2003-2004
Group Sales Highlights

The Group Sales division is responsible for prospecting, developing, and booking groups of visitors, including association conventions, corporate meetings, group tours, sports events, and film productions for Durham. In collaboration with visitor-sector partners, the division also spearheads a series of sales promotions including familiarization tours, sales blitzes, trade shows, site inspections, and special events.

• DCVB uses displays to take Durham on the road to trade shows and other group sales promotions. (click to enlarge)

  Generated or participated in the booking of 248 groups, representing 87,731 delegates and attendees using 48,183 lodging room-nights, generating $23.1 million in taxable spending and more than $39.2 million in overall Durham economic impact.
• Prospected, qualified, and distributed 341 leads to potential future group bookings representing potential delegate spending of $25.9 million.
• Made personal contact with 7,267 planners, achieving 393 site visits and client appointments and generating 133 formal proposals to host future groups.
• Presented Durham, in cooperation with stakeholders, as a potential location for group events at 17 trade shows, special events, marketplaces, and other sales promotions, reaching more than 15,781 group decision-makers, developing more than 860 relationships, and generating more than 32 immediate leads, resulting in nearly 20 bookings representing $5.4 million in spending.
• Participated in the enlistment and/or hosting of several major sports events, including N.C. High School Athletic Association Division 2-A and 2-AA football championships, Pop Warner Football’s Chuck Norman Invitational Bowl, NCAA women’s 1st round basketball championships, and the CIAA football championships. Participated in the Host Committee with nearby communities to help Raleigh host the NHL Draft.
• Organized a cooperative sales mission to Raleigh involving 35 Durham lodging and other visitor-sector partners including sales calls, a mini tradeshow, reception, and luncheon presentation on Durham as a meeting destination for 75 Wake County-based meeting planners for associations, government agencies, and corporations.
• Helped plan for and represented Durham in cooperative sales promotions with the N.C. Division of Tourism, Film, and Sports Development and the N.C. Association of CVBs, including familiarization tours during the National Tour Association’s annual convention in Charlotte, a Canadian travel-trade sales mission, and an event for meeting-planner members of the Association Executives of North Carolina.
• Expanded and enhanced the ability to provide live, online assistance to prospective meeting and convention planners via Live Chat on www.durham-nc.com.
• Worked with the Chancellor of Duke University Health System to communicate with all medical center employees about the importance of working with DCVB to draw conventions and meetings to Durham.

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Visitors and meeting planners receive instant, one-on-one customer service with DCVB's "live chat" feature on www.durham-nc.com.

In visitor-related economic development, promotion fuels demand, which dictates the number of guest rooms available.
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Durham has a higher percentage of 3- and 4-Diamond-rated guest rooms than its statewide peers.
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