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Visit Baltimore, formerly the Baltimore Area Convention & Visitors Association (BACVA), [1] is a quasi-public organization started in 1980[ citation needed ] by then-Baltimore Mayor William Donald Schaefer. The agency is charged with bringing in tourists and conventions into the city of Baltimore, Maryland, but does not manage the actual convention venues, hotels, or museums in the city.
In 2004, BACVA launched a totally redesigned website. A major event for BACVA in 2004 occurred in May when it officially opened a totally new Baltimore Visitor Center. This was radically different from the old visitor center, which was inside an antiquated modified construction trailer. The new 8,000-square-foot (740 m2) Baltimore Visitor Center is located next to the Light Street Pavilion of Harborplace and has a unique design. It cost $4.5 million to construct. In its first year of operation (May 7, 2004 – May 7, 2005), the center attracted nearly 390,000 visitors, which exceeded BACVA's original estimate of 250,000. Visitors to the center in its first year of operation booked 422 hotel rooms, worth $48,296, and bought 14,942 tickets worth about $223,286.
Inside the Baltimore Visitor Center are racks of brochures with information ranging from Baltimore's neighborhoods to major attractions, including the Maryland Science Center, the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Power Plant Live!, and Camden Yards Sports Complex. There is also a 50-seat theater that shows an 11-minute film on Baltimore and Maryland.
In 2005, BACVA made a joint effort with the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC) to pitch a controversial $305 million, 752-room Hilton Hotel to the Baltimore City Council in an attempt to bring in more conventions to the Baltimore Convention Center. In 2006, BACVA succeeded in its joint effort with the BDC to have a Hilton Hotel built directly adjacent to the Baltimore Convention Center. The hotel officially opened in August 2008 with a direct connection to the Baltimore Convention Center via elevated skybridge crossing Howard Street.
In 2009, BACVA made a decision at its annual meeting to change its name from the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association to Visit Baltimore to make it easier for the public to recognize Baltimore's tourism agency and that it followed an industry standard at the time of having tourism agencies have a name that reflect their mission.
The 2005–2008 efforts to bring in more conventions by having the Hilton Baltimore built at a cost of $305 million – the most expensive public works project in city history – were basically a failure and the city is still losing convention business and struggling to find more business. [2] Visit Baltimore is now supporting an estimated $900 million proposal floated by the Greater Baltimore Committee and local businessman and the current owner of the Sheraton Inner Harbor hotel in early 2011 that would build a brand-new 18,500-seat arena to replace the 1st Mariner Arena, a brand-new 500-room hotel to replace the Sheraton and demolish and rebuild the east half of the Baltimore Convention Center as an expansion of the newer, 1996 half. The hotel and arena would be funded by private-sector money while the convention center expansion would be funded by public money; it is unknown what the breakdown of costs will be as that will be determined by a second study to be conducted soon[ when? ] that will continue to see if construction of the entire project is feasible and exactly how much the project would cost the city and state potentially and what the next steps will be. [3]
Ocean City, officially the Town of Ocean City, is an Atlantic resort town in Worcester County, Maryland, United States. Ocean City is a major beach resort area along the East Coast of the United States. The population was 7,102 at the 2010 U.S. census, although during summer weekends the city hosts between 320,000 and 345,000 vacationers, and up to 8 million visitors annually. During the summer, Ocean City becomes the second most populated municipality in Maryland, after Baltimore. Located on Fenwick Island, it is part of the Salisbury, MD-DE Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau.
Otakon is an annual three-day anime convention held during July/August. From 1999 to 2016, it took place at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland's Inner Harbor district; in 2017, it moved to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The convention focuses on East Asian popular culture and its fandom. The name is a portmanteau derived from convention and the Japanese word otaku.
The Baltimore Convention Center is a convention and exhibition hall located in downtown Baltimore, Maryland. The center is a municipal building owned and operated by the City of Baltimore.
The Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC) is a nonprofit corporation and public-private agency contracted by the City of Baltimore to promote economic development.
The Hilton Baltimore is a 757–room hotel located on West Pratt Street in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Initially proposed in 2003, actual construction of the city-owned venture took place between 2006 and 2008 as part of the Baltimore Convention Center. A month before the hotel's scheduled opening in August 2008, Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon said that an 18% increase in room night bookings through 2017, as of the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008, compared to the previous year's, confirmed the city's decision to move forward with the hotel development project as a means of bolstering Baltimore's convention business. The massive hotel has been criticized for blocking the once-celebrated views of Baltimore's skyline from the Oriole Park at Camden Yards grandstand, however. The hotel has underperformed projections, losing money in its first three years of operation.
Royal Farms Arena is an arena located in Baltimore. The Arena is located about a block away from the Baltimore Convention Center on the corner of Baltimore Street and Hopkins Place; it is also only a short distance from the Inner Harbor. It seats 11,100 and can be expanded up to 14,000, depending upon the event. The Arena is owned by the city of Baltimore and is currently managed by SMG, a private management company.
