Visit Anaheim Secures Convention Center Business Worth $475M After Partnering on City's Economic Recovery Plan

While times are extremely challenging for the convention industry in the midst of COVID-19-based restrictions, some destinations are seeing reasons for optimism in the near future. Among those is Visit Anaheim, which is reporting that it has been able to secure or reschedule 10 shows, which together represent more than $475 million in local economic impact for the Southern California city.

This bit of good news comes as the CVB, like many throughout the country, has had to make deep staff cuts and has seen business dry up in the face of stay-at-home orders and travel restrictions. Visit Anaheim has had to reduce its staff by almost 60 percent and significantly reduce the pay of those who remained. Despite these difficulties, Visit Anaheim has rescheduled two shows — organized by Diversified Communications and International Society for Technology in Education, respectively, with both scheduled to take place in 2020 — while also securing eight future bookings for the Anaheim Convention Center. 

Together, these 10 shows are expected to not only generate hundreds of millions of dollars in economic impact, but to help bring back some of the 50,000 local hotel, restaurant and tourism jobs lost during the stay-at-home orders.

Visit Anaheim attributes this business burst in part to the Community and Economic Recovery Plan that dedicated millions in city spending to helping vulnerable citizens and promote tourism and convention business. Developed in partnership with the City of Anaheim, the initiative kicked off on March 26, allowing Visit Anaheim to maintain its core economic recovery staff — and it already seems to be paying dividends. The estimated $9.2 million in tourism occupancy tax revenue generated by the upcoming shows nearly doubles the economic assistance provided by the City of Anaheim under the recovery plan. 

"Our team continues to deliver results that will benefit the destination and local residents with future business," said Jay Burress, president and CEO of Visit Anaheim. "With 50 to 60 new business leads per month, our team is working hard to get business on the books because we know tourism means an increase in quality jobs, revenue for small businesses and is an essential component of a strong local economy."

More details about Visit Anaheim's efforts to revitalize its tourism and convention business can be found here.