Cleveland Tourism as Economic Development

Read this new post from Women's Enterprise Network Member, Barbara Oney's weblog, Cleveland Tourism.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Cleveland Tourism as Economic Development

by Barbara Oney,

81% of local respondents felt it was important for the arts and cultural community to engage with other businesses to support economic development.  This is according to a report released by The Community Partnership for Arts and Culture (CPAC).  The Fund for Economic Future's, "Voices and Choices" identified our arts and cultural resources as a leading resource for the region.

Yet we continue to languish in our efforts to build a potent tourism (leisure and business visitor) business. While not the answer to all of our woes - it is a powerful and rich economic development resources we are overlooking and underutilizing.

How would we do things differently if we valued these resources as important tools for economic development? What would we do differently if we viewed our city/county/region as "the Orlando of Cultural Arts". With the prospect of a future Medical Mart and new Convention Center we should be more agressive at developing the entire industry infrastructure to support and leverage this important economically vibrant industry.

What would happen if we developed a dynamic relationship between the city/county/regional planning groups, the hospitality organizations, the transportation groups and other tourism related entities?  What if we looked at tourism in Northeast Ohio as an industry that could lead the nation - we have the visitor assets, the transportation, the hospitality entities - we just don't have the coordination and the focus to make it happen.

For business people going to cities like San Francisco, Seatle, Louisville, NY or Chicago it is not uncommon for them to bring their spouse or partner and stay an added day or weekend.  If we could get just 10% of the EXISTING Cuyahoga County roomnights to increase by just one-more-night the county would experience up to 450,000 additional roomnights and over $110 million* in incremental revenues annually.  What would this number be if we developed a region-wide plan?

To learn more go to: www.clevelandtourism.blogspot.com

* Derived from Runzheimer's Travel Management Network, Cleveland report