The Inner Harbor is a historic seaport, tourist attraction, and landmark of the city of Baltimore, Maryland. It was described by the Urban Land Institute in 2009 as "the model for post-industrial waterfront redevelopment around the world". The Inner Harbor is located at the mouth of Jones Falls, creating the wide and short northwest branch of the Patapsco River. The district includes any water west of a line drawn between the foot of President Street and the American Visionary Art Museum.
Downtown Kansas City is the central business district (CBD) of Kansas City, Missouri and the Kansas City metropolitan area employment as of 2010. It is between the Missouri River in the north, to 31st Street in the south; and from the Kansas–Missouri state line east to Bruce R. Watkins Drive as defined by the Downtown Council of Kansas City; the 2010 Greater Downtown Area Plan formulated by the City of Kansas City defines the Greater Downtown Area to be the city limits of North Kansas City and Missouri to the north, the Kansas–Missouri state line to the west, 31st Street to the south and Woodland Avenue to the east. However, the definition used by the Downtown Council is the most commonly accepted.
The Dr. Pedro Rosselló González Puerto Rico Convention Center (PRCC) or simply, Puerto Rico Convention Center is a convention center located in Isla Grande, in San Juan, Puerto Rico owned by the Puerto Rico Convention District Authority, a government agency of Puerto Rico, and managed by AEG. Designed by tvsdesign, it is the largest convention center in the Caribbean and one of the most technologically advanced in the Americas.
10 Inner Harbor is a cancelled skyscraper project in downtown Baltimore at a site overlooking the Inner Harbor at the corner of Light Street and West Conway Street. The site is currently the site of 414 Light Street (Baltimore), a luxury apartment building with ground-floor retail; prior to that, it was a McCormick & Co. spice lot.
Downtown Tampa is the central business district of Tampa, Florida, United States, and the chief financial district of the Tampa Bay Area.
The Crowne Plaza Detroit Downtown Riverfront, is a 367-room, 25-story high-rise hotel opened in 1965, adjacent to TCF Center in Downtown Detroit, Michigan.
This article provides information on the hotels in Istanbul, Turkey, including history of the hospitality industry in the city, brief overview of the current status of Istanbul's hospitality industry, information on the local hotels, as well as information on the international chain hotels in the city.
The United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) is a membership organization which aims to advance the skills and knowledge of theatre, entertainment and performing arts professionals involved in the areas of design, production and technology, and to generally promote their interests. To this end, the USITT mounts conferences and exhibitions, promulgates awards and publications, and supports research. USITT is a non-profit organization which has its headquarters in Syracuse, New York.
Brooklyn is one of the southernmost neighborhoods in Baltimore, Maryland. It is located near Anne Arundel County along Governor Ritchie Highway which is also Maryland Route 2. Its main roads are South Hanover Street,, Potee Street, and East Patapsco Avenue, Sixth Street, Tenth Street, and West Bay Avenue which borders the neighboring Curtis Bay community to the east, running through Bay Brook Park, which separates the two. South Hanover Street also serves as the dividing line between east–west streets in Brooklyn, as Charles Street does not exist here. Often mistaken as Brooklyn Park, Brooklyn shares the 21225 ZIP Code with the greater Brooklyn Park area which is across the Baltimore City Line in and the other neighboring community of Cherry Hill to the west and northwest across the now small western branch of the Patapsco River flowing from Ellicott City and Elkridge and along the shoreline-hugging southern extension "South Hanover Street" of the downtown's old colonial-era "Hanover Street" across the 1914-1917 Hanover Street Bridge, later renamed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Bridge in the 1990s.
The Radisson Hotel Baltimore Downtown-Inner Harbor is a high-rise hotel complex located in Baltimore, Maryland. The hotel complex contains 707 rooms in two nearly identical towers. The south tower was converted to a separate hotel in 2018, the Crowne Plaza Baltimore - Inner Harbor, sharing all facilities with the Radisson.
Tourism in Georgia is an increasingly important component of the country's economy. In 2015 it employed around 158,500 people, producing 6.7% of Georgia's GDP and providing US$1.94 billion of revenue. In 2019, the number of international arrivals reached a record high of 9.3 million people with foreign exchange income in the year's first three quarters amounting to over US$3 billion. The country plans to host 11 million visitors by 2025 with annual revenues reaching US$6.6 billion.
The Baltimore City Heritage Walk is a heritage trail that links 20 historic sites and museums in downtown Baltimore, Maryland.
The Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel is a 152.7 m (501 ft), 51-story hotel located in New York City near Times Square. It faces 7th Avenue, West 52nd Street, and West 53rd Street. It is one of the world's top 100 tallest hotels, and one of the tallest hotels in New York City.
The Jefferson Arms Building is a historic hotel in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. It opened as the Hotel Jefferson in 1904 to serve visitors to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and was named in honor of Thomas Jefferson.
