July 20, 2010|By Edward Gunts, The Baltimore Sun
During the budget year that ended June 30, Baltimore's tourism and convention agency booked 495,896 hotel room nights for future years, the second-highest figure in the group's 30-year history. The highest figure was about 522,000 room nights booked during fiscal 2009.
Tom Noonan, president and chief executive of Visit Baltimore, the tourism agency, announced the figure at the organization's annual business meeting Tuesday. He said the number of future bookings during fiscal 2010 is twice the number of room nights booked five years ago, when Baltimore had fewer hotels.
Noonan said 189,819 of the 495,896 future room nights booked in fiscal 2010 are related to events in calendar years 2011 and 2012. He said Visit Baltimore has a goal of booking 535,000 room nights during fiscal 2011. Its goal for 2010 had been 525,000.
The tourism agency also announced that more than 3,000 meeting planners from around the world will gather in Baltimore on June 21 to June 23, 2011, when an international trade show known as the Americas Incentive, Business Travel & Meetings Exhibition (AIBTM), comes to the Baltimore Convention Center.
It will be the first of at least three trade shows in Baltimore for the British-based organization, which also holds international meetings in Beijing, Barcelona, Abu Dhabi and Melbourne, Australia. Steve Knight, a project manager for AIBTM, said the 2011 meeting in Baltimore will be the first time his group has held an event in the United States.
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