Baltimore Area Convention

These events are scheduled at the Baltimore Convention Center, Howard and Pratt streets: Dec. 8 Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association -- annual meeting. Expected attendance: 250+. Contact number: 410-659-7136. Dec. 10 Hollywood Vibe -- event. Expected attendance: 600+. Contact number: 818-567-2359. Dec. 26-31 General Youth Conference -- Expected attendance: 4,000+. Contact number: 703-908-0707.

Fifty thousand Baptists are getting in on it. The city's biggest-ever convention is in town for the week, and anyone else downtown yesterday could feel the impact. The National Baptist Congress of Christian Education transformed Interstate 95 north into a creeping, crawling mess. It has packed downtown hotels and overflowed into suburban lodgings. It's flooded the streets, restaurants and tourist attractions with badge-wearing, photo-taking visitors, adults and kids alike. Imagine Oriole Park at Camden Yards at full capacity - and then imagine all those people milling around for roughly five days.

The Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association rolls out its new campaign today to sell the city as a secret worth getting in on. There's plenty to share about Baltimore: its hospitality, cultural attractions, conviviality, entertainment venues and accessibility. But the pitch can't target only tourists; it must entice convention and meeting planners if the city's convention business is to thrive. The BACVA professionals know this. That's why, within 24 hours of unveiling their new slogan and branding campaign, they will be promoting the city under the "Baltimore - Get In On It" banner at the Greater Washington Society of Association Executives, a big industry trade show with the potential to score convention business.

With Baltimore's tourism bureau set to launch a new campaign to sell Charm City, the board of the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association shouldn't waste any time replacing Leslie R. Doggett as the agency's executive director. A national search sounds fine, but not if it drags on. The city needs a public booster with a prominent profile who knows the product - Baltimore - and can promote it as a tourist and convention locale. And BACVA needs a strong, focused leader to ensure Baltimore is getting the best bang for its limited promotional dollars.

Nearly 19 percent of the people who stopped by the Baltimore Visitor Center in recent months reported that they stayed in Baltimore at least a day longer than planned, netting an estimated extra $3.5 million for the city, according to a study released yesterday. The study, conducted between July 2004 and June 2005 by the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management at Temple University for the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association, showed that 26 percent of local travelers spent an estimated $107 more per day than originally planned, as a result of information and services received at the Baltimore Visitor Center.

Edwin F. Hale Sr., chairman and chief executive of First Mariner Bancorp and owner of the Baltimore Blast soccer team, will become chairman of the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association next month. Hale, whose appointment by Mayor Martin O'Malley was announced yesterday at BACVA's annual meeting, comes as the city moves forward with a $305 million project to build a publicly financed convention headquarters hotel. City officials have argued that the 752-room Hilton, to open in 2008, is needed to boost the city's faltering convention center.

Baltimore's tourism industry is revving up for the opening of the National Aquarium's new Australian pavilion in anticipation of a jump in visitors lured by crocodiles, venomous snakes and a thundering 35-foot waterfall - and its tie-in to a popular cable channel. The $74.6 million addition, "Animal Planet Australia: Wild Extremes," is set to open Dec. 16, immersing visitors in a world that few will see in a lifetime. The hand-carved habitat, intricately painted with pale lichens and scorch marks depicting lightning-sparked fires, will be home to 1,800 individual native animals representing 120 species - including freshwater crocodiles, turtles, fishes, free-flying birds and flying foxes.

Adair Sutton, former director of marketing for Harborplace and the Gallery, died of cancer Nov. 1 at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The Butler resident was 52. Born Anne Adair Fogarty in Baltimore and raised in Butler, she was a graduate of the old Hannah More Academy and in 1975 earned her bachelor's degree in communications from what is now Towson University. "She was masterful in her coordination of people and ideas," said Cathy Case, former director of retail marketing for the old Rouse Co. "She was a wonderful ambassador and so proud of Baltimore.

Charm City. The City that Reads. The Greatest City in America. None of the above, say would-be tourists of Baltimore's three decades worth of slogans. Instead, they see Baltimore through the critically acclaimed crime dramas produced here - painting the city as a haven for drugs, poverty and homicides. Needless to say, that image doesn't sell a lot of hotel rooms or lure visitors to the Inner Harbor. The answer, according to high-powered image consultants, is a new brand for Baltimore - what's known in the tourism industry as "destination re-positioning."