the region’s forecast and data from 2021. Read More : DI Study: Gen Z Doesn’t Believe There Are Good Jobs in Tourism Industry.

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Smart Meetings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

The need for change in travel and tourism The hospitality industry is continuing its efforts towards improving sustainability, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) with cross-sector discussions and in-person activities. Cultural & Heritage Marketing Council.

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Smart Meetings

AUGUST 19, 2021

The pandemic has been a very rough time for the nation’s destination marketing organizations , as it has for the hospitality and meetings industry as a whole. A total of 15 DMOs—second- and third-tier markets, but also majors like L.A. The post West Coast DMOs Rollout Alliance appeared first on Smart Meetings.

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Smart Meetings

MAY 3, 2024

He brings over 30 years of expertise in the travel and tourism industry and has served in executive roles local to the region for 15 years. Throughout his 20 years of experience in hotel sales, meetings and events, he has led award winning sales teams at large North American hotel brands.

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Smart Meetings

NOVEMBER 30, 2021

Louisville Tourism has promoted Morgan and Lundy to marketing manager roles and hired Clements as convention sales assistant. Morgan now handles promotion and initiative marketing for tourism in the organization. Lundy now handles marketing for the convention sales and destination service departments.

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